Bring a Trailer Car Auctions Scraper

Extract active and completed auction listings from Bring a Trailer (BaT) — the premier online marketplace for enthusiast and collector vehicles. Search by keyword, browse by make, get full listing details, or explore recently sold auction results with final prices.

What You Can Scrape

• Active auctions — live listings with current bids and countdown timers
• Completed results — recently sold vehicles with final sale prices
• Make-specific listings — all auctions (past and present) for a specific manufacturer
• Full listing details — mileage, transmission, seller info, all photos, lot number
• Featured auctions — currently spotlighted vehicles on the BaT homepage

Key Features

• No API key or login required — Bring a Trailer is publicly accessible
• Extracts structured JSON data embedded in page source
• Parses year, make, model from listing titles automatically
• Supports bid and year filtering to narrow results
• Returns images, seller profiles, auction status, and end dates

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
mode	Select	What to scrape (see modes below)
searchQuery	String	Keyword search — make, model, or year (mode=search)
make	String	Car manufacturer slug, e.g. porsche, bmw, ferrari (mode=byMake)
startUrls	Array	One or more full listing URLs (mode=getListing)
minYear	Integer	Filter: only listings from this year or newer
maxYear	Integer	Filter: only listings from this year or older
minBid	Number	Filter: only listings with current bid ≥ this amount (USD)
maxBid	Number	Filter: only listings with current bid ≤ this amount (USD)
sold	Boolean	In mode=results: only include listings that sold (exclude no-reserve-not-met)
maxItems	Integer	Maximum number of results to return (default: 20, max: 500)

Modes

Mode	Description
search	Search active and completed auctions by keyword (make, model, year)
byMake	Browse all BaT listings for a specific manufacturer
getListing	Fetch full details for one or more listing URLs
results	Browse recently completed auction results
featured	Currently active/featured auctions on the BaT homepage

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Output Format

Each record in the dataset contains:

Field	Type	Description
listingId	String	Unique listing identifier
title	String	Full listing title, e.g. "1993 Porsche 911 Carrera 2 Coupe 5-Speed"
year	Integer	Vehicle model year (parsed from title)
make	String	Manufacturer (parsed from title), e.g. "Porsche"
model	String	Model name (parsed from title), e.g. "911 Carrera 2 Coupe 5-Speed"
currentBid	Float	Current or final bid amount in USD
currency	String	Always "USD"
bidCount	Integer	Number of bids placed (detail pages only)
auctionStatus	String	active, sold, or no_sale
endDate	String	Auction end date/time in ISO 8601 format
location	String	Seller location (city, state or country)
mileage	Integer	Odometer reading in miles (detail pages only)
transmission	String	Transmission type (detail pages only)
sellerName	String	BaT username of the seller (detail pages only)
sellerProfileUrl	String	URL to seller's BaT profile (detail pages only)
description	String	Listing description / excerpt
images	Array	List of image URLs
noReserve	Boolean	True if listed without a reserve price
lotNumber	String	BaT lot number (detail pages only)
url	String	Full URL to the listing page
scrapedAt	String	ISO 8601 timestamp when the record was scraped

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Example Output

{
  "listingId": "112822555",
  "title": "1999 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet 6-Speed",
  "year": 1999,
  "make": "Porsche",
  "model": "911 Carrera Cabriolet 6-Speed",
  "currentBid": 19750.0,
  "currency": "USD",
  "auctionStatus": "sold",
  "endDate": "2026-05-16T18:51:05+00:00",
  "location": "US",
  "description": "This 1999 Porsche 911 Carrera cabriolet was specified in Glacier White...",
  "images": [
    "https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1999_porsche_911-carrera-cabriolet_..."
  ],
  "noReserve": true,
  "url": "https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1999-porsche-911-carrera-cabriolet-164/",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-17T10:00:00+00:00"
}

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Use Cases

• Market research — track historical sale prices for specific makes/models
• Price benchmarking — compare asking prices against BaT recent results
• Auction monitoring — track active listings for vehicles of interest
• Investment analysis — analyze trends in collector car valuations
• Inventory sourcing — identify vehicles for resale or collection

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FAQs

Do I need an account or API key? No. Bring a Trailer's auction listings are publicly accessible without login.

How current is the data? Active auction data is scraped in real time. Completed result prices are from the most recently ended auctions.

How many results can I get? Up to 500 records per run. Completed listings paginate 24–36 items per page; the actor automatically paginates to reach your maxItems limit.

Can I filter by year range? Yes — use minYear and maxYear to restrict results to specific model years.

What does "no_sale" mean? BaT auctions with a reserve price that was not met end without a sale. These are marked auctionStatus: "no_sale".

Can I scrape multiple makes at once? Use mode=search with a broad query, or run the actor multiple times with different make values using mode=byMake.

What image URLs are returned? The actor returns direct WordPress media URLs from bringatrailer.com. These are publicly accessible.

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Data Source

Data is sourced from bringatrailer.com, a Hearst Autos property. BaT is the leading online auction platform for enthusiast vehicles, with over 240,000 completed auctions.