Mexico's online government auction site.

As I was sipping my morning coffee, I checked out the latest items up for auction at Mexico’s largest online government auction site:

Subastas SAE en Línea.

The online auctions run for two weeks every month and today is the last day for January’s auction.

You can find almost anything on the auction block: real estate, vehicles, boats, aircraft, jewelry, and even new merchandise seized by customs. For example, this month there was a shipment of over 5,000 brand new wall clocks up for grabs.

In many ways, the online auction reminds me of a garage sale. There’s a lot of junk on there but occasionally, you’ll come across something that makes you glad you took the time to look. Unfortunately, today was not one of those days for me.

How it Works

This tutorial does an effective job showing you how the whole thing works. It’s in Spanish — something that shouldn’t come as a surprise to you considering this is a Mexican government site — however, you can turn on the English subtitles on the Youtube video.

To turn on English subtitles, start the video and then click on the settings icon (the one that looks like a gear).

Requirements to Participate

The auctions are open to the general public; however, in order to register for an account, you must have all of the following:

1) a Mexican bank account 2) an RFC (Mexican tax registry number) 3) a CURP (a population registry code issued to citizens and foreign residents of Mexico)

Let’s Wrap This Up

If you do choose to participate in the auction, it’s important to read all of the information about a particular item before placing a bid. In the case of real estate or vehicles, there may be a lien attached and you will have to pay that as well.

I haven’t purchased anything through the site yet, but I still enjoy looking.

Perhaps one day I’ll find something special, like a great deal on a little house in the mountains where Linda and I can escape the summer heat of the Riviera Maya. As we often say here, anything is possible in Mexico.