GovAuctions Research · Week of
Surplus market report: week of August 17, 2026
August 17 - August 23, 2026. 14,672 U.S. government surplus lots finished bidding, -9% on the week before, at a median winning bid of $120. Of the lots whose outcome we re-checked after close, 73.6% sold.
Lots closed
14,672
-9%
Median winning bid
$120
all categories
Sell-through
73.6%
Total closing value
$27,808,382
Vehicles carried the week on volume with 3,173 lots closed at a median of $2,550, and it was also the most contested: a lot that drew bids drew a median of 26 of them.
Volume, median close and sell-through by category
| Category | Closed | Median | vs. prior week | Sell-through | Median bids |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicles | 3,173 | $2,550 | +21% | 91% | 26 |
| Electronics | 2,121 | $66 | -13% | 80.6% | 8 |
| Furniture | 1,683 | $10 | flat | 59.7% | 3 |
| Tools | 985 | $100 | +52% | 81% | 12 |
| Equipment | 579 | $1,125 | -27% | 92.6% | 19 |
| Real Estate | 481 | $3,973 | -21% | 30% | 3 |
| Military | 420 | $100 | +92% | 38.1% | 5 |
| Jewelry | 342 | $79 | flat | 59.2% | 10 |
| Medical | 340 | $73 | -5% | 73.8% | 6 |
| Collectibles | 333 | $70 | +79% | 69.6% | 5 |
| Catering | 197 | $60 | -40% | 76.2% | 8 |
| Art & Decor | 188 | $112 | +65% | 7% | 1 |
| Sporting | 145 | $41 | -47% | 84.7% | 6 |
| Appliances | 109 | $32 | -38% | 86.5% | 5 |
| Janitorial | 73 | $38 | +280% | 76.9% | 7 |
Notable lots this week
Most contested lot
(MO) 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Race CarClosed at $26,800 after 204 bids in MO. Vehicles.
Highest close of the week
HUD Home — 3402 Williamsburg Dr, Waldorf, MD 20601Closed at $403,000 in MD. Real Estate.
Also notable
HUD Home — 1092 Sunny Valley Ln, Braselton, GA 30517Closed at $377,000 in GA. Real Estate.
Free to cite with attribution
These figures are fixed for this week and will not change. Please credit GovAuctions and link back:
GovAuctions - Surplus market report: week of August 17, 2026 - https://govauctions.app/reports/week-2026-08-17
Methodology: counts every U.S. lot in our index that finished bidding between 2026-08-17 and 2026-08-24 (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 August 24, 2026 and frozen.
For the always-current view, see the Surplus Market Report and the Surplus Price Index, or browse live auctions.