What government surplus actually sells for: 12,505 GovDeals auctions in one week

We track government-surplus auctions as they close. In the week of May 22–29, 2026, 12,505 tracked lots reached their close date — 9,489 sold (a 76% sell-through) for a combined $20.4 million in final bids. The median winning bid was just $271, the average $2,154, and the top sale hit $620,000. Here's what that says about the surplus market — and about finding deals in it.

The week in numbers

Two takeaways jump out. First, most surplus is cheap — a $271 median means half of everything sold for under $271. Second, the value is wildly concentrated: the average is ~8× the median, dragged up by a long tail of vehicles and heavy equipment topping out at $620,000. Surplus auctions are a market of many small lots and a few very large ones.

Vehicles run the market

If you want both volume and dollars, it's vehicles. They post the highest median prices and draw the most bidders — pickup trucks averaged 42 bids per lot, more than any other category:

The spread is the story. A pickup truck sells for a $3,850 median against 42 bidders; a furniture lot sells for $19 against 6. But note the top sale column: even "cheap" categories throw the occasional outlier — a $39,000 laptop lot, a $57,000 desktop lot, a $17,750 jewelry lot. Bulk lots and rare items hide in low-median categories.

Competition is real — the opening bid is bait

Government listings open deliberately low to attract bidders, and they work: lots averaged 20 bids each, and vehicles 35–42. A $100 starting bid on a truck is not a $100 truck. The low opener is the single biggest reason new buyers overpay — they anchor on the start price instead of where the bidding will actually land.

Where the lots are

Surplus is everywhere — 55 states and territories — but volume clustered in the Southeast and Midwest. Georgia led with 925 lots sold, followed by Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee, and California. Florida punched above its weight on dollars ($2.6M from 463 lots), reflecting more big-ticket vehicles and equipment.

What it means if you're flipping

The data lands on one point: price discovery is the whole game. Sell-through is high and competition is stiff, so you won't win by hoping for a sleeper — you win by knowing, before you bid, what a lot actually resells for and what it'll cost you landed. The gap between those two numbers is your profit, and it's invisible if you're staring at a $100 opening bid.

Methodology

Figures come from GavelGap's automated tracking of public GovDeals listings: when a watched lot closes, we record its final hammer bid, bid count, and sold/unsold status. This analysis covers the 12,505 tracked lots that closed between 2026-05-22 and 2026-05-29. "Sold" means the lot met its reserve and recorded a winning bid. Prices are the final hammer bid and exclude the buyer's premium, taxes, and shipping a buyer also pays. This is a large tracked sample, not the entirety of GovDeals, so treat it as a representative snapshot rather than a platform-wide total.

Related: How to flip GovDeals items for profit · Best things to flip from government auctions · GovDeals fees explained