An 18-year-old from New Jersey flipped abandoned storage lockers into a six-figure business by following the clues inside them, and he did it while still in high school. Michael Haskell started with a $10 purchase and turned that into a career in storage unit flipping, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC.
Haskell’s venture started with a modest triumph. He purchased his first storage unit for $10, and inside discovered a carbon dioxide canister which he sold for $40. That $30 profit was sufficient to persuade him to persist. Now two years on, the 18-year-old from Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, has transformed that initial curiosity into a business operating across the New York tri-state area, bringing in around $220,000 from 2025 through July of this year.
The Early Win
The very first storage unit Haskell rented cost $10, and inside it sat a carbon dioxide canister that he managed to sell off for $40. That $30 profit — earned back when he was still in high school — was all the proof he needed to keep pushing forward.
How the Business Works
Haskell’s method relies on a straightforward formula. He searches for abandoned storage units listed on auction websites, bidding on them for $500 or less, before sorting, researching and reselling their contents on eBay. His inventory is kept at his mother’s home, where shelving units in the garage hold Cold War-era artifacts, Nike sneakers, crates of books and vinyl records.
Reading the Room
Reading the room is the whole game. Haskell isn’t buying what he sees at face value; he’s reading between the lines. Small items are his clues, and they point to something larger. A college pennant, for instance, isn’t worth much on its own, but it tells him the owner has an education — and educated people tend to have more valuable things stored away elsewhere in the unit.
“The way you make money is not by looking at stuff that’s directly in front of you,” but about piecing together clues, Haskell said. “It’s connecting the dots with various small items that may not be obvious.”
The Crispo Unit
Haskell discovered the real turning point at the very beginning. He noticed that a unit had once belonged to Andrew Crispo, a scandal-ridden former Manhattan art dealer, and paid $450 for it. When he opened it up, he found a painting by Man Ray alongside sketches by modernist painter Walt Kuhn, which together brought in $36,000.
His parents were persuaded he was on to something genuine after that windfall. It likewise made plain his method: rather than relying on chance, success in storage unit flipping comes from reading the signs.
The AI Tool
To gauge values, Haskell relies on a trio of tools: Google Lens, ChatGPT, and eBay listings checked against one another. Alongside these, he and his companions constructed an AI instrument designed to flag any well-known names connected to units being sold at auction.
The Garage Inventory
For years Haskell has sorted and sold items, filling his garage shelves with a strange mix of objects. Cold War-era relics rest beside pairs of Nike sneakers, while crates of books and vinyl records take up the remaining room. He studies each piece before putting it back on eBay for sale.
The Numbers
Financial records examined by CNBC show Haskell’s business has brought in roughly $220,000 from 2025 up until July of this year.
What the Story Shows
Haskell’s story is a lesson in pattern recognition. He didn’t get lucky. He looked for patterns and followed them. The Man Ray painting was the proof that the method works — a $450 unit turned into $36,000.
The crates of books and piles of records make up the process itself; they do not guarantee the next big discovery.
The Next Unit
Haskell keeps heading toward lockers. Each journey raises the same doubt: could this turn into the next Crispo?
The method holds. Look for the clues, connect the dots, and the value follows. That’s the lesson he learned from a $10 purchase, and it’s the one he lives by now.
A Comparison of His Methods
| Method | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Auction bidding | Finds abandoned units for $500 or less |
| Garage sorting | Researches and resells contents on eBay |
| AI tool | Scans for notable names on auction websites |
| Google Lens, ChatGPT | Estimates values through cross-referenced listings |
A reading room business is what Haskell runs, and the Man Ray painting proves the concept works. The shelves in the garage store the goods of a young entrepreneur who discovered his calling inside a storage unit.
Source material: “A New Jersey high schooler banked $135,000 in a single year flipping abandoned storage lockers,” Yahoo Finance.
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