How the auction works

Find an available storage unit and interact with it. The beginner walkthrough describes paying an entry fee, seeing the door open, and inspecting the contents before bidding. You can leave a poor-looking unit rather than continuing to bid. The moving bid marker must stop inside the highlighted green zone; missing it means the bid fails. Stay in the bidding area and follow the control shown for your device.

Set a ceiling from your own assumptions

Write down a conservative total resale estimate for the whole locker, other costs, the amount of profit you want to leave, and cash you refuse to spend. A budget ceiling is the lower of cash available after reserve and unpaid costs and estimated resale minus other costs minus your chosen profit allowance. If that result is zero or negative, skip. This is budgeting arithmetic, not an item appraisal or a claim about auction odds. Use the bid-budget form below with your own conservative estimate. Blank values are invalid; known zero costs are valid. If the remaining cash excludes an already-paid entry fee, keep the fee in total costs for profitability but do not subtract it from cash again.

BID BUDGET / IN-GAME CASH

Protect your reserve before you bid.

Cash available now, after any fees already paid.
Cash you want to keep after this run.
Your conservative estimate for the whole haul.
All costs besides the winning bid, paid plus unpaid.
Included in total costs; reserved from current cash.
A buffer you choose, not a promised profit.
The example inputs leave a $150 bid ceiling: $250 − $80 reserve − $20 unpaid costs. Select Calculate to use your own inputs.

A worked decision before the bid rises

Example assumptions: $250 cash, $80 reserved, $220 estimated resale, $20 other costs already paid (unpaid costs U = $0) and a $40 desired cushion. Available cash is $170; resale after costs and cushion leaves $160. The ceiling is $160. A $165 bid exceeds the plan even though it fits your balance. If your resale estimate falls to $150, the same calculation drops the ceiling to $90. Values here are hypothetical user inputs, not game prices.

Count fees once and separate sunk costs

For an all-in run budget, include the entry fee in other costs. If it was already paid, do not subtract it from your remaining cash a second time; use the cash currently available. A fee already paid is not a reason to win a bad locker. Do not price hidden contents as guaranteed treasure or count a mutation you have not identified.

When a bid fails or a win is unusable

First check the highlighted timing zone and whether you are still inside the auction area. Then check the price and current cash shown in game; the video establishes timing failure but does not prove it is the only possible cause. Before escalating, consider the vehicle capacity needed to recover the loot. After a win, return to the shop and compare actual proceeds with the original estimate so the next estimate improves.

Set a ceiling that protects your reserve

Enter current cash C, protected reserve R, conservative resale estimate V, all other run costs F, the unpaid part of those costs U, and a chosen profit cushion P. F includes U, so U must not exceed F. Your bid ceiling is max(0, min(C − R − U, V − F − P)). The cash constraint reserves unpaid costs; the profit constraint counts all costs once. An entry fee already paid belongs in F but not U. Example: C250, R80, V220, F20, U20, P40 gives a $150 ceiling, leaving $80 after the $20 still due. With V150, the ceiling becomes $90. This uses your estimate, not a guaranteed game valuation.

Sources & update boundaries

Checked 17 September 2026. Walkthroughs describe June–July gameplay; newer community pages are identified below. These are attributed sources, not our own in-game tests.

How conflicting and changing information is handled →