What gets auctioned at Government Auctions?

Government Departments auction off any goods or equipment they no longer need that once belonged to any Government department. These goods may be being auctioned off because they are now surplus to their needs or have been updated.

Either way, they often constitute an excellent purchasing outlet for any ‘switched on’ buyer. The goods can range from the proverbial “kitchen sink” to Tanks. Water and Army type tanks. The variety of goods is mind-blowing and limited only to the limitations of your requirements and research. 

Somewhere, something that you want to buy is being auctioned off at a Govt auction. The trick is to find out where these auctions are being held and when. If you think of the Govt departments operating in your town and think about what they have in some of them, you will then have more of an idea of what is likely to be sold.

For starters, have you ever thought about all those stolen bikes that end up eventually getting recovered by the Police? But by the time they are recovered, the owner has often moved away or never goes to reclaim them because the bike has been insured and compensation has been paid by the insurance Company so the ex-owner has bought a new one.

These bikes are terrific auctions to attend. A friend of mine in Darwin, Australia once bought 100 bikes for AUD$10 for ‘the lot’. He had a few repairs to do on some in his workshop, but he sold each bike with the lowest being $100 and the highest, brand new one for $250. Now that is a good profit in anyone’s language. And the new owner still got a bargain.

Police auctions aren’t the only good ones to attend. It just depends on what you want to buy at a bargain price. Instead of investing dollars, you are investing a bit of your time.  But your time is cut down immensely if you know where to look to save time and dollars. 

What about all those Govt cars? They are replaced every few years on a schedule and have usually been very well maintained. Many of them come with the original log-book. How many Govt departments are there in your town and how many cars belonging to these different Govt agencies do you see every day on the roads? 

When they are scheduled for replacement, the old are sent to a Government auction. Some of them are only 2-3 years old.  Govt. auto auctions are held in every state of the US. They can be found online here http://cars.gov-auctions.org/  If you don’t live in the US or Canada,Australia also has Govt car auctions too but fewer of them.

But it’s not only vehicles. What about Electronic equipment? All those computers get outdated quickly and are also on a replacement schedule.  Now not all this equipment goes straight to auction as the hard drives have to be swiped clean and ‘sterilised’ to be sure that no sensitive information is left anywhere that it could be recovered from.  But you the buyer don’t have to pay for this as it is the Govt Department who is selling the equipment that is responsible. You, the new owner, get a very clean hard drive.

Government auctions are a win-win situation for everybody except probably the IRS or Tax payer. And I’m sure that probably doesn’t make you too sad, right?