How much do government surplus items sell for at auction?

Across 159,327 completed U.S. government surplus auctions (May 6, 2026 - Sep 29, 2026), the median lot sold for $300, according to the GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index. Prices vary widely by category — the median ranges from a few hundred dollars for office furniture and electronics to tens of thousands for vehicles and heavy equipment. See the per-category table above for each figure.

What is the average price of a government surplus vehicle at auction?

The median surplus vehicle sold for $2,500 across 56,749 completed U.S. government auctions, according to the GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index. We report the median rather than the mean because auction prices are heavily right-skewed — half of surplus vehicles sell below $2,500 and half above, which is a truer "typical" price than an average a few outliers can distort.

Is there a price index or data source for government surplus auction prices?

Yes. This page is the GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index — a free, daily-updated index of median final sale prices by category, built from completed auctions on official U.S. government platforms (GovDeals, GSA Auctions, PublicSurplus, GovPlanet, PurpleWave and others). It is free to cite with attribution to GovAuctions, and each month is published as a frozen release whose figures never change.

How competitive is bidding on government surplus, and how often do lots actually sell?

Sell-through rates and typical bidder counts by category are tracked in our companion Surplus Market Report, which shows which categories clear reliably and which draw the most bidders.

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GovAuctions Research · Updated daily

The Government Surplus Price Index

What does the U.S. government's castoff actually sell for? This index tracks the median final winning bid by category across 159,327 completed surplus auctions (May 6, 2026 - Sep 29, 2026). The overall median lot sold for $300.

The table shows each category's monthly median three complete months apart, ending 2026-08, with the sample behind each. We publish those two levels rather than a percentage change, because a category median is a statistic about what sold and two of them describe two different baskets. Why there are no movement figures.

Median sale price by category, and the monthly level 3 months apart

Category	Sold lots	Median	Monthly median, 3 months apart
Vehicles	56,749	$2,500	$2,292 → $2,5262026-05 · n 9,517 → 2026-08 · n 12,473
Electronics	34,564	$98	$80 → $1022026-05 · n 5,471 → 2026-08 · n 7,756
Furniture	21,690	$14	$12 → $152026-05 · n 3,081 → 2026-08 · n 4,931
Tools	14,597	$119	$117 → $1122026-05 · n 1,884 → 2026-08 · n 3,619
Equipment	8,910	$1,650	$2,554 → $1,4732026-05 · n 952 → 2026-08 · n 1,944
Medical	6,729	$79	$89 → $942026-05 · n 1,346 → 2026-08 · n 1,199
Collectibles	4,255	$80	$72 → $692026-05 · n 526 → 2026-08 · n 1,215
Military	3,652	$216	$86 → $2532026-05 · n 328 → 2026-08 · n 894
Jewelry	3,584	$132	$101 → $1372026-06 · n 736 → 2026-08 · n 974
Sporting	1,134	$71	—
Real Estate	904	$4,825	$2,000 → $3,0252026-05 · n 209 → 2026-08 · n 165
Catering	818	$102	—
Appliances	687	$61	—
Art & Decor	450	$68	—
Janitorial	430	$52	—
Materials	125	$72	—
Seized	49	$160	$84 → $1452026-05 · n 16 → 2026-08 · n 13

Methodology: each figure is the median final winning bid on lots that closed on official U.S. government auction platforms (GovDeals, GSA Auctions, PublicSurplus, GovPlanet, PurpleWave and others) from May 6, 2026 to Sep 29, 2026. Medians are used because auction prices are heavily right-skewed; no-bid lots are excluded and a category needs at least 5 completed sales to appear. Lots whose true hammer price we captured after close are used as-is. The rest are corrected for late bidding, by a factor measured per category against the lots where we have both figures. The level pair is each category's most recent COMPLETE monthly median against the figure three months earlier; the month in progress is excluded, because a few days of sales is not comparable to a full month. We publish the two levels rather than a percentage change: two medians three months apart describe two different baskets, and categories with heavy flat-rate disposal move when the flat-rate share moves rather than when prices do. We snapshot the index daily, so the published series grows a permanent track record (102 days and counting). A sample of the platforms we index, not the entire government-auction universe. Free to cite with attribution to GovAuctions.

Citable releases

The figures above are live and change daily. For a citation, use a frozen monthly release: the numbers in one never change, and each links to the permanent methodology.

US-2026-09 · September 2026 · 135,590 lots · First release. Levels only; no movement figures published.

Download CSV of the latest release (US-2026-09), one row per category, with source and licence on every row.

Frequently asked questions

How much do government surplus items sell for at auction?: Across 159,327 completed U.S. government surplus auctions (May 6, 2026 - Sep 29, 2026), the median lot sold for $300, according to the GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index. Prices vary widely by category — the median ranges from a few hundred dollars for office furniture and electronics to tens of thousands for vehicles and heavy equipment. See the per-category table above for each figure.
What is the average price of a government surplus vehicle at auction?: The median surplus vehicle sold for $2,500 across 56,749 completed U.S. government auctions, according to the GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index. We report the median rather than the mean because auction prices are heavily right-skewed — half of surplus vehicles sell below $2,500 and half above, which is a truer "typical" price than an average a few outliers can distort.
Is there a price index or data source for government surplus auction prices?: Yes. This page is the GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index — a free, daily-updated index of median final sale prices by category, built from completed auctions on official U.S. government platforms (GovDeals, GSA Auctions, PublicSurplus, GovPlanet, PurpleWave and others). It is free to cite with attribution to GovAuctions, and each month is published as a frozen release whose figures never change.
How competitive is bidding on government surplus, and how often do lots actually sell?: Sell-through rates and typical bidder counts by category are tracked in our companion Surplus Market Report, which shows which categories clear reliably and which draw the most bidders.

Drill into any category in the full price index, look up a specific make and model in sold prices, see sell-through and competition in the Surplus Market Report, or browse live auctions.

Cite this

The median U.S. government surplus lot sells for $300, according to the GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index.

Sample: 159,327 lots
As of: 2026-09-29
Licence: CC BY 4.0

Method. Median final winning bid across every completed US government surplus lot recorded from May 6, 2026 to Sep 29, 2026, all categories pooled. For a figure that will not change, cite release US-2026-09.

Cite as. GovAuctions.app (2026). The median U.S. government surplus lot sells for $300, according to the GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index. https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index

Free to use with attribution. The machine-readable version of this and every other number we publish, each with its sample size and method, is at /research/facts.json (this one is US-median-sale-price). Questions about the data are welcome via contact.