Scrape live car auction listings from bringatrailer.com: current bid, reserve status, VIN/chassis, lot number, seller type, listing details, gallery images and comments. Pay per result, no monthly fee.

What you get

id, title, year, currentBid, currentBidFormatted, currency, auctionStatus, auctionUrl, reserveMet, noReserve, premium, location, country, countryCode, lat, lon, description, images, galleryImages, listingDetails, history, privatePartyOrDealer, lotNumber, comments, watchUrl, auctionEndDate, sellerLocation, vin, imageUrl, scrapedTimestamp.

How it works

1. GET /auctions/ → inline JSON with the currently-live auction listings (up to ~1000 in one page load).
2. GET each listing page → inline JSON (comments/bids) + server-rendered HTML (VIN, lot #, seller, listing details, gallery, description).
3. Normalize → push + charge one listing-result event per record.

No headless browser or challenge-solving needed — see src/fetch.py for the full access-probe finding (issue #105).

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
maxItems	integer	100	Max results (0 = all live listings)
keyword	string	—	Optional case-insensitive title filter
make	string	—	Optional case-insensitive title filter
proxyConfiguration	object	RESIDENTIAL/US	Apify proxy settings

Legal note

Bring a Trailer auction listings are public pages. All data (bid, VIN, seller type, comments) is displayed publicly on the listing page for the purpose of informing bidders. Scraping for research/aggregation is consistent with the data's public, intended purpose.

Output example

Each dataset item has this shape (values are illustrative placeholders, not real data):

{
  "title": "string",
  "year": "string",
  "currentBidFormatted": "string",
  "auctionStatus": "string",
  "noReserve": "string",
  "country": "string",
  "vin": "string",
  "lotNumber": "string",
  "privatePartyOrDealer": "string",
  "auctionUrl": "string",
  "auctionEndDate": "2026-01-01"
}

Rate this Actor

If Bring a Trailer Auction Listings Scraper saved you time, please rate it on the Apify Store. A rating takes a few seconds and helps other people find a working scraper. If something did not work, open an issue on the Actor page and we will fix it.

Usage statistics

This Actor creates a small, content-free summary at the end of each run. It is used only to monitor reliability and improve this Actor. A copy is saved as USAGE_STATS in your own Apify key-value store, so you can see the exact record created for your run.

Set disableUsageStats to true in the input to opt out. Nothing is sent then; your USAGE_STATS record only says that statistics were disabled.

Only these fields are recorded:

• schema version, Actor name and build number;
• UTC start and finish hour (not a precise timestamp);
• run duration, number of results and time to the first result, each as a coarse range;
• whether the result was empty, the end status, and an error type from a fixed list;
• memory setting and counts of charged events;
• names of the input fields you set, never their values;
• the selected option for input fields that offer a fixed list of choices (for example a sort order).

We do not collect input text, search terms, URLs, domains, usernames, email addresses, names, proxy credentials, tokens, scraped records, output items, raw error messages, stack traces, or hashes of any of those values. Records are kept for no longer than 13 months, used only as aggregated operational statistics, and never sold or shared.

Additional fields (Phase 2)

This Actor also records your Apify user ID, whether Apify marks the account as paying, the size range of list inputs, the selected country when the input offers a fixed list of countries, and one category from a fixed Actor taxonomy. We use these fields only for aggregate reliability, repeat-use and cross-Actor analysis; reports suppress any cell with fewer than five distinct users.

The same disableUsageStats: true input flag turns these fields off too. The user ID is removed after 13 months; we do not export, sell, share, or attempt to re-identify this data.

Run-outcome signals (v2)

To learn whether a run did what it was asked to do, the record also holds a few more coarse ranges and yes/no flags. None of them contains content:

• the result limit you asked for (a range, when the input has one) and what share of it was delivered;
• results delivered per input item you listed (a range);
• output quality as ranges: how fully the result fields were filled, the share of rows that look like errors, the share of duplicate rows, and how many different fields appeared. These are counted in memory while results are saved; no result content is kept;
• how the run was started (console, API, schedule, webhook, another Actor);
• how it ended: stopped by you, timed out, reached the requested limit, stopped by the charge limit, and how many times the platform moved the run;
• if this Actor reports it: how many items to process worked or failed (ranges) and one failure reason from a fixed list;
• a short code made from the names of the input fields you set, never their values.

Repeat-run fingerprint (v2)

When your Apify user ID is recorded (see above), the record also holds an 8-character one-way code made from your input (proxy settings left out) and this Actor's name. It only lets us see that the same account ran the same input again soon after an unsatisfying run; we never see the input itself. It is stored only in the database, never published, and reports use it in aggregate with the same five-user minimum. It is the one exception to the statement above that no hashes are collected, and disableUsageStats: true turns it off.