Price Government Surplus by Asking Claude (2026)

GovAuctions.app is a free site for searching government surplus auctions. It also records what lots sold for: 480,000+ completed government surplus sales, with sold-price ranges for the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and France.

You can connect Claude to that record. Ask "what do used Toyota forklifts sell for at government auction?" and the assistant looks up comparable sales and answers with the prices they closed at.

The connection is a hosted MCP server at https://govauctions.app/api/mcp. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard Claude uses to call outside tools. The server is read-only: it looks things up and cannot bid, buy or change anything.

What Changed in October 2026

The first version of this guide, in September, told you to paste an API key into a request header and gave setup steps for ChatGPT. Both of those are out of date:

• You can sign in instead of using a key. The connector now supports sign-in. Claude opens a GovAuctions.app sign-in page, you approve the connection, and the assistant gets the same dollar ranges a key gets. No key to create, copy or paste.
• GovAuctions.app is in Claude's Connectors Directory, so in Claude you can add it by name instead of typing the server URL.
• There is no ChatGPT connector. GovAuctions.app is not in ChatGPT, and this guide no longer gives ChatGPT setup steps. See Using ChatGPT below for what to do instead.
• Germany and France now have sold prices, in euros, alongside the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
• You can price a whole list in one question. See Pricing a List of Lots below.
• Live listing search no longer needs an account.

What You Get Back

Signed in, or with a free API key, a price question returns:

• The 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile final price of comparable sales
• How many sales the range is built from, and a confidence level
• Up to 5 of the individual sales behind it: title, final price, sale month and state
• A month-by-month median, when you ask whether prices are rising or falling
• A link to the live auctions for the same item on GovAuctions.app
• Live GSA Auctions listings, filtered by state, keyword, price or distance from a ZIP code, with a Flip Score for each lot

Signed out, the same question returns the number of comparable sales, the confidence, a rough price band, and the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile sale price for the item's whole category, by state when that state has enough sales. The dollar range for the item itself needs you to sign in or use a key. Live listing searches work signed out too, up to 25 lots a page.

Step 1: Choose Sign-In or a Key

Sign-in is the simpler route for Claude on the web, desktop and phone. It uses your GovAuctions.app account, which is free. A connection signed in this way has the free allowance: 1,000 calls a month, up to 100 of them valuation calls. GovAuctions.app Pro members get 250 valuation calls. You can see and disconnect it under Connected apps in your GovAuctions.app settings.

A free API key is for Claude Code and the Claude Desktop config file, which send a key rather than signing in. Go to GovAuctions.app/developers and choose Get a free key. Sign in, create a key, and copy it. The key starts with gak_ and is shown once. No card is needed. It has the same 1,000 calls a month, 100 of them valuation calls.

A valuation call is one lookup of sold prices, sold history, a price trend or a Flip Score. Listing searches do not use one.

If sale counts, rough bands, category ranges and live listings are enough, skip both and connect signed out.

Step 2: Connect Claude

Claude on the Web, Desktop or Phone (Connectors Directory)

In Claude, open Customize, then Connectors, and search the directory for GovAuctions.app. Connect it and sign in to GovAuctions.app when asked. The directory is shared across claude.ai, the Claude desktop app and the phone app, so connecting once covers all three. On Team and Enterprise plans an owner may need to enable it for the organization first.

To use it, turn it on in a chat from the + menu, under Connectors.

Claude Code

Run this in a terminal, with your key in place of gak_YOUR_KEY:

claude mcp add --transport http govauctions https://govauctions.app/api/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer gak_YOUR_KEY"

To run signed out, leave off everything from --header onward.

Claude Desktop with a Key

If you would rather use a key than sign in, Claude Desktop can run the GovAuctions.app connector as a small program on your computer that sends your key with each request. It needs Node.js installed, from nodejs.org.

In Claude Desktop, open Settings, then Developer, then Edit Config. Add this to the file, with your key in place of gak_YOUR_KEY:

{"mcpServers": {"govauctions": {"command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "govauctions-mcp"], "env": {"GOVAUCTIONS_API_KEY": "gak_YOUR_KEY"}}}}

If the file already has an mcpServers section, add the govauctions entry inside it. Save the file, then quit and reopen Claude Desktop.

This local version has four tools: live listing search, a single listing, sold-price comps and the Flip Score. Sold history, price trends, batch pricing and the coverage check run on the hosted server, so the directory connector is the fuller option.

Adding It by URL

If the directory search does not find it on your account, add it as a custom connector instead: Customize, then Connectors, then Add custom connector. Name it GovAuctions.app, enter https://govauctions.app/api/mcp as the server URL, and choose Sign in now for authentication. Free Claude plans allow one custom connector.

