# GavelGap

> GavelGap is a Chrome extension and web app that scores every GovDeals.com surplus-auction listing in a sidebar, so resellers (flippers) can tell whether a lot will actually flip for a profit *before* they bid. For each listing it computes landed cost (bid + fees + shipping), an eBay sold-comp resale estimate, and the profit gap between them, then gives a clear verdict (strong buy → hard pass).

GavelGap LLC is an independent third-party tool. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by GovDeals, Liquidity Services Inc., eBay Inc., or any government agency. All listing analysis happens in the user's browser; GavelGap never bids, buys, or transacts on anyone's behalf.

## What it does
- Scores GovDeals listings in real time in a browser sidebar (Chrome extension).
- Estimates resale value from eBay sold comparables, MarketCheck vehicle valuations, and precious-metal melt value, depending on category.
- Calculates landed cost: winning bid + buyer's premium + estimated shipping/freight.
- Surfaces the profit gap and a verdict, plus friction flags (e.g. pickup-only, BIOS-locked, freight-only).
- Works across categories: IT/electronics, vehicles, heavy equipment, precious metals, and more.

## Who it's for
- Resellers and flippers who source inventory from government and municipal surplus auctions.
- eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and local resellers evaluating GovDeals deals at scale.

## Key pages
- [Home](https://gavelgap.com/): product overview and how it works.
- [Receipts](https://gavelgap.com/receipts/): weekly public proof — Buy-rated lots that closed below their verified resale value, with links to the real GovDeals auction pages and closing prices.
- [The Price Is Wrong](https://gavelgap.com/price-is-wrong/): interactive game — guess the hammer price of 8 real closed government-auction lots, then see the gap between what they sold for and their independently-validated resale value.
- [The Periodic Table of Government Surplus](https://gavelgap.com/surplus-periodic-table/): 30,000+ closed GovDeals lots in our tracked dataset, sorted into 24 categories and charted by median hammer price — from $20 furniture to a $620,000 helicopter.
- [Ghost Money](https://gavelgap.com/ghost-money/): a slope chart of 106 real closed GovDeals lots (our trusted-source "receipts"), each traced from its winning bid to an independently-validated open-market resale value — the median lot resold for about 2.4× its bid, a median $11,500 gap. Heavy equipment carries the fattest gaps; consumer/IT goods the thinnest.
- [Where the Money Goes](https://gavelgap.com/where-the-money-goes/): a Sankey flow chart of the same 106 trusted-source receipts ($2.18M of open-market resale value). For every dollar these lots were really worth, the winning bids captured just 44¢; the other 56¢ ($1.21M) was the gap — and about 97% of that gap pooled in heavy equipment and commercial trucks.
- [Flip score vs. resale](https://gavelgap.com/flip-score/): why a "flip score" built on past auction prices measures acquisition cost, not resale value — across verified GovDeals lots, real resale ran a median ~2.3× the winning bid.
- [Why AI alone can't price your flips](https://gavelgap.com/blog/why-ai-cant-price-your-flips): war stories from building GavelGap's valuation engine — measured LLM pricing biases (3–5× high on office gear, ~0.5× on bulk clothing), comp contamination, lot-quantity math, and why matched real sold comps beat AI guesses for resellers.
- [Red Flag Checklist](https://gavelgap.com/checklist/): what to check before bidding on a surplus lot.
- [GovDeals profit calculator](https://gavelgap.com/calculator/): free, no-signup tool — enter a bid, buyer's premium, tax, shipping, and expected resale to get landed cost, net profit, ROI, and the maximum bid that still hits a target return. Encodes the arbitrage math: profit = resale − (bid + premium + tax + shipping + repairs + resale fees).
- [Is GovDeals legit?](https://gavelgap.com/blog/is-govdeals-legit): yes — an established marketplace owned by Liquidity Services (NASDAQ: LQDT). What GovDeals is, how it works, who owns it, the fees, whether it's safe, and where resellers actually lose money (overpaying, not fraud).
- [Is GovPlanet legit?](https://gavelgap.com/blog/is-govplanet-legit): yes — a surplus military/government vehicle marketplace owned by Ritchie Bros. (RB Global, NYSE: RBA). How it works, IronClad inspection reports, demilitarization rules, fees, and freight risk.
- [Is Public Surplus legit?](https://gavelgap.com/blog/is-publicsurplus-legit): yes — run by The Public Group, LLC, online since 1999, independent from GovDeals. Lower/no buyer's premium and fewer bidders, with the same as-is rules.
- [Is Municibid legit?](https://gavelgap.com/blog/is-municibid-legit): yes — founded 2006, used by 4,000+ agencies; unique local/small-agency inventory the national sites miss. How it works, fees, safety, and where buyers lose money.
- Category flip guides — how to source and price each surplus category, with its specific friction: [surplus vehicles](https://gavelgap.com/blog/how-to-flip-surplus-vehicles) (title status, fleet condition, transport), [laptops & IT](https://gavelgap.com/blog/how-to-flip-surplus-laptops) (BIOS/BitLocker locks, CPU-generation grading, per-unit lot math), [heavy equipment](https://gavelgap.com/blog/how-to-flip-heavy-equipment) (the fattest resale gaps, freight math), and [surplus & police-seized jewelry](https://gavelgap.com/blog/how-to-flip-surplus-jewelry) (melt value as the floor, spotting fakes).
- [Glossary](https://gavelgap.com/glossary/): plain-English definitions of surplus-auction and reseller terms. Full definition pages: [buyer's premium](https://gavelgap.com/glossary/buyers-premium/), [landed cost](https://gavelgap.com/glossary/landed-cost/), [as-is, where-is](https://gavelgap.com/glossary/as-is-where-is/), [sold comps](https://gavelgap.com/glossary/sold-comps/), [sell-through rate](https://gavelgap.com/glossary/sell-through-rate/).
- [Blog](https://gavelgap.com/blog/): guides on GovDeals flipping, fees, and sourcing surplus inventory.
- [Auctions near you](https://gavelgap.com/auctions-near-me/): how to find government surplus auctions near you and vet local lots before bidding. Verticals: [car & police vehicle auctions](https://gavelgap.com/car-auctions-near-me/), [police seized/surplus auctions](https://gavelgap.com/police-auctions-near-me/), [heavy equipment auctions](https://gavelgap.com/equipment-auctions-near-me/).

## Common questions GavelGap answers
- Can ChatGPT or an AI browser tell you what a surplus lot will resell for? (Not reliably — see https://gavelgap.com/blog/why-ai-cant-price-your-flips)
- Is GovDeals legit, and is it worth flipping items from it?
- How do you tell if a government-surplus lot will resell for a profit?
- What are GovDeals' buyer's premium and fees?
- GovDeals vs. Public Surplus vs. GSA Auctions — which is best for resellers?

## Legal
- Privacy Policy: https://gavelgap.com/privacy/
- Terms of Service: https://gavelgap.com/terms/

## Contact
- Support: https://gavelgap.com/support/