I had seen ads for Storage Wars but hadn’t watched a single episode before receiving the first season for review. I didn’t expect to, but once I watched the first episode, I was hooked, and watched the entire season in a couple of days. Apparently, there’s something strangely appealing about watching incredibly aggressive people trying to screw each other over, with potential riches going to the victor.
The series follows a quartet of bidders at storage auctions in the Southern California area, as they try to find a big score. When rent is not paid on a storage locker for three months in California, the contents are sold by an auctioneer as a single lot of items to the highest bidder. The auctions are led by Dan Dotson—a real motor mouth, and his wife Laura who run American Auctioneers.
The auctions themselves are pretty straightforward: he abandoned unit is opened, bidders get five minutes to look from the door and then the auction begins. You place your bids based on what you see, what you think you can get for the items, and any clues that may be available. Sometimes, you find valuable collectibles beneath mounds of household trash. Sometimes that item you thought was expensive, ends up being a good looking fake. If you’re lucky though, hunches pay off, and unexpected valuables are found among the clutter.
The four focal participants aren’t particularly likeable, but their egos just might draw you in. Dave Hester, in the business about twenty-five years, is an intense, professional. A cutthroat bidder, he often bids on units he doesn’t want just to drive up the prices for other bidders. Regardless, he has a good eye, and usually makes a very good profit when buying up units to stock his secondhand store. Hester uses his trademark “Yuup” bid to intimidate and annoy the competition. Young Jarrod Schulz, will probably be Dave Hester in twenty years. Only in the auctions game for about three years, he, along with his wife Brandi Passante run a small thrift shop. His ego would lead you to believe he’s the king of the storage auctions, which leads to quite a few arguments with Brandi.
Darryl Sheets, without a store to sell things in, sees himself as a gambler. A veteran of the auctions, Darryl’s ego can’t be contained. He makes ridiculous statements during the talking head interviews, but I like him because he’s not afraid to get into it with Dave Hester. If there’s one thing Storage Wars makes clear, it’s that these auctions aren’t for the faint of heart. The last of the principles is Barry Weiss. The most entertaining of the four, the sixty-year-is well heeled, and is only looking for collectibles. A bit of a Robert Evans lookalike, with a Jack Nicholson attitude, this guy could have his own. His bidding errors, wacky fashion sense, and penchant for bringing night vision goggles, clairvoyants and other assorted good luck charms to the auctions are worth the price of admission.
The first season begins by introducing us to the main players. (Laura and Brandi’s roles grow with time) before settling into the show’s standard formula at each auction. While most of it’s for entertaining purposes, you can learn a few things each time out. The buyers share some tips on their formula for deciding how much to bid at each auction, and why. You’ll also discover collectibles you’d never know of otherwise, like the unusual Isetta microcar, which has a door on the front of the car. Without exception, someone will find something they can’t put a value on, requiring a visit to a specialist, who gets to reveal the true value to either a thrilled or deflated new owner. Storage Wars is fun stuff.
The first season of Storage Wars is spread over three DVDs.
The anamorphic widescreen transfers on this set look as good as the show does when it airs on TV. There are no issues with digital compression, and the level of fine detail is moderately high, but it won’t blow you away.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks offer the same balanced, center-focused mix heard when the show airs on TV, delivering clean, distortion-free dialogue, blending well with the bouncy score.
There are no special features.
