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

[Publius]

Ah. Zap Comix.

[Albion Wilde]

They were truly subversionary of the Establishment!

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

I used to frequent a small unclaimed storage store in north Alabama. Mostly junk, but some good stuff occasionally found. I used to buy sunglasses for 50 cents a pair, for example. I used to rag colleagues that bought expensive sunglasses, only to lose or break them - probably haven’t spent as much as a pair of Ray Bans costs on sunglasses in my entire life.

[roadcat]

I see so many estate sales, garage sales, storage unit auctions, etc.... one could literally decorate and equip an entire house with very good stuff, very cheaply.

I have a son-in-law who frequents yard sales, etc., and gets vintage stuff dirt cheap or free. He does very well scoring on good stuff. He’s asked people that are demolishing homes or remodeling them if he can take the materials that will be tossed out, and they let him do it. He’s stripped homes of vintage oak flooring, windows, cabinets etc. One property he pulled materials out of, he found vintage Indian head pennies and other coins. He likes collecting 1940’s and 1950’s era toys, which his daughters enjoy. My daughter (his wife) never knows what her husband will find and surprise her.