What government surplus actually sells for: 13,415 GovDeals auctions in one week

We track government-surplus auctions as they close. In the week of August 18–25, 2026, 13,415 tracked lots reached their close date, and 9,933 sold (a 74% sell-through) for a combined $33.5 million in final bids. The median winning bid was just $210, the average $3,374, and the top sale hit $5.75 million. 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 $210 median means half of everything sold for under $210. Second, the value is wildly concentrated: the average is ~16× the median, dragged up by a long tail of vehicles and heavy equipment, topped that week by a pair of new data-center power units at $5.75 million each. 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 41 bids per lot, more than any other category:

The spread is the story. A pickup truck sells for a $3,850 median against 41 bidders; a furniture lot sells for $15 against 6. But note the top sale column: even "cheap" categories throw the occasional outlier: an $84,100 laptop lot, a $67,000 computer-parts lot, a $17,200 desktop lot, a $13,000 jewelry lot. Bulk lots and rare items hide in low-median categories.

Competition is real, and the opening bid is bait

Government listings open deliberately low to attract bidders, and they work: lots averaged 18 bids each, and vehicles 26–41. 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 (56 states and territories), but volume clustered in the Southeast and Midwest. Georgia led with 822 lots sold, followed by Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, and California. On dollars the picture flips: California topped $12M (lifted by two $5.75M data-center power-unit lots), while Florida punched above its weight on everyday big-ticket iron ($2.4M from 538 lots).

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 13,415 tracked lots that closed between 2026-08-18 and 2026-08-25. "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.