Work 18-year-old started a side hustle selling ‘treasures’ from abandoned storage units—it brings in $135,000 a year

CNBC ^ | 08/12/2026 | Sarah Jackson and Valentina Duarte

[DFG]

Some people’s trash becomes Michael Haskell’s treasure.

The 18-year-old buys abandoned storage units in the New York tri-state area and sells their contents. His business, Mike’s Unique Treasures, brought in about $135,000 in 2025 from eBay and auction sales, and another $85,000 from January through mid-July, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Haskell’s entrepreneurial ventures didn’t start here. Growing up, he’d sell books for a few bucks on eBay or buy rarer Legos and hold onto them to turn a profit after they went out of production. “I never knew what I was going to be doing” career-wise, Haskell says. But “I always thought I was going to be doing something on my own.”

It’s a notion many young people share. Gen Z is contributing “disproportionately” to recent growth in business formation, according to a July report from the Bank of America Institute. In June, business application growth among Gen Z was more than double that of Millennials and Gen X. The bank’s internal data also points to founders “getting significantly younger,” the report says, noting that “with younger workers navigating a tough labor market, starting a business may be viewed as an alternative path to income growth and career advancement.”

Haskell turned to storage units partly to differentiate himself from his peers. “I was looking around and seeing everyone have a 4.0 GPA and being a little self-conscious,” he says, since he didn’t have the same. As he thought ahead to college, he says he wondered: “How was I going to be different from the crowd?”

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TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: michaelhaskell; storageunit

[BradyLS]

Forget that college noise, kid. You know enough about business that you could be teaching courses!

[af_vet_1981]

AI Overview

For a small business or pass-through entity (like an LLC or sole proprietorship) with $135,000 in net business income in New York for 2025, the business itself does not pay a flat corporate income tax. Instead, the $135,000 "passes through" to your personal tax return, where you will owe federal income tax, self-employment tax (approx. 15.3% for Social Security and Medicare on net earnings), and New York State personal income tax (ranging from 4.0% to 5.97% for this income tier). Total combined federal, state, and self-employment taxes typically consume roughly 30% to 38% ($40,000 to $51,000) of that amount, depending on deductions.

[BradyLS]

Modest beginnings at 18! And zero debt!

[BradyLS]

~$80-90K/year free and clear flipping abandoned property. You could do a heckuva lot worse at 18!

[srmanuel]

I think you will see a lot more of this type of thing in the future because of AI.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been playing around with Anthropic’s Claude Code product, I started out with the web based free product and quickly moved up to the Pro Level for a 1-year subscription for $17/month.

The side hustles and things you can independently do with this product are fairly amazing, even if you have never written a line of computer code in your life.

I was in the IT business for 38 years and consider myself technically literate, the last code I wrote was Cobol, I’ve never written Python code in my life. I also consider myself an intermediate to advanced user of Microsoft Excel.

Just in the past 2-3 days working part time, I’ve had Claude AI create multiple Excel Spreadsheets complete with Python Scripts to go out on the web, pull down information and update the models build the spreadsheets and write detailed documentation on how the models work.

I also had the product go out and gather information on another model I want to work on and write a Word Document on the subject and what I need to consider in developing the model.

You take a young person who generally are more technically savvy than a retired baby boomer like myself who has any creativity in them, could do wonders for very little money and create their own business using the Claude AI tools or any other AI models from other companies.

[butlerweave]

Ever watch Storage Wars ? LOL It’s mostly junk

[butlerweave]

and now he has the eye/ear/nose of the IRS ,LOL

[Old Grumpy]

Good for him! I’ve often thought about buying a storage unit to make a few extra bucks. Haven’t done it, though. He’s a clever young man.

[BradyLS]

A Dave Ramsey commercial has a similar kid talking about flipping used furniture. Buys it for next to nothing, refurbishes it, takes nice photos of it, sells it on ebay for ~$100K/year.

[Repealthe17thAmendment]

He definitely needs some accounting advice to make sure he maximizes his deductions. It’s very easy to pay more taxes than you have to. Establishing an LLC and being an employee rather than a sole proprietor could be very helpful.

[napscoordinator]

It makes sense. Why bother going to work for a company that doesn’t give you a pension, health benefits or anything worthwhile. Might as well work for yourself where you can do incredibly well. companies aren’t worth the BS they release on their workers. Corporations are just legal slave houses.

[Jamestown1630]

There are people who want what others might consider junk.
Young people starting a household, for instance, are foolish to buy everything new, when so much that you need is so cheap at a thrift or charity store - often like new.

Those stores are doing very good business in my area.

[napscoordinator]

I did something similar. I gave all my stocks, mutual funds, 401(k) and everything and they put it into a spreadsheet with my net worth for the day. It used Friday is close to add everything up. It took about four minutes at most. I think AI is great. I’m sad that so many are poo pooing it.

[RandallFlagg]

Hopefully, the kid doesn’t open up the storage unit
Benjamin Raspail was, “Tucked away,” in...

[bankwalker]

How much did those storage units cost him? It sounds like a gamble because the contents aren’t disclosed until you pay.

[shelterguy]

“””Ever watch Storage Wars ? LOL It’s mostly junk””””

No NO No. They always find a priceless treasure amongst the junk and sell it for millions. It’s on tv so it must be true.

[napscoordinator]

You are 100% correct. But all the flipside I’ve heard nightmares where people buy something from these places and it has bugs and fleas and all kinds of crap on them. so you definitely have to be careful.

[Jamestown1630]

I’ve never had that experience. But some of my favorite and most useful household things have come from thrift stores.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

The richest people I know are the people I went to college with who had side busiensses in college. Or people who dropped out of college to focus on a business they started. Basically, smart people who started a business. There are lots of people who start businesses who aren’t smart and dedicated who fail. There are a lot of smart, dedicated people who don’t have the b__lls to start their own business (myself included). You need that combination.