Self Storage Auctions

Storage Wars has a board game! This must be something new being offered for Christmas this year. I haven’t seen this game around before. It is cool to see in today’s electronic age that there are ways for people to sit at the kitchen table and have some fun. Just like the old days I never fail to mention to my kids – LOL!

So, put down those text machines, get a board game and have some fun! There is no better way to do it than with the characters of a number one TV Show!

Speaking of a number one TV show, it looks like there may be some rocky road to navigate for Storage Wars in the near future. It is rumored that one of the stars of the show was fired because he was making claims about the show being faked.

Dave Hester said that the show producers have asked him in the past to provide unique items for the cast of the show to “find”. He also alleges that there were other source(s) where the show producers would get items for what seems like an endless number of fantastic storage lockers buys by the cast members. Mr. Hester says that the producers fired him after he objected to these activities. There is an article about it on the TMZ Web Site.

Is this all a question of ethics? I think it is a big-time ethical nightmare for all involved including (and especially) the auctioneer Dan Dotson.

Lets assume for a second that Mr. Dotson knows that there are storage lockers being seeded for the sake of sensationalism. It doesn’t really matter if the producers are seeding the lockers before or after the purchase. If Mr. Dotson is holding a legal lien auction with the knowledge that some of the lockers are being seeded he is actually (IMHO) manipulating the results of the auction. You see, there are “Pedestrians” at each of the storage lien sales the show tapes.

It is these pedestrians that may be under the assumption that there might be something great in the locker because they are seeing one of the cast members bidding on it during a show taping. The pedestrians see the show cast member is not backing down and thus are encouraged to bid more. They are thinking they can get the payoff at the end of the bidding cycle that the cast member might have some sort of knowledge about.

This is where I see the ethical question come into play. An auctioneer can’t have a legal lien sale (IMHO) without having a conflict of interest in this instance. The auctioneer is accepting a bid from the pedestrians while at the same time has knowledge that the lockers are being seeded for the sake of the show. The two don’t seem to blend together very well.

Of coarse, this is all conjecture on my part and until the Hester lawsuit is finalized, my conjecture is totally hypothetical. I am offering a scenario for consideration that brings to light some interesting questions for all to consider. Look, anybody that has watched the show and has gone to a storage lien sale knows the show is faked or in the least scripted for the consumption of the general public that loves the reality show aspect.

But, how far will the damage control go to quench this fire? I think the ramifications brought on by the Hester lawsuit is going to spread like a Southern California Wildfire! It will be interesting to see if A&E settles this ASAP!

References:

• Storage Wars Board Game
• TMZ Article About The Hester Lawsuit
• The Hester Lawsuit .PDF File
• What Does A Reality Star Make? Get The Details Here
• Dan Dotson Web Site

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