Copart Public Search Scraper (Pay-Per-Event)

Scrape Copart public auction search results including lot numbers, VIN, year/make/model, current bid, buy-it-now price, retail value, damage, odometer, sale date, location, and photos.

What does Copart Public Search Scraper do?

Copart Public Search Scraper extracts vehicle lot data from Copart public auction search results. Paste any Copart search URL (/lotSearchResults/?query=…, /lotsByMake/Audi, etc.) or a single /lot/<number> URL and it returns one structured record per unique lot, including:

• Vehicle: lot number, VIN, year, make, model, trim, body style, engine, transmission, drive type, fuel type, color
• Auction economics: current bid, buy-it-now price, estimated retail value, computed discountFromRetail
• Condition: primary damage, secondary damage, run-and-drive status, odometer reading, odometer brand, title code, title state
• Location: sale location, city, state, ZIP, latitude/longitude, IANA timezone
• Media: thumbnail URL, imageCount
• Provenance: the searchUrl the lot came from, scrapedAt ISO timestamp, public lotUrl

Use it for salvage market analysis, price tracking, vehicle sourcing, dealer arbitrage, insurance research, parts sourcing, and academic vehicle damage research — without managing proxies, Imperva sessions, or DataTables-payload boilerplate yourself.

Run it once on demand or schedule it to track auctions over time. Results download as JSON, CSV, HTML, or Excel, or stream live via the Apify API.

Why use Copart Public Search Scraper?

• ~12.5% cheaper per record than the reference Copart actor on Apify Store ($0.014 per lot vs $0.016), with the same $0 monthly fee.
• Drop-in input compat — startUrl + maxItems matches the reference actor's input shape so you can swap actors without re-wiring downstream code.
• Pure HTTP by default — hits Copart's public vehicleFinder/search and lotdetails/solr/lotImages JSON endpoints directly with a residential session. No headless browser is required on the hot path.
• Run-level dedup by lotNumber so overlapping searches never double-bill.
• Output enrichments the reference does not return: computed discountFromRetail, imageCount, searchUrl provenance, and ISO 8601 scrapedAt.
• Imperva-aware — built-in challenge detection rotates the residential session and retries instead of returning empty rows.

How to use Copart Public Search Scraper

1. Click Try for free (or open the Actor from your Apify Console).
2. In Start URL, paste any Copart search URL — e.g. https://www.copart.com/lotSearchResults/?free=true&query=audi. Filters from the website (year, damage, location) are preserved.
3. Set Max items to the number of lots you want.
4. Click Start. The dataset will populate as lots are scraped.
5. Download as JSON / CSV / Excel or call the Apify API to fetch the dataset programmatically.

Input

The actor accepts a small input shape:

{
    "startUrl": "https://www.copart.com/lotSearchResults/?free=true&query=audi",
    "maxItems": 100
}

Input fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
startUrl	string (URL)	required	Copart search URL or single /lot/<number> URL.
maxItems	integer	10	Maximum number of unique lots to return. Free plan caps server-side; paid plans allow up to 1,000,000.
maxRequestRetries	integer	5	Retries on 403/429/503 from Imperva-class gateways.
useBrowserBootstrap	boolean	false	Advanced. When ON, the actor opens a short-lived Playwright session to seed cookies before switching back to HTTP. Enable only if you see persistent Imperva challenges.
proxyConfiguration	object	{useApifyProxy: true, apifyProxyGroups: ["RESIDENTIAL"]}	Apify proxy config. Residential is strongly recommended — datacenter IPs get challenged almost immediately.

Output

{
    "lotNumber": "57234567",
    "vin": "WAUACDFK1KA000123",
    "year": 2019,
    "make": "AUDI",
    "model": "A4",
    "trim": "PREMIUM PLUS",
    "bodyStyle": "SEDAN 4D",
    "engineType": "2.0L 4",
    "transmission": "AUTOMATIC",
    "driveType": "Front-wheel Drive",
    "fuelType": "GAS",
    "color": "WHITE",
    "currentBid": 5500,
    "buyItNowPrice": 7900,
    "retailValue": 22500,
    "discountFromRetail": 75.6,
    "primaryDamage": "FRONT END",
    "secondaryDamage": "MINOR DENT/SCRATCHES",
    "runDriveStatus": "RUN AND DRIVE",
    "odometer": 78421,
    "odometerBrand": "ACTUAL",
    "titleCode": "CA",
    "titleState": "CA",
    "saleStatus": "FUTURE",
    "saleLocation": "CA - SAN BERNARDINO",
    "city": "SAN BERNARDINO",
    "state": "CA",
    "zip": "92408",
    "lat": 34.0788,
    "lon": -117.2898,
    "timeZone": "America/Los_Angeles",
    "saleDate": "2024-06-06T16:00:00.000Z",
    "thumbnail": "https://cs.copart.com/v1/AUTH_svc.pdoc00001/PIX236/c1bdcef8-…JPG",
    "imageCount": 12,
    "lotUrl": "https://www.copart.com/lot/57234567/",
    "searchUrl": "https://www.copart.com/lotSearchResults/?free=true&query=audi",
    "currency": "USD",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-29T20:42:14.317Z"
}

