Although public bids are being used less frequently, the over-$25,000 public bid market is still large and important. Annual expenditures in this market average $30-35 billion. The market will never dry up because the public bid is both the core of public procurement policy and is also the cornerstone of public agencies’ procurement regulations.

The public bid procedure is used when:

• Buyers have not adopted GSA schedules as a procurement mechanism and/or cannot find an alternative procurement mechanism like an agency-specific multiple award schedule contract.
• The procurement is large and the visibility to the general public is high.
• The procurement involves an unusually complex requirement reflected in a government-written specification or statement of work.
• A public bid was used in the preceding procurement.
• A GSA schedule holder for the product or service cannot be found.

Almost all public bids have been pre-sold prior to announcement (except for commodities and branded/packaged commercial products). Official buyers will use a public bid only when absolutely necessary because of the increased paperwork involved with public bids and the longer award process associated therewith (generally 6 months or greater). As a result of the foregoing concerns, public buys are increasingly being converted to GSA schedule buys.

Sales in the public bid market tend to favor the experienced players. Advanced, pre-RFP sales are expensive, proposal writing is expensive, and often only the connected players have enough money and contacts to get in the door early.