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I aggregated 28 US Government auction sites into one search

bidprowl.com

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Re: I aggregated 28 US Government auction sites into one search

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is mil spec a good thing or bad thing? It sounds good but I’m guessing you were using it sarcastically?

Depends on the item and if you and the military are optimizing for the same thing It's a lowest bidder situation, so keep that in mind. Mil-spec transport containers? Excellent. Mil-spec rucksacks? Not so excellent.

Bid price is kind of irrelevant for milspec. What's actually important is understanding what the spec requires. A crappy rucksack from Amazon doesn't have a milspec, they can say whatever they want as long as it lasts longer than the 30 day warranty and return period. Obviously govsurp rucksacks don't have warranties but there's a legit spec you can look up that says how it was made and tested. Since it wouldn't have been purchased without a certificate of conformity, you can be sure that when the rucksack was new, it should have had a certain level of quality. No milspec manufacturer is designing the product far beyond the milspec because that increases cost and they won't sell. If Ford makes a car that will go for 500k miles without major repairs, it would likely wouldn't sell very well because of how expensive it would be. Meanwhile a car that can go to like 150k miles without major repairs will sell better because it costs less and is still a reasonable lifetime.

The lowest bider thing is such a lame meme. Vendors are going to design a product to cost as little as possible to meet spec. Most consumer products have little to no required specs so they can make it even cheaper. However, since milspec products often just have one spec they are designed to, you have a limited selection of quality. No one is making milspec birkin bags. But in the consumer space, you can buy anything between Temu and high-end designer quality.

Re: I aggregated 28 US Government auction sites into one search

#53

I'm curious how much of this stuff is actually civil asset forfeiture? (Not to blame the site(s) for such practices, but to think about the whole ecosystem of how a government comes to have a bicycle, switch, truck etc) https://reason.com/category/criminal-justice/civil-asset-for...

I have a friend who handles dispositions of equipment for a very large government contractor. You'd probably be very surprised to see some of what goes through his warehouse. He got rid of two kid's go-karts last year. Government contractors buy some weird stuff for weird reasons.

Re: I aggregated 28 US Government auction sites into one search

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for tagging! I got a "traffic spike" notification from Hackernews for my site ( https://govauctions.app ) and wondered what was going on :-)

Ah thank you for your site! Before your post, I didn't know the government auctioned off homes online and through following the links to the auctions I learned about the FHA $100 down payment program.

yeah but do you really want to live in an area that has HUD housing? Most of the time they aren't in the best areas and/or in high crime areas. also perhaps the house is gunna take 5-6 figures of work to rehab and become livable. far better ways to burn your $ unless you just really need a house ASAP to live in for a year.

Re: I aggregated 28 US Government auction sites into one search

#57

I almost bought a lighthouse 25 years ago off of a GSA auction. I'm glad my bid lost because I didn't read the fine print carefully about how much the upkeep would cost.

You just have to fund it by doing a YouTube channel about running it.

Re: I aggregated 28 US Government auction sites into one search

#59
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah thank you for your site! Before your post, I didn't know the government auctioned off homes online and through following the links to the auctions I learned about the FHA $100 down payment program.

yeah but do you really want to live in an area that has HUD housing? Most of the time they aren't in the best areas and/or in high crime areas. also perhaps the house is gunna take 5-6 figures of work to rehab and become livable. far better ways to burn your $ unless you just really need a house ASAP to live in for a year.

That may be true in general but I’ve found through years of bargain hunting various items that there are always options that aren’t bad. It takes more work to find them, and you might have to wait a while until the right one comes. It’s worth pursuing.
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