PublicSurplus

I have bought many auctions and made a lot of money off this site. I read all of the reviews and nearly every bad rating is from people that just don't understand how auctions work. 1st MOST online auctions happen within the last 2 minutes. I do this myself. People bid with emotion so if you wait till the last couple minutes, you hope they are away from the computer or don't have the time to make a good decision. 2nd Yes it goes up in bid increments because that's how the site is set up. Also I am one of those guys that will bid you up at minimum increments. This is how I feed my family and if you are going to bid me out, I'm going to attempt to make you pay your maximum for it. 3rdly Many of the complaints are about the sellers not the site. I've also had bad experiences and I don't buy from those people anymore which is one less bidder to drive their prices up.

Mostly the school systems use this auction site in my state and I have won several item that I have needed at a great price.

I have bid on several government owned vehicles and won twice. Both cars were around 100,000 miles and are still running 5 years later. Nothing but regular maintenance needed.

I have purchased a variety of items from multiple sellers and have been completely satisfied. You do need to make sure you review the terms because some sellers have buyers premiums and sales tax but that comes with any auction. I guess like anything else in life, if you do not read the terms and win the item and then realize there are additional requirements, I can see how someone can be frustrated but in the end who's fault was it. Great site for some pretty good deals.

I have been bidding at Public Surplus for 2 years. I have purchased 7 vehicles from auction. Also a set of golf clubs.
I fly up, drive back vehicles i purchase.
Have a Chevy Colorado i picked up with 28,000 miles. Great truck. Picked up Hybrid Ford Escape for my son. Bid on a dozen before i got one for the price i wanted.
Public Surplus has been great to me.
All of the agencies i have purchased from very helpful. I dont know why others are having problems. Everything i have bought has been in great condition. You must pay attention to detail.
I plan to shop public surplus auctions for years to come.

And one of the things you are paying for are low level government employees that get handed a "whatsit" and are told to sell it.
I have made many purchases off their web site. Reviewing the complaints here is seems some are frivolous.
You can't expect the secretary in the front office of the high school to know the details. One of my best purchases was about $8K of quality high end wood working equipment for $900. It was listed as "tools" without any pictures. I bought a large format scanner that retailed for thousands for $30, it was advertised as a laminator. I bought enough shelving for about 6 units of 7' tall double sided library shelving that retailed for about $3,000/unit for $350, which my wife was about to buy retail.
If it's expensive I make sure to go view it. But I needed some 32' ladders, got 2 in good condition for $35@.

I have bought four (4) retired Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor cars ranging in different years 2001thru 2007all with roughly around the same mileage (between 90,000 to 110,000 miles)I have achieved most if not all the information I needed through talking to fleet managers in charge of the transfers of said Vehicles(maybe I've just been lucky so far)one of the cars I actually purchased with the intention of using it for parts(a2006 Las Vegas Nevada Marshall unit with about 103,000 miles) and its my favorite everyday driver now!
It even has all new tires (including the spare) on brand new rims, and yes I had to do some thorough cleaning inside and the paint isn't that great but I've put over 2,000 miles on it since I bought it with 0 problems. I've never had a problem with the purchase/ transfer or the price. I've always gotten what I was promised if not more(did I happen to mention that I've ended up with new tires on more than one car? :) )and never had a problem picking up the vehicles unless I didn't make an appointment

I like the site. I've bought an okay truck from them, and a bunch of other auctions too. I go into it with the expectation that this is old government stuff that is being retired... I've read a bunch of reviews that are negative... a lot of them look like they are payment issues. I guess I haven't had problems... so can't speak for everyone else. If you use the site it's best to realize that this not a typical consumer site with lots of customer service. It's a government auction site... a no frills design not designed to be super user friendly, but you can find some awesome deals on things. With all the challenges associated with it, I still love the site and recommend it to friends all the time... I just warn them that they have to do their homework on the auctions, and they may not ever get responses back to give them more info on auctions...