Using ChatGPT

GovAuctions.app has a connector for Claude only. It is not available in ChatGPT, so ChatGPT cannot look up GovAuctions.app sold prices for you, and an answer from ChatGPT about what a government lot sold for is not drawn from this record.

To get the same numbers without Claude, use the site directly. Both of these are free and need no account:

• What's it worth?: type the item and get the sold-price range from comparable government auction sales.
• Sold prices: browse what common items sold for, broken out by state.

Pricing a List of Lots

Resellers rarely want one price. They have a sale catalogue, a page of lots from a county auction, or a list of what is in a storage shed. The connector can price up to 10 items in one call:

• Price these at government auction: 2014 Ford F-250, Toro Groundsmaster 4000, Lincoln Ranger 250 welder, Dell OptiPlex 7090 lot of 20.

Each item uses one valuation call, exactly as if you had asked about it alone, and an item that comes back with too few comparable sales is not charged. If your monthly allowance runs out part way through, you get the items already priced and a note naming the rest. Ten items is the free and Pro limit per question; for a longer list, ask in batches of ten.

The sensible way to use this is as a first pass. Price the list, discard everything where the range is below what the lot is already bidding at, and spend your attention on what is left.

Example Prompts

• What do used Toyota forklifts sell for at government auction?
• What did 2015 Ford F-150s sell for at government auctions in Texas?
• Show me the individual sales behind that range.
• Are forklift prices at government auction rising or falling this year?
• Find live GSA auctions for pickup trucks within 100 miles of ZIP 80202, and give each one a Flip Score.
• What do Toyota Land Cruisers sell for at government auctions in Australia?
• What do Renault Clios sell for at government auction in France?
• Which categories can GovAuctions.app not price?
• How many GovAuctions.app valuation calls do I have left this month?

A state question uses that state's sales when there are enough of them, and the national range when there are not. The tool reports which of the two it used. Naming GovAuctions.app in a prompt steers the assistant to these tools when other connectors are turned on.

What It Cannot Do

• Live listings are GSA only. Listing search covers GSA Auctions, the federal surplus site. Lots from GovDeals, Public Surplus and the other sources are searchable on GovAuctions.app itself. Sold-price comps cover the whole government surplus market in each priced country.
• Real estate cannot be priced. Its value depends on details a lot title does not carry. Lots filed under miscellaneous are priced on their title alone, and the answer says so, so check the category and confidence it returns before trusting the range. Ask "which categories can GovAuctions.app not price?" and the assistant runs the coverage check. An item with too few comparable sales returns no range until more sales are recorded.
• Germany and France return the range only. You get the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile in euros, but not the individual sales behind them. Germany's archive is younger than France's, so more German items come back without a range for now.
• The free allowance has 100 valuation calls a month. When they run out, price, sold history, trend and Flip Score lookups stop until the first of the next month (UTC). Listing searches keep working up to the 1,000-call limit. Asking for a range, the sales behind it and a trend in one question uses up to three.
• Listing bids can be up to 12 hours old. Listing prices refresh twice a day. Check the lot on the auction site before you bid.
• It cannot bid. Every listing links to the auction site, where you register and bid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it free?

Yes. GovAuctions.app is free to search, and both sign-in and a free API key include 1,000 calls a month, 100 of them valuation calls. No card is needed.

Do I need an API key?

No. In Claude on the web, desktop or phone you sign in to GovAuctions.app instead, and that gets the dollar range. A key is only needed for Claude Code or the Claude Desktop config file. Signed out entirely, the assistant still answers how many comparable sales exist, the confidence, a rough band and the category range, and it searches live listings.

Does it work with ChatGPT?

No. The GovAuctions.app connector is for Claude only. In ChatGPT, use What's it worth? or sold prices on the site instead; both are free and need no account.

What does connecting give the assistant access to?

Read-only lookups of sold prices, live listings and your own monthly usage. It cannot bid, buy, change your saved searches or see your payment details. You can disconnect it at any time under Connected apps in your GovAuctions.app settings, and every connection expires 90 days after you approve it, when the assistant asks you to sign in again.

Can I price a whole auction catalogue at once?

Up to 10 items per question, each counted as one valuation call, and items with no range are free. Paste the list and ask the assistant to price each one with GovAuctions.app. For a longer catalogue, work through it ten at a time.

Where do the sold prices come from?

From completed government surplus auctions recorded by GovAuctions.app: 480,000+ sales, with ranges for the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and France. The methodology page explains how comparable sales are matched and how the range is built.

Can the assistant get a price wrong?

The range comes from recorded sales, and the assistant reports what the tool returns. It can still match the wrong item, for example pricing a forklift attachment as a forklift. Ask it to show the individual sales behind the range and check they match the lot you are looking at.