Surplus Auction Alerts
Track Public Surplus auctions by keyword.
com.ibrahimtxy.surplusalert · Shopping
Public agencies sell off trucks, tools, lab gear and seized property through online surplus auction sites. This app watches one of them, Public Surplus, and tells you when a lot matching your keyword, category, state or price cap is listed or is about to close.
This app never signs in, never creates an account and NEVER PLACES A BID. It reads the same public auction list you can open in a browser without signing in, and tells you when a matching lot appears. You bid yourself, on Public Surplus, with your own account.
What it does
- Search by keyword, category and state (all 68 regions, Canada included) or by distance from a zip code (Canadian codes too) — no location permission; add an optional price cap
- Browse the 28 categories as a menu: tap one to see its newest lots
- Two watches with their own windows: lots just listed and lots about to close — a lot you missed when it went up still reaches you before the end
- See a lot's details in the app: reserve, bids, closing time, seller, pick-up address with directions, payment, shipping, description
- Track a single lot: see when bidding closes on your own clock, with a reminder 1 h, 6 h or 1 day before; it re-reads the lot first, as auctions can be extended
- The notification carries the current bid price, the state and the time left; the bid is not the total cost, since fees, tax and collection can add to it
- Prices are read in US format, so “$1,250,000” is not mistaken for one dollar
How you set it up
You create one watch — for example “forklift, Canon lens, F-250” — and close the app. At the interval you choose it checks newly listed and soon-to-close auction lots; when a matching lot shows up your phone gets a notification. It never tells you about the same thing twice.
Who it is for
Contractors, resellers, farmers and hobbyists who buy from public surplus auctions.
What it does not do
- It does NOT place, raise or retract a bid, and it does not reserve a lot. It points you at the auction page; you bid there yourself.
- It does NOT sign in and never asks for your Public Surplus credentials.
- It asks for no account. No sign-up, no password.
- The developer collects no personal data and adds no analytics or crash reporting. In the free version the Google Mobile Ads SDK collects IP address, app interactions, diagnostics and device IDs (see Data safety).
- The free tier shows Google AdMob ads: a bottom banner, rewarded ads you start yourself and an “Ad”-labelled card inside the list; no full-screen ads between pages or on launch. Paid members see no ads and no ad request is made.
Version history
0.23.0 (2026-10-24)
- New: lot details in the app - reserve, bids, closing time on your clock, seller, pick-up address with directions, payment, shipping, condition, description and attachments; tapping Details reads the lot page once.
- New: lots near you - type a ZIP or Canadian postal code and pick 20 to 1,000 miles; no location permission is asked.
0.22.0 (2026-10-17)
- The data note in Settings no longer quotes an old one-off measurement: it says how many requests a check takes (25 lots per page, at most 4 pages) and points to the Data usage card, where your phone measures the real cost.
- When two lot reminders are waiting, tapping the grouped notification now opens the Tracked tab instead of the last screen you had open.
0.21.0 (2026-10-09)
- New Browse tab: 28 Public Surplus categories — see new lots, track a lot or watch a category.
- New Tracked tab: closing time on your clock and a reminder 1 h, 6 h or 1 day before; the lot is re-read first.
- All 68 regions (50 states, DC, 4 territories, Canada; was 17), with search.
- New watches get their first check without waiting for the next round; the daily data estimate is no longer too low.
- Free watches full? An optional rewarded ad adds 2 more watches for 24 hours.
Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE | To avoid pointless attempts while offline, and to tell mobile data from Wi-Fi. |
INTERNET | To reach the public Public Surplus auction search page. |
POST_NOTIFICATIONS | To tell you a matching lot was listed. That is the whole app. |
READ_BASIC_PHONE_STATE | So the ads library can tell Wi-Fi from mobile data. It grants no access to your phone number, IMEI or call log; the app does not declare it, the ads library adds it. |
RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED | So your watches resume after the phone restarts. |
VIBRATE | To vibrate when a notification arrives. |
WAKE_LOCK | So the phone does not fall asleep in the middle of a check. The app does not ask for this itself; the background work library (Android Jetpack WorkManager) adds it. |
BILLING | So you can buy a paid membership through Google Play. The app does not declare this permission itself; the Google Play Billing library adds it. Your payment details (card, address, invoice) never reach the app and are never seen or stored by it — Google Play takes the payment. All the app learns is whether your membership is active. |
AD_ID | Ads in the free tier are served by Google AdMob, which may read the device advertising ID (AAID). The app does not declare this permission itself; the ads library adds it. Paid members make no ad request at all. You can reset or delete the ID in Settings › Google › Ads. |
Source
Where the data comes from: the public auction search on publicsurplus.com. Nothing behind a login is read.
Surplus Auction Alerts is an independent app. It is not developed, endorsed or supported by Public Surplus, Webcat LLC or any selling agency.