BC Business
Storage Warrior is a collectibles business that resells items sourced from storage lockers, estate sales and junk removal services
In the spirit of turning trash into treasure, reality TV shows like Storage Wars have undoubtedly piqued peoples’ curiosity about where hidden gems can be found. The American show follows bidders who buy repossessed storage units hoping to get lucky, and for husband-and-wife Johann Furrer and Jessica Oman, watching it did more than just make them curious. It inspired them to start a side hustle in 2012, when they purchased a small $225 storage unit in Vancouver.
“We just thought that’s something we could do in here,” Oman says. At the time, she was teaching classes at UBC’s Sauder School of Business and the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, and Furrer was working as a tree planter. “Back then you could find these local auctions, and we would stand there all day and buy the last unit of the day… That’s how it all began.”
The couple started selling their finds through eBay, and in 2016, their side hustle turned into a full-time collectibles business known as Storage Warrior. Tree planting was anyways starting to take a physical toll on Furrer, and Oman was losing more money by not working full-time on Storage Warrior than she was making as a professor. So they went all-in, and in 2018, they moved the business into a 2,000-square-foot warehouse in South Vancouver that they’re now “busting out of,” Oman says with a laugh.
“You could call us a cross between a Value Village and an American Pickers type of business,” she adds. “But our mission is twofold: it’s about reducing environmental waste and keeping things out of the landfill, and at the same time, saving history… We have lots of zero-waste initiatives here in Vancouver, but most of them are focused on the recycle part of the triangle instead of the reuse side.”
Reselling can be a tricky business as items don’t always meet customers’ expectations. Bad reviews are inevitable, notes Oman, but she’s proud of the fact that most of the feedback on Storage Warrior’s eBay site is positive—99.5 percent to be exact. “That’s a loud voice, collectively.”
One of the ways Oman and Furrer source inventory is by visiting estate sales. Last year, they went to one in Southern California and bought what Oman describes as a “hunk of cast iron for US$2.” She figured that some steampunk enthusiast would probably be willing to pay $50 for it.
“But when I looked into it, I realized that it was actually the base of one of the first public pay phones ever,” she says. “I put it up on auction on eBay and it sold for US$655.55.”
The entrepreneur credits her passion for sustainability as the driving force behind Storage Warrior’s evolution from a side gig to a business that’s now making six figures in revenue. She actually wrote her SFU MBA thesis on the circular economy and zero-waste initiatives back in 2009, and now her business is raking in one win after another.
This week, Storage Warrior was named Entrepreneur of the Year in eBay Canada’s 20th annual Entrepreneur of the Year competition. The recognition comes with a $10,000 cash prize and a professional photography session. It also sheds light on the ways in which small business owners like Furrer and Oman go above and beyond to make a big impact.
Take Storage Warrior’s podcast, for example. Through the Business of Reselling podcast, Furrer and Oman share tips on how other resellers can scale their business. The brand also loves to support local charities like the Binners’ Project, which is working to reduce stigma around waste-pickers.
“Yeah, we’re selling used goods—on the internet, I say, ‘I sell junk on the internet’—but it’s so much more than that,” Oman maintains. “Resellers are important for history, they’re important for environmental reasons. We’re an important part of circular economy in general. So the fact that this award exists is a really cool way to elevate what we do and show that it’s a profession, it’s a real job, and entrepreneurs like me and the other winners deserve to be recognized.”
All the winners of eBay’s 2024 competition (which includes additional categories like “Micro-Multinational of the Year” and “Small Town Seller of the Year”) can be viewed here.