Cars & Bids Auction Scraper

Collect live, upcoming, and completed enthusiast-car auctions from CarsAndBids.com as clean JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS-ready dataset rows.

Track current bids, find collector-car comparables, monitor closing times, and enrich listings with VINs, specifications, seller details, engagement counts, descriptions, reports, and media metadata.

No Cars & Bids account is required.

What does Cars & Bids Auction Scraper do?

The Actor turns public Cars & Bids auction feeds and listing pages into structured records.

It can:

• 🚘 browse live auctions
• 🆕 collect upcoming auctions
• 🏁 collect sold and reserve-not-met results
• 🔗 extract exact auction URLs
• 🔎 filter feed records by vehicle, location, or seller keyword
• 📋 enrich records with full vehicle and listing details
• 💵 capture current bids and final sale prices
• 📊 capture bids, comments, questions, watchers, and views when exposed
• 🖼️ return high-resolution photo metadata and video IDs

Why use this Cars & Bids scraper?

Cars & Bids is designed for people, not recurring data pipelines. Copying listings by hand is slow and creates inconsistent spreadsheets.

This Actor provides:

• predictable field names
• typed prices, mileage, dates, counts, and booleans
• one row per auction
• automatic deduplication by source auction ID
• direct source URLs for verification
• Apify scheduling, webhooks, API access, and integrations

Who is it for?

Dealers and inventory buyers

Monitor live enthusiast vehicles, current bids, locations, and closing times to find potential inventory.

Appraisers and valuation analysts

Build comparable-sales datasets with year, make, model, mileage, specifications, and final prices.

Collectors

Watch selected models or sellers and receive recurring exports before auctions end.

Lenders and insurers

Use public auction outcomes as one input in vehicle valuation and market research.

Automotive data teams

Feed normalized auction records into dashboards, warehouses, alerts, and pricing models.

What Cars & Bids data can I extract?

Field	Description
auctionId	Cars & Bids auction identifier
submissionId	Source submission identifier
url	Canonical auction URL
title, subtitle	Public listing title and summary
year, make, model	Normalized vehicle identity
vin	VIN when publicly exposed
mileage, mileageText	Numeric and display mileage
engine, transmission	Powertrain details
location	Public listing location
seller	Public seller username and profile URL
status	Live, sold, reserve not met, sold after, or new
currentBid, finalPrice	Current or completed price
auctionEnd	Auction end timestamp
bidCount	Number of bids when enriched
commentCount	Number of comments when enriched
watcherCount, viewCount	Public engagement counts
noReserve	Whether the listing has no reserve
hasInspection	Inspection availability flag
highlights, equipment	Full listing sections
photos, videoIds	Media metadata
scrapedAt	UTC extraction timestamp

Fields that Cars & Bids does not expose for a listing are omitted rather than filled with invented values.

Input

The default input collects ten live auctions with full details:

{
  "statuses": ["live"],
  "maxItems": 10,
  "includeDetails": true
}

Available inputs:

Input	Type	Default	Purpose
statuses	array	["live"]	Live, upcoming, or completed feeds
searchQueries	array	empty	Filter title, subtitle, location, or seller
startUrls	array	empty	Exact Cars & Bids auction URLs
maxItems	integer	20	Maximum unique records, up to 100
includeDetails	boolean	true	Add specs, VIN, counts, descriptions, and media
proxyConfiguration	object	direct	Optional Apify Proxy settings

Scrape live auctions

Use a lightweight monitor without detail-page enrichment:

{
  "statuses": ["live"],
  "maxItems": 25,
  "includeDetails": false
}

This is useful for current-bid and ending-time snapshots.

Scrape completed auction prices

Collect recent completed outcomes:

{
  "statuses": ["completed"],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "includeDetails": true
}

Completed results may include sold, sold-after-auction, and reserve-not-met statuses.

Search for a make or model

Filter public feed records before enrichment:

{
  "statuses": ["live", "completed"],
  "searchQueries": ["Porsche 911", "BMW M3"],
  "maxItems": 30,
  "includeDetails": true
}

The match is case-insensitive and checks titles, subtitles, locations, and seller usernames.

Scrape exact auction URLs

Supply public listing URLs when you already know the vehicles:

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://carsandbids.com/auctions/KdBWbmB9" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 1,
  "includeDetails": true
}

Feed statuses and search keywords are ignored in exact-URL mode.

Output example

{
  "auctionId": "KdBWbmB9",
  "url": "https://carsandbids.com/auctions/KdBWbmB9",
  "title": "2025 Audi RS6 Avant Performance",
  "year": 2025,
  "make": "Audi",
  "model": "C8 RS6",
  "vin": "WUA1DBF24SN910496",
  "mileage": 2200,
  "engine": "4.0L Turbocharged V8",
  "transmission": "8-Speed",
  "location": "Grass Lake, MI 49240",
  "status": "live",
  "currentBid": 110500,
  "bidCount": 4,
  "noReserve": false,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-24T03:00:00.000Z"
}

How much does it cost to scrape Cars & Bids auctions?

Pricing is pay per event:

• a small Actor-start fee covers browser and session setup
• each saved auction is charged as one result event
• higher Apify plans receive lower per-result prices

At the initial Bronze rate, ten enriched auction records cost about $0.029: a $0.005 start plus 10 × $0.0023807 results. Actual compute usage is included in the platform run, and your active Apify plan determines the applicable tier.

