Government auction

A government auction or a public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law or a government agency with similar authority. In the case of government procurement, goods and services are bought using a reverse auction. When the term "government auction" is used it often means that a general auctioneer has been contracted to deal with stock that needs to be liquidated by various government bodies: Rights to transmit signals on bands of electromagnetic spectrum Customs: seized smuggled items Defense: military surplus Police auction: proceeds of crime Post office, transport: lost property Warrant sale: assets of debtors Tax sale: seized assets Court auction: items sold to satisfy a court judgment, like storage contents of not-paying tenants Insolvent companies where the government is the liquidator (e.g. official receiver) Unowned property Often goods sold at government auctions will be unreserved, meaning that they will be sold to the highest bidder at the auction. Auctioneers are normally contracted by the different government organisations within their local area. Government property sold at public auction may include surplus government equipment, abandoned property over which the government has asserted ownership, property which has passed to the government by escheat, government land, and intangible assets over which the government asserts authority, such as broadcast frequencies sold through a spectrum auction. Public auctions of government property may be conducted by whichever agency is auctioning the property. Some substantial items have been sold at public auction. For example, the United States Navy cruiser Philadelphia was sold at such an auction at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in 1927. In 2021, GSA offered a 0.7501 share of a bitcoin valued more than $38,000 for an auction.