Stumbled onto this completely by accident. Was looking up something totally unrelated on my county's website and saw a link for "surplus property auction." Clicked it not really expecting anything and there was just a list of office chairs, desks, monitors, filing cabinets, shelving units all up for bid.
Ended up getting a Herman Miller Aeron that someone in the county assessor's office had been sitting in for a few years. Paid $34 for it. Those chairs are $1,400 new and this one is in great shape, barely any wear. Also grabbed a sit stand desk for $52.
I had money set aside thinking I was gonna have to spend a few hundred setting up a proper home office and ended up spending like 90 bucks total for stuff that would've cost me close to 2k retail.
Looked it up more and basically every county and a lot of cities do this, usually through their own website or some kind of portal. Stuff comes from government offices, schools, police departments, parks departments. Most of it is just regular office equipment that got replaced during a budget cycle not because anything was wrong with it.
Don't understand why this isnt talked about more. Its not even that competitive most of the time because nobody seems to know it exists
Found out counties auction off their old office furniture and equipment online
byu/Outrageous_Bend8285 inFrugal
Posted by Outrageous_Bend8285
8 Comments
They also auction off cars they confiscated from criminals and drug dealers.
Where I am in CT they even auction off your house if you don’t pay your property taxes. Say I win the auction. The homeowner or mortgage company if there is a mortgage on the house has six months to pay me back plus interest or the house is mine.
Aka Government Surplus
Good score!
Some states do too. Another source is if there is a furniture store nearby that does rentals.
We have one and every so often they have a nice sofa for 200-300. One that normally costs much more. They have a showroom too so you can check out the comfort and cleanliness. I’ve never seen anything there with more than light wear. That will vary I’m sure.
Yes, cars and other things too.
because it is very much hit and miss (both availability and condition). there are some great deals to be had but there’s also a lot of crap.
and it’s not just counties. big businesses, universities,… do similarly.
I’m Vermont we have a place you can go like resource and buy old office furniture from the state. Also the stuff that tsa confiscates at the airport, sometimes you get lucky and find a Benchmade or Spyderco knife for a few bucks…