Date: 1 Dec 2009 Comments: 0

If you have been in the market for bargain boats at all online then you’re probably well aware of the often touted boat liquidation sales available from Uncle Sam. Government agencies like the U.S. Marshals Service and the General Services Administration (GSA) regularly liquidate surplus or seized boats as well as about any type of forfeited or surplus asset via. internet or via. state or local auctions houses.
My experience with these Gov’t sales is that many of the sources the Government uses to sell off their assets are what I call ‘transparent’ market places. These types of markets unfortunately easily enable bidders to compare the seized asset with a similar asset and thereby decide very quickly about how much they will bid. And often times too much. For example one of the transparent websites you usually find government boat auctions is bid4assets.com Since there are already thousands of other non-Gov’t yet similar assets being auctioned away on this site to the general public it’s difficult to really get a great buy since everyone has clear view of the market.
What I’ve tried to do is to identify state and local Government sales events close to home that auction off boats Live, on site and with few bidders. These would include local Police and DEA auction events. The reality is that most don’t realize that every day across the U.S. a landlord, business owner, or some creditor is awarded an order from the court directed to the local sheriff, requiring him to seize the debtor’s asset or property so it can be promptly liquidated at auction. The proceeds of course are used to pay down the creditors as much as possible. I’ve found that whoever attends these ‘must sell’ one-time auctions (and they come and go all the time) will usually have opportunity to walk away with an extremely cheap asset.

Now when it comes to finding these Government boat auction sales take a deep breath…you can attempt to keep up with sales events on your own. Agency websites and newspapers advertise when they are scheduled to occur. However, there are really handy membership auction database sites that keep up with that on a regular basis. I’ve found them a real time saver. These sites offer members access to their regularly pruned auction data bases for a nominal, one-time fee.

I’ve subscribed to about 5 of these sites since most tend to focus on a specific broad or deep range of assets. Alternatively, others focus on particular types of auction sources. Strangely most membership sites are only Government related ..which in my opinion is too limiting since there are so many other types of auction venues to take advantage of.

Having said that the key, with any auction is to once and for all pick your particular asset, focus on it by frequently exposing yourself to listings so you can make legitimate comparisons and offers. When it comes to finding a true bargain at any Government auction sale or repo boat auction event, you have to be able to really know when you’ve come across a a great offer. And you can only do that by constantly comparing assets so as to recognize an undervalued asset when you see it.