History[]
Dave Hester began the series owning Newport Consignment Gallery in Costa Mesa and the Rags to Riches thrift store, until he closed them in June 2011. He now operates his own auction house,, Dave Hester Auctions. Dave serves as the program's main antagonist, who has regular confrontations with the other main buyers and even the auctioneers on the show, especially Darrell and Brandon Sheets. Hester takes pride in driving up the price on lockers to assert his dominance. Dave has a son, Dave Jr. Who also appears on the show working alongside him or doing inventory for him at his store.
Hester has a signature bid which is to loudly yell "YUUUP" always at the last moment which leads to the annoyance of the general crowd and other buyers. This catchphrase can be seen on merchandise that he sells, his own hat and shirt and sometimes on his own trucks. Barry Weiss gave him the first hat with his phrase on it.
Dave was featured on A&E’s hit show “Storage Wars” from 2010 to 2018.
Dave's Past[]
The son of a Marine Corps lifer, Dave was born at Camp Pendleton Marine Base near Oceanside, CA. His parents started buying and selling tools, antique and collectibles – anything of value, really – at auctions, estate sales and garage sales to supplement his father’s military income upon returning from Vietnam in 1969. When his father retired in 1979, Dave and his parents had been buying and selling for 10 years. At 14 years of age, Dave was attending auctions himself, buying tools and machinery to sell to the shops that supported the two nearby military bases in Orange County, CA.
In 1986 he attended his first self-storage auction, bought a few units, and he’s been buying ever since. In the early 1990s he started working as a bid catcher for a local auction house. Dave later started buying for them, running house calls buying one piece or a houseful, eventually he became an auctioneer for them in 1992. He bought and sold millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise yearly.
In 2005, after being convicted of a DUI, Dave was forced into community service at a local Goodwill Store. Seeing the potential in such an operation, the then furniture store owner transformed his operation into a thrift store. The idea changed his life.
Lawsuit[]
Dave Hester, a former star of the A&E reality show Storage Wars, sued the network for wrongful termination. Hester claimed that the show was staged and fraudulent.
What did Hester claim?
- The show was scripted
- The producers planted valuable items in the storage lockers to create drama
- The interviews were scripted
- He was fired in retaliation for complaining about the show's rigging
What was A&E's response?
- A&E argued that the show's setup was protected by the First Amendment
- A&E accused Hester of trying to distract from the show's issues
What was the outcome? Hester reached a settlement in 2014.
Details of the lawsuit
- Hester filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on December 11, 2012
- He sought damages in excess of $750,000
- He claimed causes of action for wrongful termination, breach of contract, and unfair business practices.
Stroke and near-death experience[]
Hester himself was rushed to the hospital in late 2018 after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke while sleeping. The stroke reportedly resulted from a mix of high blood pressure and a severe case of sleep apnea. Luckily, Hester's doctors were able to save him from moving on to the great storage locker in the sky, but Hester apparently spent a few uncertain days in the ICU and several more months in recovery. When the folks at TMZ caught up with Hester in September 2019, he was more than happy to inform all that he was on the mend, though he admitted to spending a fair amount of his recovery time re-learning how to accomplish seemingly nominal tasks like walking and showering.
References[]
https://davehesterauctioneer.com/learn-more-about-dave-hester
https://www.looper.com/167358/what-dave-hester-from-storage-wars-is-doing-today/