--- license: cc-by-4.0 language: - en pretty_name: GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index size_categories: - n<1K tags: - government - auctions - surplus - prices - price-index - economics - tabular configs: - config_name: price_index data_files: "price-index/*.csv" default: true - config_name: facts data_files: "facts/*.csv" --- # GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index This dataset is the **GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index**: median final sale prices of completed government surplus auction lots, by category, for the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. It is compiled by GovAuctions.app (https://govauctions.app) from the official government auction platforms it aggregates in each market. Canonical page: https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index Methodology: https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index/methodology **Attribution required (CC BY 4.0).** If you use or quote these figures, credit them as: > Source: GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index, https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index (CC BY 4.0) ## Frozen monthly releases The index is published as frozen monthly releases. Each release has a fixed id (for example US-2026-09) and its figures never change after publication, so a number cited from a release can still be checked later. Next month's figures are a new release with a new id, added to this dataset as a new version; earlier releases stay in the dataset unchanged. The live index on the website is rebuilt daily and will differ from any release. Releases in this version: | Release | Market | Currency | Lots | Overall median | Coverage | Data as of | Price basis | Release page | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | US-2026-09 | United States | USD | 135,590 | 300 USD | since May 2026 | 2026-09-04 | hammer-estimated | https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index/us-2026-09 | | UK-2026-09 | United Kingdom | GBP | 8,261 | 42 GBP | since June 2026 | 2026-09-04 | last-observed-bid | https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index/uk-2026-09 | | CA-2026-09 | Canada | CAD | 9,227 | 270 CAD | since May 2026 | 2026-09-04 | hammer-estimated | https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index/ca-2026-09 | | AU-2026-09 | Australia | AUD | 41,713 | 118 AUD | since June 2026 | 2026-09-04 | last-observed-bid | https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index/au-2026-09 | ## Coverage Each release uses a trailing 365-day window, but our archive of completed lots is younger than that. The September 2026 releases cover completed lots since May 2026 for the United States and Canada, and since June 2026 for the United Kingdom and Australia, up to 2026-09-04. They are not twelve months of data. ## Files - `price-index/govauctions-surplus-price-index-MARKET-YYYY-MM.csv`: one file per release, one row per category. Every row carries its own `source`, `source_url` and `license` columns, so the attribution survives any subset of rows. This version contains `price-index/govauctions-surplus-price-index-us-2026-09.csv`, `price-index/govauctions-surplus-price-index-uk-2026-09.csv`, `price-index/govauctions-surplus-price-index-ca-2026-09.csv`, `price-index/govauctions-surplus-price-index-au-2026-09.csv`. - `facts/govauctions-research-facts.csv` (and `facts/govauctions-research-facts.json`): a snapshot of the citable-facts feed at https://govauctions.app/research/facts.json, taken with data as of 2026-09-10. 62 rows, one quotable sentence each. ### Price index columns | Column | Meaning | |---|---| | `release_id` | Frozen release id, for example US-2026-09. Never reused. | | `country` | Market: US, UK, CA or AU. | | `currency` | ISO 4217 currency of every price in the row. | | `category_slug` | Category key. | | `category_label` | Category name as used in the published sentences. | | `median` | Median final sale price of completed lots in the category. | | `p25` | 25th percentile of the same prices. | | `p75` | 75th percentile of the same prices. | | `sale_count` | Completed lots behind the figures. | | `mode_price` | The most common exact price in the category. | | `mode_share` | Share of lots (0 to 1) that sold at exactly mode_price. High values flag flat-rate disposal lots. | | `basis` | Which price the figures are: hammer-estimated or last-observed-bid (see below). | | `window_days` | Trailing window of the release, in days. Coverage is shorter while the archive is younger than the window. | | `data_as_of` | Date of the data the release was cut from. | | `published_at` | Date the release was frozen. | | `source` | Attribution: GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index. | | `source_url` | The release page that shows these figures. | | `license` | CC BY 4.0. | | `license_url` | Licence URL. | ### Facts columns | Column | Meaning | |---|---| | `id` | Stable fact id. Never renumbered or reused. | | `statement` | One quotable sentence that already contains the number and names its source. | | `value` | The number in the statement. | | `unit` | currency, count or percent. | | `currency` | ISO 4217 code when unit is currency. | | `sampleSize` | Lots behind the value. | | `method` | How the value was computed, in one line. | | `page` | Page on govauctions.app that shows the number in context. | | `asOf` | Timestamp of the underlying data. | | `country` | Market: US, UK, CA or AU. | | `topic` | market, category, region or sell-through. | | `windowDays` | Trailing window of the value, in days. | | `caveat` | A known way the number can mislead. Empty when there is none. | | `citeAs` | Suggested citation for the row. | | `license` | Licence URL (CC BY 4.0). | ## What the numbers are, and are not - **Price basis.** `hammer-estimated` (US, CA): lots whose true hammer price was captured after close are used as-is; the rest are corrected for late bidding by a factor measured per category against lots where both figures are known. `last-observed-bid` (UK, AU): the last bid observed before close, which can understate the final price. - **Levels only.** No month-over-month or region-versus-region movement is published. It is withheld until the archive has six or more complete months, because with a shorter series a change in a category median mostly reflects a change in what was in the basket. - **Flat-rate lots.** `mode_price` and `mode_share` show the single most common exact price in a category and how many lots sold at it. When the share is high, the median partly reflects an agency's disposal policy rather than a market price. - **Minimum sample.** A category appears in a release only with at least 100 completed lots. The unclassified "miscellaneous" bucket is excluded. - **Scope.** A census of the platforms GovAuctions.app aggregates, not of all government disposal. Agencies that sell privately or locally are not in it. - **Aggregates only.** No individual listings, no images and no personal information. - **Facts versus releases.** The facts file is a dated copy of a feed that is rebuilt daily, so its values can differ slightly from the frozen releases. For example, the median for vehicles is 2,513 USD in release US-2026-09 (data as of 2026-09-04) and 2,500 USD in the facts snapshot (data as of 2026-09-10). To quote a number that will not move, cite the release. ## Licence and citation Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. You may copy, share and adapt the data, including commercially, provided you give attribution. Attribution line: > Source: GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index, https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index (CC BY 4.0) To cite one release, use its own citation, for example: > GovAuctions.app (2026). Surplus Price Index, release US-2026-09. https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index/us-2026-09 BibTeX: ```bibtex @misc{govauctions_surplus_price_index, author = {{GovAuctions.app}}, title = {{GovAuctions.app Surplus Price Index}}, year = {2026}, note = {Frozen monthly releases, US-2026-09, UK-2026-09, CA-2026-09, AU-2026-09. CC BY 4.0}, howpublished = {\url{https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index}} } ``` ## Updates A new release for each market is published at the start of each month and added here as a new version. Release pages and the release history: https://govauctions.app/research/surplus-price-index ## Related - U.S. Government (GSA) Surplus Auction Dataset, lot-level federal data under CC BY 4.0: https://govauctions.app/research/open-dataset ## Load it ```python from datasets import load_dataset index = load_dataset("govauctions/surplus-price-index", "price_index", split="train") facts = load_dataset("govauctions/surplus-price-index", "facts", split="train") ```