Car Auction Prices & Listings — Cars & Bids Scraper

Scrape live and completed auction listings from Cars & Bids, the enthusiast car auction platform co-founded by Doug DeMuro. Returns car auction prices, bid counts, vehicle specs, VINs, reserve status, seller info, and editorial write-ups for every auction — current or from the full sold-results archive.

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Cars & Bids Scraper Features

• Extracts every live auction currently accepting bids, plus the full past-auctions sold archive
• Returns vehicle specs — year, make, model, VIN, mileage, transmission, drivetrain, exterior color
• Captures bid activity — current bid, final sale price, bid count, comment count, reserve status
• Includes editorial content — Doug's Take, highlights write-up, and seller-reported known flaws
• Pulls the full-resolution photo gallery for each listing, not just the thumbnail
• Filter by auction status — live only, past only, or both in a single run
• Resumes a large archive crawl across multiple runs without re-charging for records already delivered

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Who Uses Cars & Bids Data?

• Market researchers — track realized sale prices for specific makes and models over time
• Enthusiast-auction aggregators — combine this feed with other platforms for a cross-site price index
• Dealers and flippers — spot underpriced no-reserve auctions before they close
• Data journalists — analyze auction trends, reserve-not-met rates, and seller behavior
• Insurance and valuation tools — feed realized prices into comp-based valuation models
• Collectors — monitor specific makes or watch for a particular VIN reappearing at auction

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How Cars & Bids Scraper Works

1. Pick which auctions to pull — live, past, or both — and set a record limit.
2. The scraper walks the listing pages for each selected status, discovering every auction.
3. Each auction's detail page is visited to pull the complete record — VIN, drivetrain, bid history, editorial notes, and full photo gallery.
4. Records stream to the dataset as they're collected, so you don't wait for the whole run to finish before you can start using results.

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Input

{
  "maxItems": 50,
  "auctionStatus": ["live", "past"]
}

Field	Type	Default	Description
maxItems	integer	20	Maximum number of auction records to scrape.
auctionStatus	array	["live", "past"]	Which auctions to include. live = currently active auctions. past = the completed/sold archive.
resumeCursor	string	—	Cursor from a previous run's Output. Supply it to continue a large crawl without re-fetching — you are not re-charged for records already received.

Live auctions only:

{
  "maxItems": 50,
  "auctionStatus": ["live"]
}

Past auctions archive only:

{
  "maxItems": 500,
  "auctionStatus": ["past"]
}

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Cars & Bids Scraper Output Fields

{
  "auction_id": "9nqED6VB",
  "listing_title": "2013 BMW M5",
  "year": 2013,
  "make": "BMW",
  "model": "F10 M5",
  "mileage": 85600,
  "vin": "WBSFV9C55DD095718",
  "transmission": "Manual (6-Speed)",
  "drivetrain": "Rear-wheel drive",
  "exterior_color": "Amazonite Silver Metallic",
  "location": "La Jolla, CA 92037",
  "current_bid": 40250,
  "final_price": 40250,
  "reserve_status": "reserve-met",
  "bid_count": 82,
  "comment_count": 53,
  "auction_end": "2026-08-03T20:14:15.068+00:00",
  "status": "sold",
  "seller_username": "LeCarzz",
  "dougs_take": null,
  "highlights": "THIS... is a 2013 BMW M5, finished in Amazonite Silver Metallic with a Sakhir Orange interior...",
  "known_flaws": "- Chips and scratches around exterior\n- Weathered paint on rear bumper",
  "image_urls": ["https://media.carsandbids.com/00cbb1baec031ee8395e96ca3b5d6e19aa005c1a/photos/BMWM52013137.jpg"],
  "listing_url": "https://carsandbids.com/auctions/9nqED6VB"
}

Field	Type	Description
auction_id	string	Cars & Bids internal auction identifier
listing_title	string	Listing title (year, make, model)
year	number	Model year
make	string	Vehicle make
model	string	Vehicle model
mileage	number	Odometer reading in miles
vin	string	Full vehicle identification number
transmission	string	Transmission type and details
drivetrain	string	Front-wheel, rear-wheel, or 4WD/AWD
exterior_color	string	Exterior paint color
location	string	Seller city and state
current_bid	number	Current or final highest bid amount (USD)
final_price	number	Final sale price (USD); null if unsold or still live
reserve_status	string	no-reserve, reserve-met, reserve-not-met, or pending (live auctions)
bid_count	number	Total number of bids placed
comment_count	number	Total number of comments
auction_end	string	Auction end timestamp (ISO 8601)
status	string	live, sold, sold_after, or reserve_not_met
seller_username	string	Seller's Cars & Bids username
dougs_take	string	Doug DeMuro's editorial take, when present
highlights	string	Editorial highlights write-up
known_flaws	string	Seller-reported known flaws
image_urls	array	Full-resolution photo URLs
listing_url	string	Canonical auction URL

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Resuming a large crawl

Every run emits a resumeCursor in its Output. If a large crawl stops before it finishes — because it hit maxItems, your spend cap (maxTotalChargeUsd), or was aborted — start a new run with the same input plus that resumeCursor to continue from where it left off. The crawl resumes from the queued work the previous run didn't reach.

• You are not re-charged for records the earlier run already delivered.
• Resume within your account's run-retention window — on the free tier, roughly your 10 most recent runs. Once the source run is pruned, its resumeCursor is no longer valid.
• resumeCursor is opaque — supply it unmodified.

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FAQ

How do I scrape Cars & Bids auction data?

Set maxItems and pick auctionStatus (live, past, or both), then run the actor. It returns one record per auction with full vehicle specs, bid history, and editorial content.

What data can I get from Cars & Bids?

Vehicle specs (year, make, model, VIN, mileage, transmission, drivetrain, colors), bid activity (current bid, final price, bid count, comment count, reserve status), seller info, and editorial content (Doug's Take, highlights, known flaws) — plus the full photo gallery for every listing.

Can I get the full sold-auction history, not just live listings?

Yes. Set auctionStatus to ["past"] (or include it alongside "live") to pull from the complete past-auctions archive, which covers tens of thousands of completed sales and grows daily.

Does the scraper include the VIN?

Yes, the full VIN is included in every record — not the partially masked version shown on the auction page itself.

How much does Cars & Bids Scraper cost to run?

Cars & Bids Scraper runs on Apify's pay-per-event pricing. Cost scales with the number of records returned — check the Pricing tab on the Actor page for current rates.

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Need More Features?

Need custom fields, filters, or a different target site? File an issue or get in touch.

Why Use Cars & Bids Scraper?

• Complete coverage — pulls both the live auction board and the full past-auctions sold archive, not just whatever is currently active.
• Full VIN, not the masked version — the auction page itself truncates the VIN for privacy; this actor returns the complete number.
• Editorial content included — Doug's Take, highlights, and known-flaws write-ups ride along with every record, not just the raw spec sheet.