Purple Wave Auction Scraper

Scrape Purple Wave — a major online auction house for farm equipment, construction equipment, trucks & trailers, and support equipment across the US. Search by keyword, category, and state; browse every lot in a specific auction; or fetch full detail for a shortlist of lots. Get title, make/model/year, technical specs, current bid or final sold price, location, photos, and lot URL. No login, no API key, no cookies, no paid proxy.

What this actor does

• Three modes: search, byAuctionId, byItemIds
• Search filters: free-text keyword, 11 top-level equipment categories, all 50 US states + DC, upcoming vs. past auctions, 4 sort orders
• Post-retrieval filters: manufacturer contains, min/max price, min/max model year — narrow results by criteria Purple Wave's own search doesn't expose natively
• Rich specs: hours, miles, horsepower, engine make/model, transmission, fuel type, drive type, axles, cylinder count, and more — whatever the listing has populated
• Empty fields are omitted — every record only contains fields the source actually provided

Output per listing

• itemTitle, description — plain text, HTML stripped
• make, model, year
• category, familyCategory, industryCategory, industryCategoryId
• hours, miles, horsepower, engineMake, engineModel, transmissionType, fuelType, driveType, operationalStatus, cabStyle, axles, cylinderCount, gvwr, serial
• currentBidUsd, soldPriceUsd, nextBidUsd, bidCount, sold
• auctionId, itemNumber, auctionTitle, auctionType, auctionStartTime, lotEndTime, auctionClosed
• streetAddress, city, county, stateAbbreviation, stateName, postalCode, latitude, longitude
• imageUrl, thumbnailUrl, imageUrls[] (capped at 20), numImages, videoUrl, repairReportUrl (PDF, when the auction provides one)
• company, shippingAvailable, likeKindExchange
• sourceUrl — the lot's page on purplewave.com
• recordType: "equipmentListing", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byAuctionId / byItemIds
searchQuery	string	tractor	Free-text keyword (mode=search)
industryCategoryId	select	151 (Ag Equipment)	Top-level category (mode=search)
stateAbbreviation	select	–	US state the equipment is located in (mode=search)
dateType	select	upcoming	upcoming / past / all (mode=search)
sortBy	select	current_bid-desc	Sort order (mode=search / byAuctionId)
makeFilter	string	–	Manufacturer contains, e.g. John Deere (applied after retrieval)
minPrice / maxPrice	int	–	USD range on current bid / sold price (applied after retrieval)
minYear / maxYear	int	–	Model-year range (applied after retrieval)
auctionId	string	–	Purple Wave auction ID, e.g. 260916 (mode=byAuctionId)
itemRefs	array	–	Lots as auctionId:itemNumber, e.g. 260916:EU5862 (mode=byItemIds)
maxItems	int	20	Hard cap on emitted records (1–500)

Example: search ag equipment in Kansas

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "tractor",
  "industryCategoryId": "151",
  "stateAbbreviation": "KS",
  "dateType": "upcoming",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: browse every lot in an auction

{
  "mode": "byAuctionId",
  "auctionId": "260916",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example: fetch a shortlist of specific lots

{
  "mode": "byItemIds",
  "itemRefs": ["260916:EU5862", "260805:NA9436"]
}

Use cases

• Equipment procurement — source used ag, construction, or trucking equipment by category, state, or budget
• Market research — benchmark current bids and final sold prices across model years
• Auction monitoring — track a specific upcoming auction lot-by-lot
• Inventory sourcing — build a shortlist of manufacturers/models in a target price range
• Regional analysis — compare equipment availability and pricing state-by-state

FAQ

What's Purple Wave? An online auction house running weekly farm, construction, and truck/trailer equipment auctions across the US. See purplewave.com.

Why are some listings missing currentBidUsd? A listing only carries a current bid once bidding has opened. Closed/past listings instead carry soldPriceUsd (only if the lot actually sold).

Why is hours sometimes 0 but present, while miles is missing on the same record? Purple Wave tracks hours-on-meter and odometer miles independently per item type; 0 hours is a real reading (e.g. a new/unused unit), while a missing field means the source never populated that spec for that item.

How do I find an auctionId or itemNumber? Every record from search mode includes both — copy them into itemRefs (as auctionId:itemNumber) for mode=byItemIds, or just the auctionId for mode=byAuctionId.

What are makeFilter, price range, and year range applied to? Purple Wave's own search API only supports keyword, category, and state natively. This actor applies manufacturer/price/year filters itself after retrieval, so you can narrow results further than the site's own UI allows.

Does this cover past (closed) auctions? Yes — set dateType to past or all in search mode, or use byAuctionId with a closed auction's ID.