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[Zanzetkuken The Great]

It's a site by the name of GSA Auctions, a service by the US General Services Administration. (Thier wikipedia page.)  It's an area where the government auctions of surplus or confiscated goods.  Granted, this depends upon how you classify 'goods', as there is stuff available for sale from the range of neighborhoods and Lighthouses to, as someone on imgur found out, DNA liquid samplers and scanning electron microscopes. (Person missed out on buying the latter.)  There's even 21 computer servers for $110 and 52 servers for $65.  They also sold a bunch of bridal stuff back in June.

Oh yeah, there's also Blachhawk helicopters.

What the actual fuck?  I thought this was a joke.  It's actually real.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I have a hard time believing this is real.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

I have a hard time believing this is real.

Same here.  Then I ran across the NPR article I linked in the OP, scrolled down their facebook page til I got to August 18 of last year (which is when I got bored), and ran into the page for it on the US General Services Administration page.  Even with that, I'm still not entirely certain it is real.

[RedKing]

It's legit. But it doesn't always function the same way as auctions you might be accustomed to like eBay. There's no time limit on many items, and a LOT of hoops to jump through. And virtually everything is "As Is". Which frequently means "broken".

For instance, there's a small forklift for $25 available here in NC, but it flat-out says parts may be missing and repairs may be required. And I'd have to make the arrangements to remove it from the current location (a Coast Guard base). If I was a small construction contractor with a good repair guy on staff and trucks to haul it, that's potentially a good deal. For the average Joe...not so much.

[LordBucket]

Anyone heard of this

I've browsed GSA many times, but never submitted a bid through them. They don't usually have much in my state and most of their lots are self-described as destroyed items. In particular they sell a lot of destroyed military vehicles and furnishings. Not much use for rusty 1980s computers or humvees that were used to train mechanics and that are now missing half their parts. But if you happen to live near one of the military base they get their items from, they're probably more relevant for you.

I've also attended a number of police automobile auctions, a few tax lien auctions, and one marine corps base closure auction. That last one was fun. Great big massive crates of assorted stuff. Two foot long artillery shell casings, officer's dress swords, computer monitors, random metals things that I never figured out what they were, all sorts of stuff. Tax lien auctions are mostly online now, but there are still a couple counties in my area that conduct them in front of local courthouses. Fascinating experience. I highly recommend attending one of these, even if you have no intention to buy, simply to see it.

However, caveat emptor.

I once bought a station wagon from a police seizure auction, for example. Was allowed to preview the vehicle, even sit in it and start it up....but not drive it. Turned out it had a transmission that was loudly and obviously broken, but only after it was in motion. Turned around and relisted it through the same auction house. I'd planned on selling it for a profit, but instead ended up losing a couple hundred dollars plus auction fees.

If you're not looking for vehicles or real estate, you might also consider a military surplus store. They carry a lot of the same things, minus the boring stuff like furniture and antique computers, and it tends not to be destroyed like government auction stuff often is. If you want vehicles, try a police auction. Though you won't usually find helicopters and things at those. Mostly drug seizures and vehicles from people who refused to pay parking tickets and were towed. Bring a mechanic with you if you know one. If you want tax lien real estate, bid4assets is the go to site, but be aware that an awful lot of liens are resolved before they go to auction. Don't be surprised if you see 20 properties on the list but only 3 make it to auction. Also, those auctions are typically only once or twice a year per county.

If people have questions I might be able to answer.

[WealthyRadish]

There's some interesting stuff here. My favorite are these tape dispensers. Someone's like, yeah, I need these in my life for $10. It's also strange to see land being sold like this. As much as I'd like to buy this goddamn building for $1, I get the feeling that's a bidding war I'd lose.

Edit: Oh, you know, just browsing "household/personal" for some used appliances around the house, wait, what's this? 52 police clubs, just what I was looking for!

[Cthulhu]

The blackhawk helicopter listed has a 24 page report on what's wrong with it and most of its electronics have been removed.

But then again it's a blackhawk.  I guess we know where Peter got all his crazy vehicles from.

EDIT:  52 police clubs for ten bucks.  Some of this stuff you could make some serious money off of if it weren't for the buyer-removal restriction.  If you had somebody to somehow get it to you though, or you lived in the area...

[Zangi]

I want to pop in and say: Clickbait

[Eagleon]

I want to pop in and say: Clickbait

But useful clickbait. Bookmarked.

Sadly, the only thing in my state is a log cabin that you need to come and disassemble-or-else. Would be great if I had a plot of land and $60000 to hire a crew to do it, though, especially if that plot were in some subdivision that had neglected to place laws about having rustic log cabins.

[Frumple]

... y'know, now I'm kinda' curious what they were researching at Argonne labs that needed over 729 tons of coal and had that much left over. Checking, it looks like they're into energy research, but still. Actually really tempted to send 'em an email and ask...

Also wow but that's an unfortunate email extension whatsit. Anl.gov. Shouldn't that be the IRS email...?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Believe it or not, that's an absolutely minuscule amount of coal by industry standards. Millions of tons are shipped every day.

[Frumple]

Oh, I know it's tiny by industry standards, but this is coming from R&D and there's a fair amount left over, which is what makes me curious.

[kilakan]

So many properties for 1$.... I wonder if you get your deposit back when the transaction goes through.  (as that's technically what a deposit is...)

[Arx]

You know, if I lived in America some of this could be pretty cool. There's some industrial machinery that doesn't seem to be actually missing anything...

[Graknorke]

This is a collector's wet dream. The kind of collector who just collects obscure weird stuff, that is.