U.S. News

While some teenagers hang out after school, playing Fortnite or shooting hoops, Michael has taken up a more enterprising hobby. He buys abandoned storage lockers at bargain prices from public lien auctions with the aim of selling their contents for profit. It began two years ago, when he watched a rerun of “Storage Wars.” He has been on an urban treasure hunt since.

His adventures have brought him to CubeSmart, Extra Space Storage and Manhattan Mini Storage facilities in and around New York. He sells his scavenged goods through his eBay store, “Mike’s Unique Treasures,” to earn over $7,000 a month, a figure backed by the financial records he showed me.

He runs his operation out of the suburban New Jersey home where he lives with his mother. The garage is lined with meticulously indexed old magazines, vinyl records, World War II artifacts, rare stamps, VHS tapes and vintage fishing rods.

After finishing his homework, Michael spends his nights at a work table, packaging inventory to ship to his customers around the country. “My friends tell me they’re amazed I’m making money at this,” he said. “None have asked to come along with me yet, though. I’m not sure why.”