A Victoria retiree named James was hoping to find treasure buried among the clothes and books.

Young Jaryd just hoped to find quality furniture to furnish his home.

The two were among a few dozen who showed up Thursday to bid on the contents of abandoned storage lockers at U-Haul Self-Storage on Topaz Street.

A hit reality TV show on the A&E network has boosted public interest in such auctions, which are held regularly at Victoria storage businesses. Storage Wars follows professional buyers in the U.S. as they hope to find treasure in repossessed storage units.

"Part gamblers, part detectives, these seasoned veterans have found everything from coffins to the world's most valuable comic book collection, paying as little as $10 for items valued in the millions," says the show's website.

Thursday's auction in Victoria drew both veteran bidders such as James and first-timers such as Jaryd. The rules say bidders get to look — just look, no touching — at the contents of the lockers before making bids.

Having a flashlight helps to shed light into the back of the bins that aren't jammed to the rafters.

While there's live bidding on the TV show, and at some Victoria auctions, the purchases were made by silent bids at Thursday's event.

That's just one aspect of the business that lacks the excitement of the televised version, said James, who declined to give his last name.

"There's absolutely more people now," said James as he waited with others to view the 10 lockers up for sale.

He and a partner have been bidding at these auctions for about a decade. Their best buy was paying $200 for a locker that contained $5,000 worth of goods, including a Robert Bateman print.

"That's the one that keeps us coming back," James said.

Most bidders have businesses and use the auctions to build up their inventory, he said. Still, sorting out the treasures from the trash "is a tremendous amount of work," he said.

"We're cheap — we put in low offers because we know it's going to take a long time to make money," James said.

He sells excess items at flea markets and gives the rest away to Goodwill Enterprises and the Salvation Army.

Arthur Kingma was also there for the sale but he wasn't optimistic that there was much of value to be found. Other storage businesses in other neighbourhoods tended to have more valuable stuff, he said.

"Large TVs are not good," he said, adding he looks for "neatly packed boxes that don't say 'books' on the outside."

He has little trouble getting rid of the excess items.

"There's a plethora of businesses that take crap," he said.

Seeing garbage bags and mattresses in lockers is a sign that most of the contents have little value, said the experienced bidders.

Jaryd Zinkewich and Kelly Schneider were first-time bidders, hoping to buy a bedroom suite, bookcases and couches to furnish their condo.

"I'd love to look for resellables but how much time is spent on Used Victoria dealing with looky-loos?" he said.

While 15 lockers were advertised as being up for sale in a newspaper advertisement, there were fewer available at the time of sale. The renters of some of the units who didn't want their stuff sold came up with the cash for tardy payments.

An auction had been scheduled for Thursday at U-Haul's Sidney location but it was cancelled when all the renters came forward to pay their bills.

smcculloch@timescolonist.com