Brandi Passante on Being in a Woman in the Male-Dominated World of Storage Locker Auctions

By Paula Hendrickson

With A&Es popular series Storage Wars returning with a new hour-long format, it felt like a good time to catch up with Brandi Passante. She's spent the past 16 seasons bidding against the guys—and sometimes other women—for the chance to buy, clear out and hopefully resell the contents of abandoned storage units. We spoke to her about how she got started in the business, women in her line of work and what it's like to be back.

The new season of Storage Wars premieres on Saturday, June 7 at 9/8c. Streams next day in the A&E app.

It's been a couple years since Storage Wars aired new episodes. What's it like to be back?

It's really great. I've been doing this for 16 seasons, almost 16 years, so it's like second nature when you've done something for so long.

How did you get started buying and re-selling the contents of storage units?

[My significant other and I] had a mortgage company, and in 2007 we wanted to find a new venture. His aunt worked at a public storage [business], and said, 'Have you ever been to these auctions?' We tried it and were instantly hooked. We opened a store. Original Productions [the production company that works on Storage Wars] was doing sizzle reels at one of the auctions and asked if we would do one. It just kind of went from there.

You were on Storage Wars from the beginning. Over the seasons, we started seeing more women on the show. Have you seen more women expressing interest in your line of work, and do you think the show inspired that interest?

I think the show may have been an influence on some level. Often, I see women show up for a bit and then I don't see them again, but it's a very tough business. It's not easy. It's backbreaking work. It's like moving day every day. Then you have to find outlets to sell all of the items. You have to clean out that whole unit. It’s heavy lifting and sweaty and dirty and disgusting—and it is something that generally males would do. But I grew up with four brothers, so being around male-dominated scenarios has kind of been my life forever.

Do you still have brick and mortar stores?

I got rid of my stores many years ago. There was just too much overhead, [managing] employees—all while trying to shoot the show. It was just a little too much. I had little ones back then. Now I mostly sell stuff online. I have a storage unit myself, which is funny, and a garage full of little things that I am categorizing and selling as I go. Sometimes we do a swap meet.

Speaking of your kids, they were pretty young in the early days of Storage Wars. Now that they're older, has it changed when or how you work?

Absolutely. My son will be 22 next week. My daughter will be 20 in June. When they were younger and busy with sports, school activities, play dates and whatever, you're just constantly on the go.

At 18, when they're done with school and are going to college, it stops so abruptly. You suddenly have all this time on your hands and you're like, 'What the hell am I supposed to do now with my time?' I have to keep moving, so I definitely fill my days with work, and that's okay with me. Everybody has their method, but I have all the time in the world to work now.

Along with physical strength, what other traits are needed to succeed in your business?

You have to have a lot of gumption, a thick skin and you have to be business savvy. It's a job where you have to make sure that you don't spend too much money, and you have to kind of create an eye for what might be good and what might set you back.

You also have to use a little misdirection with these fellas sometimes, because they all try to run me over a little bit. But I've never allowed that to happen.

Are there any advantages being a woman gives you when bidding against the guys?

Everybody has a special gift or an eye for things that other people may overlook. I can see designer handbags or designer furniture, or things that maybe somebody else doesn't know so much about. But I think the real gift is not to know everything about a few items, but to know a little bit about a lot of items. I think that's what we all try to do.

What advice would you give to a woman thinking about making that first bid?

I would say, 'Oh, honey, don't do it!'

Throughout the years, people would show up at auctions and say, 'This is my first auction. I just quit my job and mortgaged my house and leased a store. Do you have any advice?' I'm like, 'Try to get your job back.' This is not an easy job. It really isn't. It's not something I would highly recommend unless you are willing to deal with all the grit of it—there's a lot of loss involved, and you have to learn a lot of hard lessons—all while going through rat feces and years of dust and dirt and grime.

I wouldn't recommend it to somebody who isn't willing to work very hard. It's not a get-rich-quick job, which I think is a misconception across the board. People think that it's like a treasure hunt and they're going to win immediately and be rich. That's not how it goes.

What's one of the worst or weirdest things you've discovered in a unit you've purchased, whether it was for the show or not?

I have so many! But when I first started, there were a bunch of 19th century photos—black and white photos of dead people. Pictures of people surrounding a dead child or a dead man, propped up in a chair. They absolutely gave me the creeps.

I held on to them for a bit, but I couldn't really find out anything about them—until after I'd finally gotten rid of them. I just didn't want to be around them. I found out later that they were worth quite a bit of money.

What are you looking forward to most for the new season of Storage Wars?

They changed the format of the show. It's going to be an hour long instead of a half hour. I'm really curious to see how that's going to pan out—I think it's going to be great, actually. At first, I was like, 'Oh man, I don't know,' but after all the work we've done over the past few months, I think it's going to be really great.

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