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

Data fields

Field	Type	Description
lotNumber	string	Copart lot identifier (unique within a sale).
vin	string | null	Full vehicle identification number when present.
year	integer | null	Model year.
make	string | null	Manufacturer (AUDI, FORD, TESLA, …).
model	string | null	Model name.
trim	string | null	Trim level.
bodyStyle	string | null	e.g. SEDAN 4D, SUV 4D, CONVERTIBLE 2D.
engineType	string | null	Engine displacement + cylinder count.
transmission	string | null	AUTOMATIC / MANUAL / unknown.
driveType	string | null	FWD / RWD / AWD / 4WD.
fuelType	string | null	GAS / DIESEL / ELECTRIC / HYBRID.
color	string | null	Exterior color.
currentBid	number | null	Current high bid in USD.
buyItNowPrice	number | null	Buy-It-Now in USD when set.
retailValue	number | null	Copart's estimated retail value (ACV) in USD.
discountFromRetail	number | null	(retailValue − currentBid) / retailValue × 100, rounded to one decimal.
primaryDamage	string | null	Primary damage code (FRONT END, REAR END, etc.).
secondaryDamage	string | null	Secondary damage code when present.
runDriveStatus	string | null	RUN AND DRIVE / STARTS / engine status.
odometer	integer | null	Mileage.
odometerBrand	string | null	ACTUAL / NOT ACTUAL / EXEMPT.
titleCode	string | null	Title brand abbreviation.
titleState	string | null	State of title issuance.
saleStatus	string | null	FUTURE / LIVE / SOLD.
saleLocation	string | null	Yard name (CA - SAN BERNARDINO, TX - HOUSTON, …).
city, state, zip	string | null	Yard postal address.
lat, lon	number | null	Yard coordinates.
timeZone	string | null	IANA timezone of the yard.
saleDate	string | null	Sale date in ISO 8601.
thumbnail	string | null	Direct URL to the listing's primary photo.
imageCount	integer | null	Number of photos on the listing.
lotUrl	string	Public Copart URL for the lot.
searchUrl	string | null	The original search URL the lot was discovered from.
currency	string	Always "USD".
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp when the row was scraped.

How much does it cost to scrape Copart?

Pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for the records you receive:

• $0.001 per actor start (one charge per run).
• $0.014 per lot_scraped event (one charge per unique lotNumber written to the dataset).
• $0 monthly fee.

A run that returns 1,000 lots costs 0.001 + 1000 × 0.014 = $14.00. The reference actor on Apify Store charges $16.00 for the same volume; this actor saves ~12.5% per record. Apify proxy and compute units are billed separately at your account's standard rates.

Tips & advanced options

• Filtered searches: any filter you apply on the Copart website (year, damage, location, fuel type, etc.) is preserved when you paste the URL. The actor preserves the query and searchCriteria URL parameters verbatim.
• Single-lot mode: paste a /lot/<number> URL to fetch one lot via Copart's lot-detail JSON endpoint instead of paginating search results.
• Imperva challenges: if info logs show Imperva challenge detected more than a couple of times in a row, flip useBrowserBootstrap: true. Adds a few seconds to startup but reliably clears the session.
• Concurrency: default is intentionally low (3 concurrent requests, 60 / minute) to fly under Copart's rate limits. Increasing it on residential proxy is usually safe; on shaky proxies it amplifies retry storms.
• Run-level dedup: the actor deduplicates by lotNumber so overlapping queries (e.g. running the same search multiple times in one run) won't double-bill.

FAQ, disclaimers & support

Is it legal to scrape Copart? This actor only reads data that an anonymous visitor can see at copart.com without logging in. You are responsible for complying with Copart's Terms of Service, applicable laws, and your local regulations.

Why don't I see all 168 fields the parseforge actor returns? The parseforge actor scrapes the per-lot detail page (a separate, paid-data request per lot) by default. This actor returns the search-page fields by default (the most common 30-40 used in pricing/inventory analysis), at a lower per-record cost. A future version may expose a per-lot enrichment flag.

It returned zero rows. Check the run log. If you see Imperva challenge detected, set useBrowserBootstrap: true and retry. If you see zero lots in response, your startUrl may have an unusual filter combination — open it in a browser to confirm Copart returns results.

copart.co.uk? Not yet supported. Open an issue if you need it.

Issues & support: open an issue from the Actor's Issues tab on Apify.