Bud and Lou are under pressure from Mr. Fields to pay their rent. They go to apply for a packing job at Acme Warehouse where an unclaimed freight auction is being held. Lou's suit of wool underwear becomes itchy in the summer heat and his scratches are comically taken as bids. He is stuck with a winning $30 bid on a freight box. The owner, gangsters Lefty the Shiv (Paul Fix), Blackie (Anthony Warde), and Lefty's girl Millie Montrose (Phyllis Coates) arrive an hour later to claim the freight, but are told of the situation. Bud and Lou return to their apartment to open the box and find hundreds of roller-skates. Lou decides to sell them on the street with a sign comically proclaiming "Abbott and Costello Cheap Skates". Kids steadily come to buy them, but for pennies, and a pair ends up on a wild chimp (our old pal Bingo) terrorizing the sidewalk, knocking down a little girl and roughing up Mike the Cop and helpful citizens. Millie moves into the apartment and learns Bud and Lou have the box they're searching for. Mike informs Mr. Fields to be on the lookout for Lefty, a killer connected to a smuggling racket with over $100,000 worth of diamonds in a shipment of roller-skates. The insurance company is offering a $10,000 reward for them. Mr. Fields takes the skates for the back rent and $50. The gangsters plot to get Lou, leading to a showdown.
The Dick Van Dyke Show episode "The Masterpiece" hilariously borrows the idea of unintentionally bidding at an auction.
The Dick Van Dyke Show episode "The Masterpiece" hilariously borrows the idea of unintentionally bidding at an auction.
