The old saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure" was taken quite literally on March 27 at Community Mini-Storage on Route 28 in Wareham.

More than 30 people crowded around nine different storage units that were opened and had its contents auctioned off. When the doors roll up, everyone has a chance to look for, and bid on, buried treasure.

"There's a never-ending supply of this stuff," said Rob Sequin, of South Yarmouth, who recently opened up a second hand store to house and sell his spoils.

"These are all delinquent units, the company has the right to auction them under state law to recover the rent money they've lost," said auctioneer Ed Benson.

The popularity of auctions like this has increased after the success of TV shows like A & E's "Storage Wars," where bidders fight over units they think might house hidden gems, however, Benson said a lot of the units are what people leave behind when moving from place to place.

A lot of them are mattresses which you have to pay to dump or couches that are out of style but there are a lot of good cabinets and chairs and other home furniture." Sequin said

Benson said the manager is only allowed to keep what he's owed in rent, then has to return the profit to the owners. But in many cases the owners can't be found and the money goes into a fund held by the state.

But Community Mini-Storage owner Charlie Pillsbury said it's rare that the sale of the unit recoups the money owed to him. None of the sales on Thursday did.

The high price on Thursday was $400 for a unit filled with cabinets and home and office supplies.

There must have been something that caught bidders eyes, as they aren't allowed to actually touch anything in the unit.

Benson said the highest he's ever gotten at an auction was $10,000 for a series of four units filled with art prints. He also said he was at an auction where two men got into a bidding war over a unit filled with oil paintings. Both men knew the paintings were done by Josiah Quincy, mayor of Boston in the 1890s. Benson said the winning bid was $27,000 and the winner resold the paintings at public auction for $158,000.

Pillsbury said he runs auctions every three months or so to clear out the units and make room for new renters, but he tries to contact the owners once their unit goes delinquent, before it goes to auction.

The lowest bid for a unit was $1 for a unit that was sold back to Pillsbury since no one else wanted it and each unit must sell at the auction. The unit had a couch chair, some mattresses and a fan. One man's trash indeed.