Mr Rawles,
Thanks for hard work and invaluable resources. I have a suggestion buying surplus military equipment. It appears the government liquidators mentioned have some sort of fees involved. Anyone can go to the DoD’s Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service web site [1]. This eliminates any middleman and lets you look at available equipment online.
In addition and maybe more usefully, every military base that I have served on or visited had a Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO [2]), and they hold regular sales, some walk-in like a surplus store and others by sealed or open lot bidding. – J.J.