The Treasure Hunter of Bergen County
By the Jynx Productions Team · 5 min read
I write here when something is worth thinking through. New pieces from Focus and the Jynx Journal go directly to subscribers.
Michael in the space where he catalogues and prices finds, surrounded by auction catalogs he collected from previous units.
The storage facility closed in thirty minutes. Michael Haskell, 18 years old, drove a rented truck across the George Washington Bridge at rush hour to get there. The unit had cost him $470 (his highest bid yet) and he had never seen what lay behind the door. He made it with minutes to spare.
That kind of compressed, high-stakes timeline defined the two days we spent with Michael near New York for Galileo/ProSieben. Producer Johannes and DP Chandler followed him from the hallways of Bergen Academy, the competitive public high school in New Jersey where he maintains strong grades, to a suburban house so packed with auction finds that his mother Anna has surrendered most of the living room.
Michael's custom ChatGPT bot scans auction listings and cross-references tenant names against public records, flagging notable former owners.
Michael earns $8,000 a month buying abandoned storage units, sorting their contents, and reselling the best pieces on eBay. The operation runs on a system he built from scratch. A ChatGPT-powered bot scans online auction listings within 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) of New York City every day, cross-referencing the names of unit owners against public records. When the bot flags someone notable (an athlete, an artist, a professional with likely high-value belongings), Michael pays closer attention. On location, Google Lens prices objects in seconds. He caps every single bid at $500. He reinvests 100% of his profits into the stock market. His portfolio sits above $200,000.
The glamour-to-grind ratio in action: Michael hauling finds from a newly purchased unit to the rental truck outside.
Two years ago, none of this existed. Michael saw a rerun of Storage Wars on television and bought his first unit online for $10. A total loss, save for a CO2 canister he sold for $40. He kept bidding. Two months later, a unit full of garbage bags turned out to contain Prada handbags, Hermès scarves, and gold rings. He cleared $5,000 in profit and never looked back.
Over a hundred units later, Michael treats the process like a portfolio manager treats positions: diversified bids, strict cost discipline, and an exit strategy for every item. He lists over 4,000 articles on eBay at any given time, ships seven to ten packages a day, and spends roughly half his working hours hauling unsellable material to the recycling center. The glamour-to-grind ratio runs heavily toward grind.
The editorial challenge for our team centered on register. A teenager earning $8,000 a month from abandoned property can easily slide into either of two lazy frames: viral entrepreneurship content or a cautionary story about a kid who should focus on school. Michael fits neither. He bids on units during English class, yes, but he also stands on the cusp of attending a respected university. His classmate Ben, who helped carry boxes on our second shoot day, told Chandler's camera that Michael had become a kind of campus phenomenon after the New York Times profiled him, not because of the money, but because of the intensity.
Google Lens prices objects in seconds: Michael photographing a jade figurine to check its market value on the spot.
The production texture came from the details Johannes and Chandler captured on location. Michael's phone buzzing with auction alerts during a lecture. The $20-a-day rental truck parked permanently outside the family home. Anna at the kitchen table, sorting receipts for tax season, watching her son negotiate a $2,600 sale on a jade dragon he found inside a pencil case. The friend who carries furniture down three flights of stairs and wonders aloud whether he should find his own thing.
Michael's single biggest score arrived in 2024: a unit in Brooklyn, purchased for $450, that contained a painting by Man Ray and drawings by Walt Kuhn, both major figures in American modern art. He contacted the world's top auction houses. They turned the teenager away. Bonhams, a mid-tier house, took a chance. The sale brought in nearly $50,000, roughly a hundred times his initial investment.
We asked Michael whether he felt conflicted about profiting from strangers' abandoned belongings. His answer reflected a pragmatism beyond his years: a small unit in Manhattan costs at least $100 a month in rent. Most of what he finds amounts to material the original owners chose not to reclaim. "Maybe it falls to me to decide that these things should not have stayed in storage," he told our team.
The closing frames captured Michael loading the last boxes from his newest unit into the truck. He does not know what comes next; college starts in three months, and he has hinted that the storage business might eventually fund something else entirely. "Maybe the next big idea comes just as randomly as this one did," he said. For now, the teenager from Bergen County keeps bidding, keeps sorting, and keeps compounding.
🎬 🎥 🎞️
For more than 20 years of award winning production, Jynx Productions has specialized in presenting life as it unfolds to viewers across the globe. Our experienced production professionals are passionate about telling the kinds of authentic stories that leave a lasting impression on audiences. We’re glad to know that our work has sparked curiosity and joy, and has entertained millions of people.
Our clients cover a spectrum of industry sectors. We're always interested in building new relationships, showcasing our services, and we welcome opportunities to talk about collaborations.