GovDeals Scraper

Scrape GovDeals.com — the leading marketplace for government and municipal surplus: vehicles, heavy equipment, electronics, real estate, and more, sold by cities, counties, states, schools, and federal agencies across the US. Search by keyword, browse by category or state, and filter by auction type and status. No login, no cookies, no paid proxy required.

What this actor does

• Three modes: search (keyword), byCategory (browse the site's real category taxonomy), byState (browse listings by US state)
• Filters: auction type (Sealed Bid / Online Auction / Buy Now / Make Offer), auction status (open / closed), current-bid price range, vehicle/equipment make and model year
• Sort: best match, ending soonest/latest, price low-to-high/high-to-low, location A-Z
• Rich listing data: current bid, buy-now price, bid increment, seller (agency) name, location, auction dates, reserve status, and a full-size image URL
• Empty fields are omitted from every record

Output per listing

• assetId, accountId, auctionId, eventId, displayEventId — GovDeals identifiers
• title, description, lotNumber
• makeBrand, model, modelYear — for vehicles/equipment where applicable
• categoryId, categoryName
• auctionTypeId, auctionTypeName — Sealed Bid / Online Auction / Buy Now / Make Offer
• currentBid, currencyCode, buyNowPrice, bidIncrement
• sellerName — the selling government agency or municipality
• locationCity, locationState, locationStateName, locationZip, country
• auctionStartDate, auctionEndDate, auctionStartDateDisplay, auctionEndDateDisplay, timeRemaining
• auctionStatus — open or closed
• isReserveNotMet, hasReservePrice, isNewAsset
• imageUrl — full-size listing photo
• sourceUrl — canonical GovDeals listing URL
• recordType: "asset", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byCategory / byState
searchText	string	truck	Keyword search (required for mode=search)
category	string	–	Top-level category (required for mode=byCategory)
state	string	–	US state (required for mode=byState)
auctionType	string	–	Restrict to Sealed Bid / Online Auction / Buy Now / Make Offer
auctionStatus	string	open	open (live) or closed (sold)
sortBy	string	bestfit	Sort order
minCurrentBid	int	–	Drop listings with a lower current bid
maxCurrentBid	int	–	Drop listings with a higher current bid
vehicleMake	string	–	Structured make/brand filter (e.g. Ford, Caterpillar)
vehicleModelYear	int	–	Restrict to a specific model year
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap on emitted records (1–2000)
proxyConfiguration	object	off	Optional Apify proxy (AUTO group); adds resilience under sustained volume

Example: keyword search

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchText": "dump truck",
  "auctionStatus": "open",
  "maxItems": 30
}

Example: browse by category

{
  "mode": "byCategory",
  "category": "6",
  "sortBy": "endingSoonest",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: browse by state, closed auctions only

{
  "mode": "byState",
  "state": "TX",
  "auctionStatus": "closed",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: price-filtered keyword search

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchText": "excavator",
  "minCurrentBid": 5000,
  "maxCurrentBid": 50000,
  "auctionType": "3"
}

Example: specific vehicle make and model year

{
  "mode": "byCategory",
  "category": "6",
  "vehicleMake": "Ford",
  "vehicleModelYear": 2017
}

Use cases

• Fleet & equipment buyers — monitor surplus vehicles and heavy equipment across every US state
• Resellers and liquidators — track closing auctions by category to plan bidding
• Market research — analyze government surplus pricing trends by category or region
• Procurement teams — discover current-bid pricing benchmarks for used equipment
• Auction aggregators — feed live GovDeals listings into a broader marketplace search

FAQ

What is GovDeals? GovDeals is an online marketplace where US government agencies, municipalities, school districts, and public utilities sell surplus and confiscated property — vehicles, heavy equipment, electronics, real estate, and more — via public auction.

Is this affiliated with GovDeals? No. This is an independent, third-party actor that reads GovDeals' own public listing data, the same way a visitor's browser does.

Why do some listings have no currentBid? A listing with no bids yet has no current bid value, so the field is omitted rather than showing 0 or null.

What does auctionStatus: closed mean? The auction's bidding window has ended (or GovDeals has marked it sold). Closed listings can still be useful for price-history research.

Why are makeBrand/model/modelYear sometimes missing? Those fields only apply to vehicles and branded equipment; general merchandise listings omit them.

Does this cover every category and state? Yes — the category and state enums mirror GovDeals' own top-level taxonomy and full US state list.

How current is the data? Every run queries GovDeals' live listings API directly, so results reflect the current bid and status at run time.