Field notes for people who resell government surplus. How to tell a real deal from a money pit on GovDeals — fees, friction, resale math, and the platforms worth your time.
Original data: one week of real GovDeals closings — 74% sell-through, $33.5M in final bids, a $210 median sale, 18 bids/lot. What surplus really sells for, by category and state.
We run AI inside our own pricing pipeline — and it still took 630 pull requests and a wall of guardrails to get resale numbers you can bid on. The confidently wrong prices AI gave us along the way, and why real sold data (painfully assembled) wins.
A data story, as a flow chart: we followed $2.18M of resale value across 106 real government auction lots. The winning bids captured just 44¢ on the dollar — and almost all of the 56¢ gap pooled in heavy equipment.
A data story: we tracked 106 real government auction lots from the gavel to the open market and charted the climb. The median lot resold for 2.4× its winning bid — a median $11,500 gap, trusted sources only.
A data story: we sorted 30,498 closed GovDeals lots into 24 categories and charted what each actually sells for — from $20 office chairs to a $620,000 helicopter. Tap any element to see a real lot.
A data story: we traced one real decommissioned 2016 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor from the factory to the GovDeals block to the resale lot — and the ~$2,680 gap a flipper keeps in the middle.
Yes — GovDeals is a real, established surplus-auction marketplace run by Liquidity Services. What it is, how the auctions work, who owns it, the fees, whether it's safe, and where flippers get burned.
Yes — GovPlanet is owned by Ritchie Bros. (RB Global, NYSE: RBA). What it is, how its military & government vehicle auctions work, the fees, demil rules, and where buyers lose money.
Yes — Public Surplus is run by The Public Group, LLC, online since 1999. Independent from GovDeals, with fewer bidders and a lower buyer's premium. How it works and how it compares.
Yes — Municibid, founded 2006, is used by 4,000+ agencies. Unique local, small-agency inventory the big sites miss. How it works, the fees, whether it's safe, and where buyers lose money.
A step-by-step framework: landed cost, resale comps, the profit gap, and the friction flags that quietly kill margin. With the exact math GavelGap runs on every listing.
Ex-fleet cars, trucks, and police cruisers sold below private-party resale. The three checks that decide the deal: title status, mechanical condition, and transport.
Great margin or a box of BIOS-locked bricks. How to dodge the locks, grade by CPU generation, do the per-unit lot math, and price against real eBay sold comps.
The fattest auction-to-resale gaps in surplus — and the biggest freight bills. How to size both the gap and the transport before you commit a five-figure bid.
Seized jewelry lots: gold, or costume junk? Value off verifiable metal weight and melt as your floor, never trust a stamp, and let real gemstones be upside.
The three big government surplus platforms compared for resellers — inventory, fees, buyer's premium, payment, and which is best for which kind of flip.
The number you bid isn't the number you pay. Buyer's premium, sales tax, payment fees, and shipping — and how the all-in cost runs 15–30%+ over the hammer price.
Where more flips die than anywhere else: pickup-only lots, LTL freight, auto-transport, removal deadlines, and how to price logistics into your bid.
The GovDeals categories that resell best — IT, laptops, vehicles, tools — the niche ones that reward expertise, and what to approach with caution.
A score built on past auction prices predicts the hammer price, not the resale. Across verified GovDeals lots, real resale ran a median ~2.3× the winning bid — with the receipts.
Sourcing locally cuts the freight and pickup costs that quietly kill margin. Find government surplus auctions near you, then vet the lot before you bid:
How to find local surplus auctions, why "near me" matters for landed cost, and how to tell which nearby lot actually profits.
Fleet sedans, SUVs, and pickups retired by cities, counties, and agencies — and how to bid against landed cost, not the hammer price.
Seized, unclaimed, and surplus property from law enforcement — and how to value as-is, unverified lots safely.
Loaders, backhoes, and dump trucks with the widest auction-to-resale gaps — and the freight math that makes or breaks them.