'Storage Wars' Rene Nezhoda Spends $4K on Wham! Bassist's Unit, Total Bust

"Storage Wars" stars Rene & Casey Nezhoda are licking their wounds after dropping a bundle on a unit that belonged to a member of Wham! ... 'cause it turned out to be a total waste!

Rene tells TMZ they paid $4,100 for a storage locker that had been owned by Deon Estus ... the bass player for George Michael's '80s hitmaking group. Besides Wham!, Deon had also played with Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, Elton John and Annie Lennox ... plus, he had a top 5 hit as a solo artist.

So, you can see why Rene thought he scored when he nabbed the locker in Vernon, CA.

Well, instead of Wham!, it was more like Ooops!

He says it was abandoned and a complete waste of his money ... filled with dirty dishes, pillows, blankets, scarves a DVD player and receipts among other worthless items.

Rene says they did find a guitar case, but of course ... there was nothing inside. Giant swing and a miss.

Deon's stuff had been sitting in the locker since 2018. In case you didn't know, the iconic bass player died last October at the age of 65.