Enchères du Domaine

Enchères du Domaine is the French state's own auction site, run by the Direction Nationale d'Interventions Domaniales (DNID) inside the tax administration DGFiP. It sells movable goods that public bodies no longer need, items confiscated by the courts or seized in customs and tax cases, vehicles abandoned in police pounds, and lost property. Sellers are the State, local authorities and their groupings, public establishments and other public bodies; the depositor behind an individual lot is not named. No real estate is offered here.

What you can buy

• Vehicles: by far the biggest section, over 1,000 live lots: passenger cars, vans, motorcycles, scooters, trucks, trailers, buses, microcars and boats.
• Jewellery and luxury goods: rings, watches, gold bars, loose stones, coins, designer leather goods and perfume, largely from judicial confiscations sold in dedicated Saint-Maurice "Justice" sales.
• Professional equipment: machine tools, workshop and catering kit, agricultural and site machinery, modular buildings, medical devices, spare parts.
• Furniture and art objects: office desks, classic cabinetry, lighting, decorative arts.
• High tech and leisure: computers, televisions, phones, cameras, consoles, bicycles, garden tools.
• Bulk lots: ferrous and non-ferrous scrap sold by the tonne, firewood and board, and job lots of bedding or containers, usually reserved for recycling trades.

How the bidding works

Registration is free and open to individuals and to companies, French or foreign. You upload an identity document and, for a business account, a Kbis extract under three months old or an equivalent foreign trade registration. Many lots, damaged vehicles especially, are flagged "réservé aux pros": only a firm whose registered activity matches may bid on them. You then enrol in each individual sale, from 24 hours before it opens until it closes, and leave a card deposit of 10% of the bidding ceiling you set, capped at 5,000 euros, captured only if you win. Sales are almost all timed online auctions with proxy bidding and a three-minute anti-sniping extension, alongside sealed-bid appels d'offres and removal contracts; a combined room-and-online format also exists but is rarely used. Winners pay the balance within 8 days and collect within 20.

What to check before you bid

The buyer's premium is 11% of the hammer price at auction and 6% on appels d'offres. VAT applies to some lots only, is stated on the lot page, and is charged on hammer price plus premium. Everything sells as seen, without warranty, and descriptions are explicitly non-contractual; viewings exist for some sales, but plenty of lots carry "pas de visites". A vehicle without its original registration certificate or a valid contrôle technique must leave on a flatbed at your expense, and re-registration formalities are yours; pound cars accrue storage charges from the day after the sale. Nothing is posted or shipped. You or a mandated agent collect from the deposit address on the lot page, anywhere in mainland France, Corsica or the overseas départements, bringing your own labour and lifting gear. The site and all lot descriptions are in French only. Payment is by card or bank transfer; transfers are only possible above 1,000 euros and within 96 hours of the close.