LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The government's trash could be your treasure! Clark County is hosting a surplus auction, and the public can preview the items on Nov. 13 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
You never know what you're going to find at these auctions, and in this case, it's a little bit of everything.
Vehicles are often the big-ticket item at these auctions and there are about 300 of them on the lot. There are retired police vehicles, civilian vehicles, trucks, motorcycles, a firetruck, and even a prisoner transport vehicle, all up for auction. At the public preview, you're allowed to look inside these vehicles and under the hood, and you can even start the engine and rev it, but you can't take it for a test drive.
13 Action News talked with a man named Tony who says he's been going to these government surplus auctions for years to buy vehicles to flip them.
"You get a good deal because these cars are low mileage and well maintained. You can flip anything here. You can go back and put it online all over the world and let people know what you have and make a little profit on it," said Tony.
There's also a wide variety of miscellaneous items up for auction. There is tons of office supplies, everything from computers to chairs to desks to filing cabinets. There are health care and storage supplies, purification and refrigeration systems, furniture, and workout gear. You can even buy old flatbed carts and golf carts.
To the untrained eye, it may seem like junk. But another experienced auction attendee named Quintin says you can get a good value on a lot of these items if you know what to look for.
"I found an atom splitter once. I couldn't sell it. It was full of mercury, so I ended up having to donate it to a university. But you find all kinds of weird things out here and some really cool things that are very sellable modern things," said Quintin.
All of the vehicles and items on the auction block once belonged to a government entity, whether it be LVMPD, a fire department, the cities of Las Vegas or Henderson, Clark County, or the state of Nevada. All of the money that's made from this auction goes back to those entities to replenish their stock.
One big difference this year compared to past years is, for safety reasons, all the items will be auctioned off online. You can bid on the items at this link.