Use includeDetails: false for frequent price monitors that do not need VINs and long descriptions.

How the extraction works

Cars & Bids protects direct page requests and signs its first-party JSON calls in the browser.

The Actor:

1. starts an anonymous Chromium session
2. lets the public frontend generate current request signatures
3. captures matching first-party JSON responses
4. optionally visits auction details
5. normalizes useful fields
6. saves and charges only successful records

Images, media files, and fonts are blocked to reduce bandwidth. Image URLs and dimensions still come from JSON metadata.

Scheduling a current-bid monitor

Create an Apify schedule with a small live-auction input.

A practical workflow is:

1. run every hour
2. export auctionId, currentBid, and auctionEnd
3. compare against the previous warehouse snapshot
4. alert when a tracked model appears or the bid changes

For ending-soon alerts, filter auctionEnd in your integration after each run.

Integrations

Google Sheets

Use the Google Sheets integration to append completed sales to a comparable-sales workbook.

Webhooks

Send ACTOR.RUN.SUCCEEDED webhooks to Zapier, Make, n8n, or your API.

Data warehouses

Load JSON or CSV exports into BigQuery, Snowflake, PostgreSQL, or S3-compatible storage.

Slack and email alerts

Combine a scheduled run with a webhook step that selects new auction IDs and sends a compact alert.

API usage with JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/cars-and-bids-auction-scraper').call({
  statuses: ['completed'],
  searchQueries: ['Porsche 911'],
  maxItems: 20,
  includeDetails: true,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

API usage with Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
import os

client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('automation-lab/cars-and-bids-auction-scraper').call(run_input={
    'statuses': ['live'],
    'maxItems': 10,
    'includeDetails': False,
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

API usage with cURL

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~cars-and-bids-auction-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"statuses":["live"],"maxItems":10,"includeDetails":true}'

Fetch dataset items with the run's defaultDatasetId after completion.

Use with MCP and AI agents

Connect through the Apify MCP server:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/cars-and-bids-auction-scraper

Claude Code setup

$claude mcp add --transport http cars-and-bids "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/cars-and-bids-auction-scraper"

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code setup

Add this HTTP server block to the MCP configuration in Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cars-and-bids": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/cars-and-bids-auction-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Restart the client after saving the configuration.

Example prompts:

• “Find current Porsche auctions on Cars & Bids and summarize price, mileage, and closing time.”
• “Collect recent completed BMW M3 auctions and create a valuation table.”
• “Monitor live no-reserve auctions and flag vehicles ending today.”

Performance tips

• Keep the first run at 5–10 items.
• Disable details for frequent bid snapshots.
• Request only the statuses you need.
• Use exact URLs for targeted enrichment.
• Add residential US proxy routing only when direct access is challenged.
• Avoid very broad keyword lists when a focused monitor is sufficient.

Proxy and access guidance

The default route uses an anonymous browser session and does not require a Cars & Bids login.

Cloudflare behavior can vary by IP. If a run reports an HTTP 403 challenge, enable Apify Proxy and select a US residential group. Reusing one browser session per run keeps the workload conservative.

The Actor does not bypass account-only features or place bids.

Data quality

Every row links back to the public source listing. Typed fields are taken from first-party JSON responses generated by the Cars & Bids frontend.

Some differences are expected:

• list-level runs expose fewer fields than enriched runs
• live records normally use currentBid
• completed records may use finalPrice
• reserve-not-met records may not have a sale price
• some older listings omit reports or structured vehicle attributes

Error handling

Invalid non-Cars & Bids URLs fail closed.

If a single detail page fails, the Actor logs a warning and preserves its useful list-level record. If the selected filters return no records, or all source extraction fails, the run exits non-zero instead of silently returning a misleading empty success.

Is scraping Cars & Bids legal?

The Actor collects information available on public Cars & Bids pages without a source login. Laws, contractual terms, and permitted uses vary by jurisdiction and project.

You are responsible for:

• having a lawful purpose
• respecting applicable terms and intellectual-property rights
• avoiding personal-data misuse
• using conservative schedules and result limits
• complying with data-retention requirements

Do not use the Actor to automate bidding, contact users, or access private account data.

FAQ

Does it require a Cars & Bids account?

No. V1 uses anonymous public auction surfaces.

Can it collect sold prices?

Yes. Select completed; sold records expose final prices when the source provides them.

Can it collect VIN and specifications?

Yes. Keep includeDetails enabled.

Why did my keyword return no results?

Keywords filter the currently loaded public feed records. Try a shorter model or make name, select another status, or provide exact listing URLs.

Why did a run receive HTTP 403?

Cloudflare can challenge particular IPs or browser fingerprints. Retry with a US residential Apify Proxy configuration rather than increasing concurrency.

Does it download every vehicle photo?

No. It returns photo URLs, dimensions, and categories without downloading image binaries.

Can it place or monitor my bids?

No. It only reads public auction data and never logs into your account.

Related automotive scrapers

Explore other automotive data tools from automation-lab, including marketplace listing and vehicle research Actors. Use each source-specific Actor independently, then join records in your warehouse by VIN or normalized vehicle attributes when available.

Support

For a reproducible issue, include:

• the run URL
• the exact input
• whether proxy routing was enabled
• one affected auction URL
• the expected and actual field

Please avoid posting private credentials or personal information.