'We blindly spent £1.5k on storage unit and hit the jackpot with items inside'

Daily Mirror

5 hours ago

Storage unit buyer, Wade Coggins couldn't believe his luck after his wife opened their newly-purchased container to reveal scores of boxes of valuable retro goods
An American couple who splashed out around £1,500 on a storage unit with very little prior knowledge of what was inside were left stunned after being handed the keys. Wade Coggins took to TikTok to showcase their new possessions, after finding the unit's interior rammed full with goods.
"We spent over $2,000 on this 10x20x10 [feet container] and we hit the jackpot," he enthused in a video. "It might not look special, but wait until you see what's inside." The clip revealed dozens of boxes – of which Wade admitted he knew barely anything about.
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Heading towards the back of the unit, Wade opened up a folder filled with Pokémon cards. "All these are from 1999," he hailed. "There's not one newer than that." He then moved on to a box containing hundreds more cards from the same year.
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Next, Wade came across a brand new boxed Nintendo Wii U, before revealing: "There's a lot of game machines in here, but I've only been through around 2% of the unit so far."
An old plastic Nintendo case was next to be opened, this time containing a series of 1980s NES cartridges. "They're in really good shape," Wade said, noting Godzilla and Zelda II The Adventure of Link as particular points of interest.
More Nintendo boxes followed, alongside Apple computers as Wade opened up another box full of consoles, this time Nintendo 64s and Wiis. "There's a lot of electronics here, including monitors," he said. "They definitely loved video games."
Wade then spotted further boxes of retro gaming goods - namely Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation 3 content - before non-electric toys caught his eye.
"Wow look at that," he exclaimed, holding aloft a large Star Wars AT-AT Walker toy and an unopened Lego set. Next came a Nintendo DS handheld console, a series of laptop computers and a large box full of old PC games including Sonic the Hedgehog and The Sims.
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"I think there's some money here," Wade said. Still he wasn't done though - revealing the contents of another box to be a Star Wars edition of an Xbox One console.
"I'll show you one more box," he concluded, admitting he didn't have the time to go through everything - and in fact was only around 5% of the way through the process. This time it contained a variety of items - yet more Pokémon cards, video games and other boxed games including Jenga.
The reaction to the couple's purchase proved to be mixed, however. Writing in response, one TikTok user urged: "Please, please get a retro professional to help you with this stuff, some of its incredibly valuable especially if you don't open the boxes."
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A second added: "What you showed is at least 20k." Whilst a third declared: "That collection is insane. Either they were a major collector, or they had an indie game store because that is so much stuff!"
Others confessed to feeling sorry for the previous owner, however, one of whom penned: "My stomach is turning... how long was this abandoned? You should try to at least contact the prior owner. This feels wrong in so many ways."
Another concurred: "Used to enjoy watching this kind of content until it sank in there's probably a really sad story behind why these are being sold off, no issue with the buyers but I can't watch them any more."
And a third person agreed: "This is so sad to me. That is all someone's prized processions. All their treasures and hard work sold for nothing for someone else to profit. No hate for buying it. I just feel for the original owner."