GovAuctions Research · Week of May 18, 2026

Surplus market report: week of May 18, 2026

May 18 - May 24, 2026. 19,998 U.S. government surplus lots finished bidding, -1% on the week before, at a median winning bid of $100.

Vehicles carried the week on volume with 3,972 lots closed at a median of $1,575, and it was also the most contested: a lot that drew bids drew a median of 13 of them.

Volume, median close and sell-through by category

Sell-through is blank for this week. We only count a lot as sold or unsold once we have re-checked it after the auction closed, and that check did not exist yet when this week ran. Volume and prices are unaffected.

Notable lots this week

Methodology: counts every U.S. lot in our index that finished bidding between 2026-05-18 and 2026-05-25 (UTC). Median is the median final winning bid among lots that closed with a bid. The all-category median moves with the mix of what happened to close that week, not with prices, so week-over-week movement is shown per category, where it compares like with like. Sell-through is the share of lots that sold, counted only where we re-checked the outcome after the auction closed, since a pre-close reading undercounts last-minute bids; weeks before that check existed report no sell-through rather than an understated one. A category needs 30 closed lots to appear and 50 re-checked lots to show a sell-through. Uncategorized lots are counted in the totals but not the table. This is a sample of the platforms we index, not the entire government-auction universe. Built July 31, 2026 and frozen.