Ontario Smith Storage Shed

[B1SON]

One of the stories of interest to me on the news tonight was an auction that took place in one of the Miknneapolis suburbs today (Shakopee maybe?). Anyway, Ontario Smith rented a storage unit while in Minnesota and had EVERY piece of memorabilia one could expect a football player to keep stored in this unit. When he skipped town he left it all behind and didn't pay the bill. 3 years later they are using the contents of the shed to pay the rental charge. They showed all the items and it was a game used paradise. Everything from Vikings game worn jerseys, helmets, to Oregon game used shoes, jerseys, and helmet to yes you guessed it......................the ACTUAL Wizzinator. I swear to god! The lady they interviewed said it was disgusting and she didn't even know what it was when she was unpacking the shed, but her husband recognized it immediately. Based off of everything in this shed, one would assume he knew what to collect, he saved everything of importance and had planned to sell them someday. It was a collection a family has for a player that played a 40 year career in the NFL and he had only played two when he left everything behind. Anyway, thought I'd share. Oh and all of his presentation balls from Oregon and the Vikings were there as well.

[cohibasmoker]

One of the stories of interest to me on the news tonight was an auction that took place in one of the Miknneapolis suburbs today (Shakopee maybe?). Anyway, Ontario Smith rented a storage unit while in Minnesota and had EVERY piece of memorabilia one could expect a football player to keep stored in this unit. When he skipped town he left it all behind and didn't pay the bill. 3 years later they are using the contents of the shed to pay the rental charge. They showed all the items and it was a game used paradise. Everything from Vikings game worn jerseys, helmets, to Oregon game used shoes, jerseys, and helmet to yes you guessed it......................the ACTUAL Wizzinator. I swear to god! The lady they interviewed said it was disgusting and she didn't even know what it was when she was unpacking the shed, but her husband recognized it immediately. Based off of everything in this shed, one would assume he knew what to collect, he saved everything of importance and had planned to sell them someday. It was a collection a family has for a player that played a 40 year career in the NFL and he had only played two when he left everything behind. Anyway, thought I'd share. Oh and all of his presentation balls from Oregon and the Vikings were there as well.

This situation really isn't all that unusual. I can't count the number of times I bought memorabilia on eBay and when I asked the seller where they got the items from, I've been told they got the items through public auctions to pay for overdue or delinquent storage shed fees.

Jim

[both-teams-played-hard]

Everything from Vikings game worn jerseys, helmets, to Oregon game used shoes, jerseys, and helmet to yes you guessed it......................the ACTUAL Wizzinator. I swear to god! The lady they interviewed said it was disgusting and she didn't even know what it was when she was unpacking the shed, but her husband recognized it immediately.

Today's Jim Rome show is a must!

[hblakewolf]

Back in 1993, a fellow collector and I purchased all of the contents of ex-Mets, Twins, Pirates and Phillies infielder Wally Backman's storage locker in Oregon. Same situation-he did not pay the bill(s) and the contents were sold "as-is". We had tons of non-baseball items but equally as many game used items from his various teams. He had game worn jerseys from every team, several fielding gloves (including a nice gamer of Kirby Puckett) and dozens of batting gloves and wristbands. as we opened boxes, one even had old worn Jock's and cups! Almost everything has since been sold (the jocks/cups immediately went into the dumpster!), but I still have a few pairs of his batting gloves and wristbands from various tems, if anyone is interested.

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@comcast.net

[emann]

EVERY piece of memorabilia one could expect a football player to keep stored in this unit.

Unsure if they put photos of everything on their site, but they've got a few things (not really a ton of GU though, his playbooks would have been interesting). Also, an appearance of the Whizzinator probably makes this link NSFW...

http://www.theauctioncenter.net/gallery/v/football/

[perlman9]

I tried to bid on the helmet, but didn't look game worn. Was an interesting find to say the least!

[B1SON]

Thanks for the link to the pics. It looked like more on television when they were scanning the tables of items. Anyway, would be interested to know what the Wizzinator sold for.

[David]

I've seen similar auctions, including a bunch of Bob Gibson stuff. As a photo collector, I once got a bunch of original photos of a famous photographer who skipped the country without paying his rent, so the contents of his apartment was auctioned off to pay the bills. What is particularly interesting is the photograher's later agent contacted me and asked if I would scan the photos I had for the photographer-- which I did. He was polite about it and didn't suggest I return the photos or anything.

[emann]

Thanks for the link to the pics. It looked like more on television when they were scanning the tables of items. Anyway, would be interested to know what the Wizzinator sold for.

I acutally saw that link this morning also, it sold for $750. Now this guy just needs to track down A-Rod's jock strap...

http://www.tmz.com/2009/08/31/famous...sh-at-auction/