A man became substantially more wealthy after purchasing the $500 unit
A man who purchased a storage unit for unit for $500 got a hell of a lot more than he’d bargained for.
Most people who purchase a storage unit don’t necessarily find anything of note inside; however, sometimes they do.
For example Rick Ratzlaff from Colorado got much more than he bargained for when he bought a unit in 2017 and discovered police evidence relating to a cold case.
Storage Wars star sold $7.5 million lot for $500
Credit: Facebook/Dan and Laura Dotson
The documents were later revealed to be about Candace Hiltz, a teenage girl who was shot dead in 2006.
The police officer responsible for leaving the evidence in the unit went on to be charged, but Candace’s case still remains cold.
This man has a much more positive find, however, and found a safe in a unit he purchased for $480.
Dan Dotson became somewhat famous amongst those who watch Storage Wars, as he ended up selling the lot to the man in question.
According to Dotson, a lot of the time safes that are discovered in a unit are empty – but this man got lucky and found a whopping $7.5 million worth of cash in his.
Dotson explained that a woman came up to him and told him that her husband had bought a unit from him, which contained a safe of unknown contents.
The woman said they’d hired experts to crack open the safe and when they finally did manage to get it open, they discovered that the safe had contained the cash.
“Then they got a phone call, mysteriously, from an attorney representing the folks that lost the money and the goods inside the unit,” Dotson further explained.
The couple who found the money were initially offered $600,000 of the cash on the basis the rest was returned to the apparent owners.
Ultimately they doubled the offer, and the people who spent $498 on the unit came away $1.2 million richer.
Recalling the ordeal in a video, Dotson mused: “The question is would you give it back, or would you keep it and would you run for the hills, or would you look over your shoulder. What would you do?”
Whichever way you slice it, making $1.2 million off a storage unit you bought for almost $500 is one hell of a good day’s business.
One of the men described the unit as ‘one of our most amazing finds’
Two men in California were completely blown away after they opened up an old storage unit they’d bought for $30 and discovered what was inside.
Alex Stevens and Andrew Cordova, from Northern California, have gained more than 90,000 followers on TikTok by sharing posts about their storage unit discoveries.
The page explained that the pair ‘buy abandoned storage units’, and in an interview with Fox 5, Stevens explained they usually spend about $5 on the units, and make between $100-$200 off the items they find inside.
With $5 as their average spend, it seems the pair decided to splash out a bit when they came across an abandoned unit in the city of Tracy.
Stevens explained: “In the pictures, it just looked like a bunch of clothes laying in the back of the unit… This one just happens to be different.”
When the pair went to investigate what they’d got for their $30, they found clothes including parachute pants, fur coats and an old Mac computer.
In any other context, these items might just be a sign of eccentric style.
But it was what was found alongside the clothes that caught Stevens and Cordova’s attention.
The pair discovered more 30 master tapes in the unit, which were labeled Death Row Records and could possibly hold unreleased music from MC Hammer, DJ Quick, and Snoop Dogg.
After finding the items, Stevens and Cordova were contacted by people claiming to be from Death Row Records, which MC Hammer was signed to in the 1990s.
The people who got in touch acquired about buying some of the items, but Stevens and Cordova said they’ve not yet agreed on a deal.
If the items are authentic, the pair believe they could be worth millions.
Not only would it be an incredible find, but it would be a huge profit on the $30 they paid for the unit.
However, Stevens and Cordova are hesitant when the find seems too good to be true.
“Until I actually hear from MC Hammer himself or Snoop Dogg, I don’t believe it,” Stevens said.
Interestingly, MC Hammer himself has actually since weighed in on the find after an X user asked him whether he was going to ‘get [his things] back’.
In response, Hammer wrote: “If this be truth a man spent $50 for such a gift are they not his? God bless him.”
However, Stevens indicated that there’s more authentication that needs to be done.
“People claim to be managers, but all we have is the documentation, the tapes, and people are contacting me [claiming to be] affiliated with them. So obviously, something’s going on to where it’s related,” he said.
No matter what the outcome, Cordova is happy with the purchase of the storage unit.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “You just don’t know what you’re gonna find when you get inside the unit, but this is probably one of our most amazing finds.”
Topics: Music, US News, Money, Celebrity
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He made five figures in six weeks for an invention he came up with when stranded at the end of a night out
Brilliant ideas after a night out might include getting a pizza or chips to soak up the alcohol, or be as simple as leaving out painkillers to sort out the hangover.
For one man though his night out idea was a money making business idea, and a successful one too. Side hustles like DoorDash deliveries might bring in funds, but this brainwave would end up proving to be more lucrative, earning him nearly $72,000 in just six weeks.
Queensland man Bailey Page came up with his entrepreneurial idea after finding himself with a dead phone after a night out in 2020, which made calling a taxi impossible.
Forced to walk home it got him to thinking about ways that meant your phone could be charged, without having to be plugged in somewhere or carry about an obscenely big charger with you.
This is where Paige’s idea came in, as he wanted to create a portable, cable-less phone charger that people could take around with them which wouldn’t clutter up their pockets on a night out.
After getting home, he miraculously didn’t forget about his new idea after the night out. He began researching online but found he couldn’t find what he was looking for.
So deciding to go all in and try and make his idea a success, he ploughed all of his savings into creating one – and all whilst studying in his third year of university.
Working alongside a manufacturer via e-commerce website Alibaba for nine months, Paige then created a cable-less charger that can be fixed to a phone, with the Zip Zap website providing battery charge.
