As "Storage Wars" wrapped up its second season as A&E's flagship series last week, Riverside's Dan and Laura Dotson ---- the show's featured auctioneers ---- found themselves enjoying a ride they had only dreamed was possible.

In a recent phone interview, the couple said the show was the result of a series of dreams Laura had.

Dan had learned the craft of calling an auction from his grandfather and mother, and founded American Auctioneers in 1983. In 2008, trying to drum up more business selling the unclaimed contents of abandoned storage units at auction, the couple began videotaping some of their auctions.

"We started putting this stuff on YouTube to show our clients that 'Hey, we're better,'" Dan said.

After KCET in Los Angeles featured them on a segment on how the recession was fueling an increase in thrift shopping, Laura had a dream about a production company contacting them to develop a TV show.

"We had 27 production companies contact us in 18 months," Dan said.

They signed their first deal to develop a TV show based on the concept of their YouTube videos, but it never bore fruit.

Then Laura fell asleep early on New Year's Eve 2009.

"Laura had another dream that the (demo) tape was put in a cabinet," Dan recounted. "Laura prayed, 'God, please send us a Thom Beers!' (Beers is a successful reality series producer.)

"It wasn't three weeks later that Thom Beers comes up to us at an auction in Van Nuys!"

Beers had already struck gold on TV with "Deadliest Catch," as well as "Ice Road Truckers." And the Dotsons said the format of the show that Beers sold them on is what they had always envisioned.

Each week's 30-minute episode features the Dotsons auctioning off the contents of several units at a different self-storage facility, ranging from San Diego to northern California. Buyers have 5 minutes to look into each storage unit (without entering or touching any of the contents), and then the entire contents are auctioned as a single piece. The show then follows the buyers as they sort through their winnings, often finding unusual objects they then take to experts for appraisal.

"We always thought, even with the first production company, it would always be about the buyers and the item," Dan said, with Laura adding, "We're the glue and the frame of the show."

Series regulars Dave Hester (Long Beach), Darrell Sheets (a Temecula resident, and a longtime Vista resident before that) and husband-wife team of Jarrod Shulz and Brandi Passante from Orange County were all introduced to the producers by the Dotsons.

"We actually brought everybody to the table, except Barry (Weiss). We've known Dave for 20 years, Darrell about 12 years. Jarrod had just started coming.

The Dotsons brought 25 to 30 people to the producers to choose from. "They're a good cross-section of the buyers we know throughout the state."

Weiss was brought in by Beers, although the Dotsons had met him before. "Barry would come around, but he was a kind of an eclectic kind of collector," Laura said.

Dan said he wasn't keen on Weiss being on the show at first. "I thought, 'What do we need Barry for?' Then I met him, and liked him. And I saw him on TV, and I got it.

"I'm 49, and Barry just turned 61 and I can't keep up with him! If it comes in his head, it just comes right out his mouth. He can get away with saying anything."

While their contract with A&E doesn't allow them to share many details about the show's production, Dan did confirm a recent news report that said dozens of auctions are needed to compile enough interesting items for one episode.

"If they just filmed every unit that these guys buy, nobody would want to watch."

And despite having what A&E claims is its top-rated show, Laura said that they don't get makeup or costume specialists for the taping.

"We get out of bed and do our hair, and we're on our own!"

While a good portion of their auction business consists of selling storage units that have not had their rent paid in at least three months, the Dotsons said that when a legally abandoned unit is auctioned off and personal effects are found, an effort is usually made to try to reunite personal heirlooms with their owners.

"We'll make a phone call. If it's quick, sometimes we can catch it."

The flip side of that sometimes sad aspect of the business, Dan said, is the joy they take in getting affordable items back into the marketplace where they can be purchased by low-income families (what Laura called "the ultimate recycling").

"Every time somebody loses a 10-by-10 (locker), it's broken down and taken to the swap meet, and you end up helping eight to 10 families that need stuff."

What the Dotsons said they hope viewers take away from the show is an appreciation of the regular buyers, who they said used to be portrayed as vultures, preying on those who had lost their belongings.

"I like the people who buy these units," Dan said. "They work hard to feed their families. My idea of these people is a lot different from the old perception.

"I was really excited that we could humanize these buyers."

While the third season is set to begin filming later this year, the Dotsons said they realize that it won't last forever and they're making sure they take the time to enjoy their celebrity ---- and the other benefits of starring on a successful TV show.

"We have gone from four or five auctioneers to 12 auctioneers," Dan said. "We've got plans on getting a few more accounts in California, and moving into Arizona. American Auctioneers is just busier than heck, and we're working on another spinoff."

And there are personal advantages, too ---- such as having the extra auctioneers so Laura isn't handling auctions in San Diego while Dan's in Long Beach. Now, they assign each other to the same auctions.

"We get to spend our time together and bicker like an old couple ---- we have more family time than we did before the show. If this ends today, we're good."

At which point Laura grabbed the phone from Dan: "But I don't see any end in sight!"