Why Tuscaloosa Developer Stan Pate Bought Sections Of The Southern Border Wall ... when asked how he came to own thousands of pounds of fabricated steel intended for the Southern border wall, he said he made his purchase for pennies on the dollar from the government surplus auction website GovPlanet . The website specializes in auctions for everything from surplus military vehicles, meals-ready-to-eat (MREs) and, at least for Pate's interest, the steel used for the wall along the border with Mexico. "We're always buying what we think is valuable," he told me. "The government has an auction website and all of a sudden sections of the wall started popping up for sale. At first, I thought this can't be true. But then I said let's buy some of it and see." Reference: patch.com