It’d be hard for a lot of people to say that they’d never heard of Dan and Laura Dotson since when it comes to the A&E show Storage Wars their names tend to come up pretty readily. Starting back in 2010 they became the inspiration for the show and for the run of the original program they were the emcees that were in charge of running the auctions that many believe to this day were mostly drama that was to be rolled out for the show. While that’s pretty much true the history behind Dan and Laura isn’t faked since they’ve both been in the business for a good long while and in fact, Dan has been an auctioneer since he was around 11 years old, which is impressive given that he’s 57 at this time. According to all reports he’s still up and doing it and is still active on the auction scene, though the Storage Wars days seemed to have died off with the show which is thankful for some people even though it was kind of entertaining. The fact that he’s still doing it and has been at it for decades now is kind of impressive really, one because sticking to something in such a manner is always impressive since it takes dedication and a serious love of what you’re doing, and two because it’s hard to think of how many places an auctioneer can still find work in this day and age. But obviously there are enough areas where this is still a needed profession.
While on the show the Dotson’s were undoubtedly a fun part of Storage Wars since they did bring another bit of personality to the show and interacted with several of the buyers, though it was almost always seen that they would feud with one among the lot that was a constant thorn in the side of many of the other buyers, Dave Hester. For those that watched the show it’s pretty obvious that Dave was kind of a jerk, whether it was an act or not. The truth of the auctions were that everyone was out to make money, but for some reason Dave was the biggest jerk on the lot most times and didn’t seem to care about whether he rubbed people the wrong way or not. As Rebecka Shumann of International Business Times reminds us there was an incident in which Dan apparently missed a bid by Dave, which in turn resulted in Dave and Dan quarreling and Laura being struck by Dave as some would say. While the footage seems to indicate that it might have been accidental, it was enough to seriously anger Dan, and rightfully so since Dave couldn’t seem to let the matter go and wanted more than an apology. While it’s true that it might have cost Dave money to lose the locker in question, it was also a matter that could have been handled quietly, though there’s always the chance that it was promoted on camera to up the ratings.
In 2014 it was almost lights out for Dan when he suffered a double aneurysm, as he was complaining of not feeling well only a short time before he collapsed. From that point on, at least until he recovered, Laura was running the auctions to allow Dan to conserve his health and heal up. During that time Laura, who has a very different style than Dan when it comes to being an auctioneer and yet is still very competent and successful, had to deal with Dave as well, and despite the absence of her husband she did just fine in standing her ground and letting Dave know that he couldn’t push her around. Both Dotson’s have proven to be very tough and resilient throughout their careers and despite a few issues here and there within their marriage they’ve remained strong and united throughout the years. Their net worth, combined, is easily into the millions so there’s no trouble believing that they’re well off and are living a good life as Greg Smith of Looper has revealed.
It was kind of hard to see the show fade and finally end, but during the run of Storage Wars Dan and Laura were fun to watch since they were among the first and last voices that were heard on the show and they had mostly positive interactions with the buyers that were so popular on the show. As far as Dave Hester goes things didn’t always go that well but they weren’t always horrible either. At this time Dan and Laura are still doing their thing and still enjoying their marriage and their lives together. Whether we’ll ever see them on another auction show is hard to say, but at this point a reboot of Storage Wars might be kind of interesting.
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