The archive · Small Business & Money · Operational decision · 2024–2025
A teen turns storage-unit auctions into a researched $135,000 resale business
Michael Haskell buys abandoned storage units, reads the previous owner's clues, and resells the contents — grossing about $135,000 in 2025.
Mike's Unique Treasures (Michael Haskell)
What it had to solve
In early 2024, 17-year-old Michael Haskell bought his first abandoned storage unit for $10 after watching Storage Wars reruns; the most valuable item inside was a CO2 canister he sold for $40 on Facebook Marketplace. Two years later, buying units across the New York tri-state area and selling the contents through eBay and auctions had become a six-figure business.
How it works
Michael Haskell, 18, buys abandoned storage units across the New York tri-state area and resells what he finds. His first unit, bought for $10 in early 2024 after Storage Wars reruns hooked him, yielded a CO2 canister he sold for $40 on Facebook Marketplace.
The method is research, not gambling: Haskell caps bids near $500, built an AI tool with school friends that scans auction and lienholder names across three states, and reads the rest from clues — college memorabilia implies an educated owner, which makes valuable items deeper in the unit more likely.
His largest single return came from a $450 Brooklyn locker once owned by jailed art dealer Andrew Crispo: a Man Ray painting and six sketches by Walt Kuhn sold for $36,000. The business grossed about $135,000 in 2025, with roughly $82,000 left before interest and tax.
Why it lands
- Owner research turns random lots into informed bets: a graduate's memorabilia is a signal worth more than the item itself.
- A low bid ceiling spread risk across many units, so one bad locker cost little while a Crispo find paid for dozens.
- AI name-scanning and price research compressed hours of guesswork into a repeatable process a teenager could run after school.
- Selling through eBay and auctions meant no shop and no staff, with fees as the main cost.
What it did
Mike's Unique Treasures grossed about $135,000 in 2025, leaving roughly $82,000 before interest and tax, with another $85,000 from January to mid-July 2026. The turning point was a $450 Brooklyn locker that had belonged to art dealer Andrew Crispo: a Man Ray painting and six Walt Kuhn sketches inside sold for $36,000.
What you can take
A blind auction becomes an edge when it is treated as an information problem: cheap bids, careful reading of the previous owner, and item-level research beat volume and luck.
Since then
The Crispo find convinced Haskell's parents the business was real. He founded a nonprofit, Storage Angels, that clears lockers nobody bids on and donates the contents — more than 20 units and an estimated $20,000 in goods so far — earning him a Daily Point of Light award in early 2026. His college admissions essay described trying to return a Purple Heart found in a locker, and he credits the business with helping him get into Emory University, where he is weighing storage-facility and house-flipping ideas while he studies.
Sources
- 18-year-old started a side hustle selling 'treasures' from abandoned storage units—it brings in $135,000 a year
- Teen Paid $10 for First Storage Locker, His Business Now Generates $135,000 Annually
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