# VEBEG Auction Scraper: German Surplus & Award Prices (`bansati_lab/vebeg-auctions-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes active German federal surplus auctions (VEBEG) and historical award prices (Zuschlagspreise): Bundeswehr vehicles, trucks, machine tools. Normalized EUR values, ready for Excel, BI or APIs.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/bansati_lab/vebeg-auctions-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Bastian Stahl](https://apify.com/bansati_lab) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Automation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 80.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## German Surplus Auctions & Award Prices Scraper (VEBEG)

Turn Germany's official federal-surplus auction portal (VEBEG) into clean, structured data —
either **currently running lots** or **historical winning bids (Zuschlagspreise)** — with German
price formats already normalized into plain EUR floats that Excel, Power BI and any API can use
without post-processing.

**Keywords:** VEBEG Auktionen · Zuschlagspreise · Bundeswehr-Fahrzeuge · Gebrauchtmaschinen ·
Surplus-Auktionen Deutschland · German surplus auctions · auction scraper · government surplus
vehicles, trucks and machine tools.

### What you get

Every run writes one JSON record per lot into the default dataset. Two record types:

- `active_auction` — lots currently open for bidding, optionally filtered by a German keyword.
- `award_price` — closed lots with the final hammer price, ideal for market research and
  price benchmarking.

German number formatting is handled for you (`3.907,00 EUR` becomes `3907.0`), the original raw
string is kept alongside as `winningBidRaw` so you can always audit the value.

### Example output

```json
{
  "recordType": "award_price",
  "lotNumber": "2645270.005",
  "closingDate": "12.03.2024",
  "descriptionDe": "LKW Mercedes-Benz Actros 1840, Baujahr 2011",
  "winningBidEur": 3907.0,
  "winningBidRaw": "3.907,00 EUR",
  "currency": "EUR",
  "location": "Lagerort Mönchengladbach",
  "detailUrl": "https://www.vebeg.de/de/verkauf/suchen.htm",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.vebeg.de/de/verkauf/zuschlagspreise.htm"
}
```

### Input

| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `mode` | string, required | `active_auctions` or `award_prices` |
| `searchQuery` | string | German keyword, e.g. `Mercedes`, `Drehmaschine` |
| `maxItems` | integer | Hard cap, also caps your Pay-per-Event spend |

Input presets (copy & paste):

```json
{ "mode": "active_auctions", "searchQuery": "Mercedes", "maxItems": 10 }
```

```json
{ "mode": "award_prices", "maxItems": 15 }
```

### Use cases

- **Dealers & resellers** — spot undervalued trucks, machine tools and IT hardware before bidding.
- **Price benchmarking** — compare historical hammer prices for identical machine classes.
- **Fleet and asset valuation** — feed realistic German secondary-market prices into valuation models.
- **Marketplace builders** — power a searchable surplus catalogue or a price-alert bot.
- **Journalists & researchers** — quantify public-asset disposal trends across years.
- **Automation** — schedule a daily run and push new lots to Slack, Telegram, Sheets or a database.

### Pricing

This Actor uses Pay-per-Event: a small start fee plus a per-dataset-item fee. Set `maxItems`
to keep the maximum cost per run predictable.

### Notes & limitations

- Data is public and read directly from the official portal; a polite request delay is built in.
- The portal structure can change; an Actor update may be required if selectors break.
- **Disclaimer:** this Actor is an independent third-party tool and is **not affiliated with
  VEBEG GmbH & Co. KG**. All trademarks belong to their respective owners. No VEBEG logo or
  branding is used. Use the extracted data in accordance with the source site's terms of use.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Choose whether to scrape currently active auctions or historical winning bid prices (Zuschlagspreise).

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Optional German keyword for active auctions (e.g. 'Mercedes', 'Drehmaschine', 'Stromaggregat'). Leave empty to fetch all.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of lots to return (controls your maximum Pay-per-Event spend).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "active_auctions",
  "searchQuery": "",
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `auctions` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("bansati_lab/vebeg-auctions-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("bansati_lab/vebeg-auctions-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call bansati_lab/vebeg-auctions-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,bansati_lab/vebeg-auctions-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/dWn40IEo6QmgcmYxz/builds/deiEL1A842XsQ3jds/openapi.json