Just wanted to check – these shippping container “investment” “opportunities” are just a Ponzi scheme, right ? A colleague keeps going on about them with the intention of buying in and is now nagging others to join him because he’s been offered a “special group discount” if he gets others to sign up at the same time.

🙄

run.

Bit like the airport carpark schemes

Tell him about Juice Plus.

One of them might contain gold..GOLD I TELLS YER!!! ARRRRRRR!!!!!

Apparently it used to be a genuine investment and business but now there are a lot of dodgy people trying to use it as a ponzi scheme.

Is shipping volume globally still very low? Meaning – won’t there be billions of containers lying around empty at the moment? Or has it picked up in the last few years?

Funnily enough, TR, he mentioned those the other day !

It’s bizarre, he’s a very smart chap and we work in a very finance oriented area, but he’s amazingly naive about this stuff.

I bet there’s a surplus of containers at the moment, even just judging from our exports to Nigeria which are 10 – 15% down on the last few years. Russia and Ukraine are also badly down.

there are heaps of shipping / storage containers around here – used as overflow storage (the area) on farms and so on as with the oil slump, they’re no longer needed in and around Aberdeen. And land here is cheaper to store them on..

airport car parking – hope does that work as a scam / scheme then?

Is shipping volume globally still very low? Meaning – won’t there be billions of containers lying around empty at the moment? Or has it picked up in the last few years?

Gone further south, cheaper to hire a ship per day that a Ferrari.

“airport car parking – hope does that work as a scam / scheme then?”

Same principle – you “buy” an asset that you have no control over, but you think you own it, you’re persuaded that there’s security in your investment. Company offers you an attractive return on your investment. Say 10% pa. For as long as people keep buying in, they will actually pay out.

Then a couple of years down the line they will vanish, having paid you 20%, but the other 80% is gone. You discover that you don’t own an asset (container, parking space) after all.

That’s the basis of a Ponzi scheme, they’re not paying you a real return, just drip feeding back the money that was paid in to begin with before absconding with the remainder.

Shipping containers – worth about $1,000 each I recall. Many purchased as larg sheds assuming you’ve got somewhere to store them.

I have a “friend” in Dubai who has been trying to convince me that I need to buy car park spaces in/near Glasgow airport… Crying out for parking up there apparently…

I have a parking space which is Ryanair near Glasgow, anyone want to invest?

FWIW I would not be buying into anything remotely unusual at the moment, Europe teetering on edge of another recession with a Greek default and financial Tsunami consequences is only a matter of time imho. Keep your cash. Wait and see,

chrisdiesel – Member

I have a “friend” in Dubai who has been trying to convince me that I need to buy car park spaces in/near Glasgow airport… Crying out for parking up there apparently…

I love these ones… Completely dependent on the idea that no parking company in the country has gone “maybe we’ll make some more parking spaces”

you may find this quote from this article useful in your response

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/barefoot-investor/beware-when-someone-offers-exorbitant-returns-for-your-investment/story-fngu4eru-1226930303021

“Because this mob are relying on pulling in gullible, get rich quick seekers to ship their steaming pile of investment turd”

On a similar note, although not really…

I’m looking at actually buying a shipping container to use as a sort of portacabin.

Does anyone know if this is actually cheaper than building something from scratch? Or if there are other more cost effective options?

@petefromearth

Container are Ok. But everything goes mouldy and damp. You will have to consider lining it out.

However, worth considering is getting a ex dedicated site building. Thats what I did. It came winth secure windows and doors, heating, lighting and all associated electrics. Security griils and even a desk and chair. All for 650 notes including delivery.

Size 8 by 12.

All it needed was a coat of paint.

This was a few years back so they have probably gone up a bit.

If you are in Bristol… I recommend Alan Coward and Sons

http://alancowardandson.co.uk/container-sales/3776982

I’m using a couple of shipping containers for storing work kit at the moment and through the winter they’ve been pretty dry – however I’ve also used ones that get pretty damp.

If you are looking at them theres a few things to consider

there are actual proper ISO shipping containers – ones that you could rock up with at a port and they’d accept it

and there are ‘Storage Containers’ – which are sort of shipping container like and are intended for used on building sites,

In the long run the ISO’s have a better life span, they’re made of Corten rather than mild steel so even when the paint gives up the steel rusts on the surface but doesn’t rot. Once a storage container starts to rot its difficult to keep on top of it – especially the structure underneath the floor

The former are usually better quality (at the time they are built) but some will have had a pretty hard life so condition is key. A ‘single trip’ container – one thats had very few trips and is in near new condition will probably set you back £1700 plus deliver for a 20 footer. Often 40 footers are only a couple of hundred quid more, but thats because the delivery and transport costs are much higher for them so they are less sought after.

Prices for storage containers (which a typically a bit less than ISO containers) tends to be quite flat, prices and availability for ISO containers fluctuates a lot and from time to time the stocks of them just vanish. When availability is good then less than perfect containers can be had for pretty much scrap value.

Some containers are sealed / air tight when you close the doors, the ones I have just now have small vents top and bottom so they breath.

Key to them being sound for storage of anything you don’t want to get damp is the floor being in good nick – leaks from above you can fix easily but damp coming up from underneath through a damaged floor turns the whole thing into a condensation machine. I’ve used one in the past that was non ISO and had a damaged plywood floor which I patched but the can was always damp inside. The two ISOs I used now have really good condition phenolic coated floors and so far they’ve been bone dry.

Very helpful cheers guys!

I am in Bristol so will look those up.

My application is slightly unusual in that it’s indoors-ish. Imagine a fairly dank but sheltered warehouse, that’s where I want to put a container or build a room which is dry and clean. It won’t be exposed to the elements, but then it’s not exactly clean on the outside either.

In those circumstances it might not be any less dank inside the container as its the same air – if you’ve got power available it might be better to have a sealed rather than ventilated container and run a dehumidifier inside it from time to time.

might be worth checking some industrial auction sites for portakabin style stuff – I remember telling a guy at a company I was visiting that I’d worked at co’ X when I left college – he said come out the back (!?) and pointed to a portakabin and said had got at the closing down auction – it was my old office

I’m currently sat in a shipping container. It has had holes cut in it for doors and windows. Some describe it as my office. Feels like a prison on this current job!
Heaters good though!

Are they index linked to the Baltic dry shipping index ?