GovAuctions Research · For resellers · Updated daily

The Government Surplus Market Report

If you source inventory from government auctions, two questions decide whether a category is worth your time: how often do these lots actually sell, and how many bidders will you have to beat to win one? This report answers both from completed auctions on official U.S. government platforms (May 6, 2026 - Jun 30, 2026).

Right now, equipment clear the most reliably at 87% sell-through, but they are also the most contested - equipment draw a median of 16 bids a lot. The quietest money is in furniture, which typically close with just 3 bids - low competition for the buyer who knows the resale value.

Sell-through, competition, and median price by category

How to read this as a reseller: a high sell-through with a high bid count (vehicles, heavy equipment) is a liquid but crowded market - you will find buyers, but you will pay up to win the lot. A low sell- through with a low bid count (office furniture, medical, jewelry) means most lots go cheap or unsold, so margin comes from knowing the resale value others miss, not from out-bidding a crowd. Pair this with the per-listing Flip Score and end-game forecast to size up a specific lot before you bid.

Methodology: sell-through is the share of lots that drew at least one bid among lots with a known sold/no-sale outcome, counting only sources that report an authoritative bid count (so a recorded no-sale is real). “Typical bids” is the 25th-75th percentile bid count among lots that sold; competition is a band on the median bid count. Median is the median final winning bid for the category over the trailing 12 months. A category needs at least 50 known-outcome lots to appear. A sample of the platforms we index, not the entire government-auction universe. Free to cite with attribution to GovAuctions.