May the Force Be With You When Watching Storage Wars

Storage Wars art – MeanCarcass

One viewing of an episode of A&E’s Storage Wars, and you will be hooked. Trust me. I am a busy Mom. I don’t have time to shower, but I make time to watch Storage Wars.

For those of you that haven’t seen it yet, Storage Wars is a reality show that follows four “professional buyers” (whatever that means) as they bid on abandoned or foreclosed self-storage units with an ultimate goal of finding valuable items inside.

During the first episode I watched, one of the “warriors” recounted a storage unit he once won at auction that contained comic books worth millions (yes, MILLIONS) of dollars. He apparently didn’t do his research at the time, and let the items go for a mere $130,000. That’s not too shabby, though, considering he bought the unit for $2700. The show continues with the discovery of a box of rap artist Suge Knight’s jeans. I, personally would not pay for the used denim, but apparently they are worth thousands of dollars. I’m assuming, however, that Mr. Knight didn’t pay $29.99 for them in the first place. They were probably worth a couple hundred to begin with. Either way, the buyer of the storage unit made a profit of over $8700. He wins.

So at this point, you are probably wondering what the most expensive find on the show has been. Well, unfortunately that information is inconclusive. During my research, I found numerous responses, with no definitive answer.

Some people don’t even believe the show is real. They think the items are planted. My response to that is, “No way. Reality TV is always real. Nothing is ever scripted or staged…ever….well, maybe sometimes…if the storyline gets boring….which is always.” So I guess maybe, possibly the items are planted. We’ll never know unless a cast member doesn’t get the raise they are demanding to film a third season.

As for REAL life, there actually have been some treasures found in storage units that didn’t make the headline news. Some of the most unique, interesting, strange, or expensive goods found include NASA equipment, the jawbone of a dinosaur, dead bodies, 3,000 year old seeds, a portion of Aretha Franklin’s wardrobe, gold coins, a 1937 Bugatti 57S (that’s a car, Mom) worth an estimated $9,000,000, and Jimmy Hoffa. I’m just kidding about Jimmy Hoffa. Or am I???

If you’ve learned anything from this article, it should be to wash your jeans every time you plan on storing them. You never know if you are going to become famous and if someone will be willing to pay good money for them. You certainly don’t want to be known as the famous guy that spilled salsa on his jeans and was too lazy to wash them.