The charger can then be reused and recharged in 2 hours before being able to be used.
Juggling studies and exams alongside creating a business, Paige explained how he managed it to the Courier Mail: “My third year essentially, I just had to focus on getting uni complete while I did my studies.
“It was just a lot of late nights and weekend work to really cover up on what I couldn’t do through the week when I was at uni. I thought to myself, you know what, if I failed, I at least had a go.
“I always encourage young people just to have a go. You have to put a plan on paper. It’s always good to get outside eyes looking in and giving you feedback. You can never fail with starting and the biggest hurdle is actually just starting.”
Despite the long hours and sleepless nights, Paige’s gamble was worth it as his creation became the foundation for his new company Zip Zap Chargers where he was able to recoup his savings, and then some!
In its first six weeks, Zip Zap earned nearly $72,000 in just six weeks as well as selling out of his first lot of chargers in just two weeks.
He then went on to smash his record of selling 2,000 chargers in a year, with the business continuing to grow.
Topics: Money, Australia, Business
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Multi-billionaire Warren Buffett still lives in his Omaha, Nebraska, home he purchased 70 years ago
As of last year, 136 billionaires lived in New York City – and Warren Buffett isn’t one of them.
Buffett currently stands as the world’s fifth richest man and has a net worth of $113 billion, beating Microsoft founder Bill Gates who isn’t far behind with $109.7 billion.
Many on the Forbes’ rich list live in New York City or San Fransisco – one of which has been named one of the worst cities to live – which is understandable as you need a salary of at least $404,332 a year to be able to afford a home in there.
Warren Buffett discusses his wealth
Credit: BBC
But, going against the grain is Buffett, 93, who resides in Omaha, Nebraska, and has done for most of his life.
His home is located near to his company Berkshire Hathaway’s HQ, making it understandable why he’s stayed the for the best part of 70 years.
The firm owns dozens of companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen, which is what makes him so rich.
As well as this, the 93-year-old is a dab hand at stocks and shares and has been investing since the young age of 11 (making it all the more surprising that he never relocated to America’s stock market capital of New York).
But it’s not the location of Buffett’s home that surprises people, but the price he bought it for.
The now-multibillionaire purchased his home in 1958 for just $31,500 and still remains as the only real estate that he owns.
Buffett has hailed his home as one of his ‘best investments’, coming in third behind his and wife’s wedding rings.
The business mogul was married to Susan Thompson Buffett up until the time of her death in 2004.
He then remarried two years later and remains wed to wife of 17 years, Astrid Henks.
It’s believed his home has a current value of approximately $1,439,000 million, according to Realtor.com’s estimate – a staggering 44.44 times more than he paid for it.
While Buffett already sees his home a great investment, he thinks he could have made more money if he rented instead.
In a 2010 letter addressed to his Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett said: “Home ownership makes sense for most Americans… All things considered, the third best investment I ever made was the purchase of my home, though I would have made far more money had I instead rented and used the purchase money to buy stocks.”
I hate to think what ‘far more money’ is for the fifth richest man in the world…
Topics: Money, Net Worth, News, US News, Business
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Laszo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoin in 2010 and reflected on the deal in a 2019 interview
A man spent around 100,000 Bitcoin on some pizzas – but little did he know just how much those Bitcoin would end up being worth.
When you’re hungry, you’re hungry, and sometimes nothing can curb that hunger like a pizza or two.
So when he fancied some cheese and tomatoey goodness in 2010, Laszo Hanyecz decided to use Bitcoin to get his hands on two pizzas.
Man who spent 10,000 bitcoin on two pizzas
Credit: 60 Minutes/ CBS
On 18 May, 2010, Hanyecz took to Bitcoin Forum, offering 10,000 bitcoins in exchange for a ‘couple of pizzas’.
His post states: “Like maybe two large ones so I have some left over for the next day. I like having left over pizza to nibble on later.
“You can make the pizza yourself and bring it to my house or order it for me from a delivery place, but what I’m aiming for is getting food delivered in exchange for bitcoins where I don’t have to order or prepare it myself, kind of like ordering a ‘breakfast platter’ at a hotel or something, they just bring you something to eat and you’re happy!”
Hanyecz went on to detail he likes things such as ‘onions, peppers, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes [and] pepperoni’ on his pizza, noting any ‘standard stuff’ would do, as long as there’s no ‘weird fish topping or anything like that’.
Little did Hanyecz know that 10,000 bitcoins would eventually go on to be worth a whole lot more than two pizzas – namely, a staggering $80 million in 2019.
But what did Hanyecz make of it?
In a clip shared by 60 Minutes – which was Hanyecz’s first TV interview – reporter Anderson Cooper says the bitcoin would now be worth ‘$800 million’.
He questioned Hanyecz: “You spent about $800 million on pizza?
And the ‘Bitcoin pizza guy’ responded: “Well, if you look at today’s exchange rate.”
Cooper continued: “Are there nights you wake up where you think, ‘I could have had $800 million… if I hadn’t bought those pizzas?’”
Hanyecz resolved: “I think thinking like that is… Not really good for me.”
As one Twitter user added: “That’s putting it lightly.”
Well, Hanyecz would probably be happy to know at the time of writing, the bitcoins’ value has since decreased, worth $636,113,721.89, according to Revolut.
But that doesn’t really make it much less painful now, does it?
