18-Year-Old Earned $135K Flipping Abandoned Storage Units

Michael Haskell bids on abandoned storage units online, usually paying $500 or less, then sells what’s inside on eBay and through an auction house.

His business brought in about $135K in 2025, roughly $82K of it pre-tax profit, then another $85K from January to mid-July 2026 🤑

He got hooked after catching a rerun of Storage Wars and bought his first unit for $10 in early 2024, while still in high school.

He’s stopped watching the show though…

There’s a lot of research that goes into it that isn’t shown.

College memorabilia, for example, isn’t worth much on its own, but it suggests an educated owner and pricier stuff elsewhere in the unit…

The way you make money is not by looking at stuff that’s directly in front of you. It’s connecting the dots with various small items that may not be obvious.

His best find was a $450 unit that belonged to a disgraced Manhattan art dealer, holding a Man Ray painting and sketches that sold for $36K 🤯

Most of his 2025 sales ($97K) came through eBay.

He puts in 20–25 hours a week, and everything sits in his mom’s garage and basement until it sells, sometimes for up to two years.

Try a cheap unit near you on a storage auction site like Lockerfox (it adds a 15% fee to your bid), and price what’s inside against sold listings on eBay before you list it 😎

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