Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using GovAuctions (“the Service”), available at govauctions.app and operated by GovernmentAuctions LLC (“we”, “us”, “our”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

2. Description of Service

GovAuctions is a free search and aggregation tool that indexes publicly available government surplus auction listings from third-party platforms such as GSA Auctions and HUD. We do not conduct auctions, process bids, handle payments, or facilitate the sale of any goods. All transactions occur directly on the originating auction platforms.

Searching and viewing listings is free and is not paywalled. The Service is supported by display advertising, affiliate commissions from third-party services we link to, an optional consumer subscription (the Pro Plan, Section 5), and a paid Data API for developers and AI agents (Section 6).

3. Use of the Service

You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes. You may not:

• Scrape, crawl, or harvest data from the Service in an automated manner without permission. Our Data API is the sanctioned way to access this data programmatically, and Section 6 governs its use
• Use the Service in any way that could damage, disable, or impair the Service
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Service
• Use the Service to transmit spam, malware, or other harmful content

4. Accounts and Email Alerts

You may create an account to save auction listings and receive email alerts. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.

5. Paid Features (Pro Plan)

We offer an optional paid subscription (the “Pro Plan”) that unlocks premium features, which currently include the recommended max bid, sold-price comps from past government auctions, an estimated resale value and margin, the Flip Score resale-value estimate, an end-game forecast with a demand meter showing how hot local bidding interest is, AI-assisted natural-language search, the AI alert builder, and expanded email alerts. The specific features included in the Pro Plan may change over time.

Billing and automatic renewal. Subscription fees are billed in advance on a recurring basis (monthly unless a different interval is stated at checkout). Your subscription automatically renews at the end of each billing period, and your payment method is charged the then-current fee, until you cancel. We use Stripe to process payments and do not store your full card details.

Cancellation. You may cancel at any time from your account settings or via the link in any subscription email. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep Pro access until then. We do not provide refunds for partial billing periods except where required by law.

6. Developer API and MCP Server

We offer a Data API and a hosted Model Context Protocol (MCP) server (together, the “API”) at govauctions.app/developers, on free and paid plans. Access requires an API key issued to your account. You are responsible for keeping your key secret and for all activity under it; keys may not be shared, resold, or embedded in a product in a way that lets third parties call the API on your key.

Plans, quotas, and rate limits. Each plan carries a monthly call budget, a smaller valuation allowance, and a per-second burst ceiling, published on the developer page and readable at any time from the usage endpoint. We may throttle, suspend, or reject requests that exceed those limits or that degrade the Service for others. Paid API plans bill in advance and renew automatically on the same terms as the Pro Plan above, and quotas do not carry over between months.

What you may do with the data. Subject to your plan, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to call the API and to use and display the data it returns in your own application or internal analysis, including commercially. You may not resell or redistribute the raw responses as a competing data feed or bulk dataset, and you may not use the API to reconstruct our sold-price archive in bulk. Our valuation outputs (including the Flip Score, the recommended max bid, comp ranges, and the demand meter) are derived works we own; where you publish them, attribute them to GovAuctions. Bulk archives and redistribution rights are available under a separate license, by agreement with us.

No warranty and no SLA. The API is provided as is. Except where a written agreement says otherwise, we offer no uptime commitment, and endpoints, schemas, and limits may change. We will make reasonable efforts to announce breaking changes in advance. Sections 8 and 11 (estimates and valuations, disclaimer of warranties) apply to API responses in full.

7. Third-Party Content

All auction listings displayed on GovAuctions are sourced from third-party government platforms. We make no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or availability of any listing. Always verify listing details directly on the originating platform before bidding.

8. Estimates, Valuations, and AI Features

The Service provides estimated values, deal scores, resale (“Flip Score”) estimates, price ranges, sold-price comparisons, and other automated or AI-generated information. These outputs are generated from incomplete public data and statistical models, are provided for general informational purposes only, and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date.

Nothing on the Service constitutes financial, investment, appraisal, legal, or other professional advice, and you should not rely on it as the sole basis for any bidding, purchase, or other decision. Some features use third-party artificial-intelligence providers to process your inputs and generate results, and AI output may be wrong or misleading. You are solely responsible for independently verifying any information before acting on it.

9. Intellectual Property

The Service, including its design, original text, software, the GovAuctions name and logo, and the compiled and organized collection of listings and data, is owned by GovernmentAuctions LLC or its licensors and is protected by intellectual-property laws. Underlying listing content remains the property of the originating platforms and rights holders. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your personal, non-commercial use, subject to these Terms. You may not copy, reproduce, redistribute, or create derivative works from the Service or its data except as expressly permitted. Commercial and programmatic use of our data is available separately under Section 6 (Developer API and MCP Server) and, for bulk archives or a data license, by written agreement. Nothing here restricts your use of the openly-licensed dataset we publish, on the terms stated with it.

10. Copyright and DMCA Notices

We respect intellectual-property rights and respond to valid notices of alleged copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, please send a written notice including: (a) your physical or electronic signature; (b) identification of the copyrighted work; (c) identification of the allegedly infringing material and where it is located on the Service; (d) your contact information; (e) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized; and (f) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act on the owner's behalf.

Send notices to our designated agent via the contact form. We may remove allegedly infringing material and terminate repeat infringers where appropriate.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

12. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, GOVERNMENTAUCTIONS LLC SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM OR USD $100.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless GovernmentAuctions LLC and its officers, members, and agents from any claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

14. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in California, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. Nothing in this section limits any non-waivable rights you may have under the mandatory consumer-protection laws of your country of residence.

15. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated date. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

16. Severability and Entire Agreement

If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, that provision will be limited or severed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it.

17. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Reach us via the contact form.