GovDeals Government Auction Scraper

Scrape government surplus auction listings from GovDeals.com. Extract detailed item data including title, current bid, auction dates, seller, location, category, and more from 25,000+ active government auctions. Filter by keyword, category, state, and price range.

What it does

GovDeals is a marketplace for government agencies to sell surplus property via online auction. This actor queries the GovDeals JSON search API (maestro.lqdt1.com) directly, returning structured auction listing data without requiring a browser.

Each result includes:

• Item details — title, description, make, model, model year, category
• Auction info — current bid, starting bid, bid count, reserve price status, auction start/end dates, time remaining
• Seller — selling agency or government organization name
• Location — city, state, ZIP, country, GPS coordinates
• Direct URL — link to the full auction listing on GovDeals.com
• Photo — URL of the primary item photo

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
maxItems	integer	Required. Maximum number of auction items to scrape.
keyword	string	Search keyword to filter listings. Leave blank for all items.
state	string	Two-letter US state abbreviation to filter by location (e.g. CA, TX, NY).
categoryId	integer	Category ID to filter auction listings. Leave blank for all categories.

Example input

{
    "maxItems": 100,
    "keyword": "vehicle",
    "state": "CA"
}

Example output

{
    "assetId": "1554",
    "auctionId": "2",
    "accountId": "13292",
    "title": "New/Installed HITEC PowerPRO 2700 DRUPS Units, 13.14MW",
    "description": "HITEC PowerPRO 2700 Dynamic Rotary Uninterruptable Power System...",
    "category": "Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution Equipment",
    "make": "HITEC",
    "model": "PowerPRO 2700",
    "modelYear": "2021",
    "currentBid": 1500000,
    "startingBid": 1500000,
    "bidCount": 0,
    "hasReservePrice": false,
    "isReserveNotMet": false,
    "auctionStartDate": "2025-10-31T18:59:13",
    "auctionEndDate": "2026-06-30T15:00:00",
    "auctionEndDateUtc": "2026-06-30T19:00:00Z",
    "timeRemaining": "24:10:23:4",
    "sellerName": "Western Digital Corporation",
    "locationCity": "San Jose",
    "locationState": "CA",
    "locationZip": "95119-1003",
    "country": "United States of America",
    "latitude": 37.246103,
    "longitude": -121.794485,
    "photoUrl": "https://webassets.lqdt1.com/assets/govdeals/13292_1554_9e4c6ca3.jpg",
    "itemUrl": "https://www.govdeals.com/en/asset/13292/1554",
    "lotNumber": 1,
    "eventId": "29159",
    "currencyCode": "USD",
    "isSoldAuction": false,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-06T08:36:56.285Z"
}

Use cases

• Resellers & salvage buyers — Monitor government surplus auctions for vehicles, electronics, heavy equipment, and real estate.
• Fleet managers — Track government vehicle auctions by state.
• Researchers & journalists — Analyze government disposal patterns and asset values.
• Price comparison — Benchmark surplus prices across categories.
• Bidding automation — Build watchlists and price-alert systems.

Technical notes

• Queries the GovDeals JSON search API (maestro.lqdt1.com) directly — no browser required.
• No proxy needed; standard datacenter connections work fine.
• ~26,000+ active listings available at any given time across 200+ categories.
• Rate limit: 250ms delay between paginated requests.
• Memory: 256 MB minimum.