The Storage Wars Debate - Real or Fake?

One day back in 1998, long before the Storage Wars shows on T.V. I met a very nice gentleman in an AOL chatroom by the screen name "Maninthe22Row". He was older than me and I must say much wiser he was the one who first told me all about Storage Auctions.I can honestly say Storage Auctions are 100% real. I know that the sales I go to are very much just like the show. We even joke about it now how when we bicker we sound like a now famous Storage Wars couple, wonder who they could be? Obviously the show highlights the better finds otherwise it would get boring, but overall I can honestly say Storage Wars is how it really is.

 

I am not on a television show, I do not work for AE, I have no reason in the world to speak anything other than the truth. As a matter of fact the only reason I am writing this is each day streaming across my twitter, or overhearing a conversation, on a facebook post, or comments on an article I am reading I see many people screaming how "Fake" the television show "Storage Wars" is. Now I am a fan of the show, of course how could I not be. One day flipping through the channels I see a whole show with people doing what my family does for a living. Now when people ask me where I get my stuff, and I mention storage auctions they always ask "Is it like it is on the show" and I honestly answer "Pretty much the same".

 

Now I don't know 100% if possibly sometimes they act out a funny situation that has happened or a great find. Maybe the cameras were not on the day the biggest find happened. Remember they cannot tape every single auction that these auctioneers do.Maybe they don't show all the units that had the old dirty mattress and broken T.V. and all the units that did not have a hidden treasure to be found. However the simple truth is treasures can be found, people have been doing this long before these shows ever came to be and actually the people on these shows had been doing this long before they ever showed up on your T.V. and that is how they wound up on the shows to begin with. The shows are very similar to what goes on at every auction we go to. So every time I see someone talking about how fake it is it kind of irks me. Is everyone saying that what I do is fake? Do I need to pinch myself in the morning to make sure I am really... real?

 

I have seen the episode everyone yells that is the proof the shows are fake. You know the one where they look in a locker there are a neat pile of boxes to the right, a rocking chair to the left and everything is tidy, then the camera pans to Dave who says something about the locker, then poof it pans back to boxes that have been opened and moved etc. Then every time after that as they are bidding the locker is back in the original order. Now to me it seems like this was bad editing. It really looks to me that in the editing process someone screwed up the order of the clips. I really don't see this as solid proof of a show being fake.

 

Then there is the one I never did notice but I read about. It has to do with Darrell taking a cooler out of his truck and mixing it in with the stuff from the unit. I have thought about this and see something very obvious that could have happened here that is likely and would not mean that anything is really fake. Camera was not filming when they first started unloading stuff and someone moved the cooler from the unit to the truck. Since what they do is now a T.V. show though obviously it would need to be moved back with the stuff to show the viewers what was found.

 

I know the next thing someone will say is that they had a friend who went to one of these auctions when they were all there and it was all set up. Now even if that were the case I really wish people would seriously think about this. What if the day before there was a great find at one of Dan & Laura's auctions but the film crew was not there. I mean they do a lot of auctions the film crew cannot be there all of the time. What if they staged what had just happened the day before or the week before. What if it was staged with the same people, same items, and everything was exactly the same but they just wanted to be able to show you how it happened? Does that make it completely fake? Not in my eyes, so even if some things have to be played out later the way I see it is they are still sharing what happens at Storage Auctions with everyone.

 

When it comes down to it does it really matter how it is done? The truth is everyone you see on these shows are real they are not actors and this is what they have always done long before any of them even thought they would ever be on television. I know they are as real as my family is, and maybe that is why it is easier for me to see it for what it is and be able to enjoy the show without analyzing over whether certain parts were acted out again at a later point. I can relate to what they do because we do it as well.

Then of course all of those people yelling how its wrong to make people think that every locker has a treasure in it. That in such a bad economy giving people false hope so they run out and blow their rent money on a storage unit in hopes to get rich quick is wrong. This is the one I see a lot in comments out there on the web. I am sorry, but nobody can blame a T.V. show, or a network, or anyone else for a person doing something that is just outright stupid. There are always going to be people who try to get out of doing any real work and take stupid chances whether it be using your bill money to win a locker, or spending the electric money at Bingo, or the food money to buy lotto tickets, and the list can go on forever. Each one of us is responsible for our actions and if I went out and spent money that I shouldn't with nothing more than a mere chance of finding a treasure that would be my own fault.

 

It all boils down to this. You like the show? You enjoy watching it? You realize that most units do not have a huge treasure to be found? You realize that like with anything it takes work and being able to invest without putting yourself into a hole? Then just enjoy the show and if your going to go to an auction yourself, use some common sense. If you win someones old clothes and a dirty mattress don't run around screaming the show is fake because now you can't pay this months rent. I mean if you won a unit and made 20 grand off some seriously rare item would you be contacting Storage Wars to make sure you gave everyone their share since it was the shows fault you made a huge profit? Come on lets get REAL.....