Whether you are looking for a cheap car, real estate, or all those interesting items like furniture, electronics, jewelry, coins, and collectibles that are seized through customs and RICO statutes, government auctions provide interesting auction opportunities to the public on an ongoing basis.

This tutorial will take you through some of the steps for bidding at government auctions and give you some valuable hints on what to avoid. Buying seized and surplus items at government auctions can be rewarding as long as you are careful to safeguard against over-enthusiastic bidding and you have some idea about the true market value of items.

We will share some specific insights for car buying, which of course differs drastically from Real Estate, which we also treat as a separate category. We will look at general merchandise, which includes jewelry and other valuable items, as its own category as well. All three categories have unique characteristics that you need to factor in for successful bidding strategies.