What is Auctimate?
Auctimate presents five real lots from GSA Auctions, the US government surplus marketplace, and asks you to estimate what each one sold for. The catalogue includes patrol boats, laboratory equipment, medical imaging systems, watches, and other government property. You see the photographs and the official description, type a single dollar figure, and the actual hammer price appears immediately.
How to play
- Start with the lot details: the title, model numbers, condition statement, and year of sale come directly from the original listing.
- Use the arrows to review the photographs. The auctioneer provides three to five images for each lot.
- Enter your estimate in dollars and submit it. You get one guess per lot—no ranges or hints.
- Once you submit, check the actual sale price and your score before moving on.
- Finish all five lots to see your total score out of 5,000 and compare it with other players.
Why government surplus prices are different
Retail price-guessing games test shopping knowledge. Auctimate uses government surplus, where the final price reflects what bidders agreed to pay on a specific day. These prices follow auction-market rules that most people lack intuition for. The condition line and photographs teach you how surplus buyers value liquidity and usability over original retail price. Most players guess high at first, then adjust quickly as the lots reveal the pattern.
Reading the feedback
Your estimate and the actual price appear side by side. The gap converts to points up to 1,000 per lot. Feedback places you in bands: Far off, Solid estimate, Close estimate, or Excellent estimate. An order-of-magnitude error scores zero. If you guess $250,000 on equipment that sold for $2,500, you earn nothing for that lot. The scoring system mirrors auction pricing: unforgiving and binary.
Tips for better estimates
Read the condition line before examining the photos. Phrases like "repairable," "operational when removed from service," or "used" move the price more than the item's original value. Surplus buyers price condition aggressively.
Anchor low. Government surplus clears at liquidation prices. Equipment worth six figures new can sell for a few thousand. Retail instincts will consistently overshoot.
Specialist equipment holds value better than consumer goods. Industrial machinery, marine vessels with working engines, and complete medical systems fetch higher prices than items that appear generic.
Daily challenge mode
Five new lots each day, scored out of 5,000, with a leaderboard and countdown to the next set. A Replay button allows multiple attempts at the current day's lots without affecting your official score.