Copart Salvage Auctions + NHTSA VIN Specs

Scrape Copart salvage and clean-title auction lots by make, model or keyword. Each lot comes with the current bid, auction date, damage, title type, thumbnail image and official NHTSA vehicle specs (engine, drive type, body class, plant), plus an estimated margin when Copart publishes its value and repair estimates.

Incremental mode returns only lots you have not received before, so you can run it daily and get a clean feed of new inventory. Price: $5 per 1,000 lots.

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Who is it for?

• Salvage car importers buying US vehicles for Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.
• Rebuilders and repair shops sourcing repairable vehicles.
• Used-car dealers and resellers tracking inventory and prices.
• Automotive data analysts studying auction supply and prices by model.

What you can do with it

1. A daily feed of new lots for the makes you buy. Schedule the Actor with incrementalMode: true (for example query: "toyota rav4") and send the new lots to a Google Sheet, Slack, your CRM or WhatsApp through n8n, Make or the Apify API.
2. Find "Run and Drive" vehicles with a high estimated margin. Turn on onlyArbitrageDeals (runs and drives, bid ≤ 35% of value, estimated margin ≥ $1,500), or filter conditionGrade = RUN_AND_DRIVE yourself and sort by estimatedGrossMarginUSD.
3. Price research by model. Pull a few thousand lots of one model and compare current bids, damage, title type and Copart's value estimates.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
query	string	ford	Make, model or keyword. Every word must match (toyota rav4 returns only Toyota RAV4 lots), and lots Copart returns that do not match are dropped and not charged. Spellings are normalized: F-150, F150 and F 150 (or RAV4, RAV-4, RAV 4; CR-V, CRV) work the same.
maxItems	integer	30	Maximum lots to return and charge (up to 5,000; about 4–6 minutes per 1,000 lots).
enrichWithNHTSA	boolean	true	Decode each VIN with the US DOT NHTSA vPIC API.
onlyArbitrageDeals	boolean	false	Return only lots flagged isArbitrageOpportunity (strict definition below; about 6–8% of lots). The Actor reviews up to 25 × Max Items lots to find them.
incrementalMode	boolean	false	Skip lots delivered by a previous run of the same search: they are not returned and not charged.
stateKey	string	—	Optional name for the incremental history (to share it across searches).
resetIncrementalState	boolean	false	Delete the incremental history and start over.
portals	array	["COPART"]	IAAI is experimental (see Limitations).

Output

One item per lot. A real example (run of 2026-10-19):

{
  "id": "copart-71291356",
  "portal": "COPART",
  "lotNumber": "71291356",
  "title": "2026 FORD MAVERICK XLT",
  "year": 2026,
  "make": "FORD",
  "model": "MAVERICK",
  "vin": "3FTTW8JA7TR******",
  "currentBidUSD": 7700,
  "buyItNowPriceUSD": null,
  "estimatedRetailValueUSD": 34053,
  "estimatedRepairCostUSD": 21707,
  "odometerMiles": 784,
  "primaryDamage": "REAR END",
  "yardName": "WI - MILWAUKEE SOUTH",
  "yardCity": "FRANKLIN",
  "yardState": "WI",
  "hasNoBidsYet": false,
  "bidToRetailRatioPct": 22.6,
  "estimatedGrossMarginUSD": 4646,
  "conditionGrade": "RUN_AND_DRIVE",
  "titleTypeNormalized": "SALVAGE_TITLE",
  "titleTypeRaw": "CERT OF TITLE-CLAIM PAID",
  "isArbitrageOpportunity": true,
  "nhtsaSpecs": {
    "make": "FORD",
    "model": "Maverick",
    "modelYear": "2026",
    "bodyClass": "Pickup",
    "driveType": "AWD/All-Wheel Drive",
    "engineCylinders": "4",
    "displacementL": "2",
    "fuelTypePrimary": "Gasoline",
    "vehicleType": "TRUCK",
    "plantCountry": "MEXICO",
    "plantCity": "HERMOSILLO"
  },
  "auctionDate": "2026-10-19T17:00:00.000Z",
  "images": ["https://cs.copart.com/v1/AUTH_svc.pdoc00001/lpp/1026/819bdccd34c44e2f93c17e1b0133f59a_thb.jpg"],
  "url": "https://www.copart.com/lot/71291356",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-19T17:23:09.748Z"
}

How the derived fields are calculated

• estimatedRetailValueUSD and estimatedRepairCostUSD are Copart's own estimates. When Copart does not publish one, the field is null (measured on 500 Ford lots in the cloud, 2026-10-20: value estimate in 97% of lots, repair estimate in 44%; the repair estimate varies by model, between 20% and 69% in our samples).
• bidToRetailRatioPct = current bid ÷ retail value × 100 (null without a value estimate).
• estimatedGrossMarginUSD = retail value − current bid − repair cost, only when both estimates exist (otherwise null). A negative margin means Copart's repair estimate (plus the current bid) is above the value: on Copart's numbers, the lot is not worth buying.
• isArbitrageOpportunity is a strict, indicative flag. It is true only when the lot runs and drives, is not parts-only, has bids, both Copart estimates exist, the current bid is ≤ 35% of the retail value, and estimatedGrossMarginUSD is ≥ $1,500. In 500 Ford lots (2026-10-20), 6.2% were flagged (8.1% in an earlier sample of 2,000). So without onlyArbitrageDeals it is normal that only about 6% of the lots you get are flagged; turn it on to receive only flagged lots.
• titleTypeRaw is the title document exactly as Copart publishes it (for example CERT OF TITLE-CLAIM PAID). titleTypeNormalized is CLEAN_TITLE, REBUILT_TITLE, SALVAGE_TITLE, NON_REPAIRABLE_PARTS_ONLY or OTHER. It comes from Copart's own title group (clean, salvage, non-repairable); rebuilt or restored titles, which Copart groups as clean, are reported separately as REBUILT_TITLE. In 1,000 recent lots: clean 58.8%, salvage 33.9%, non-repairable 6.0%, rebuilt 1.3%, OTHER 0%. In the 2,000-lot sample, using the title text only: OTHER 0.7%.

Pricing

$5 per 1,000 lots ($0.005 per lot), plus Apify's standard small fee per run start. You only pay for lots delivered to your dataset: duplicates and, in incremental mode, lots you already received are never charged.

Example	Cost
100 lots	≈ $0.50
1,000 lots	≈ $5
Daily feed with ~200 new lots per day	≈ $1 per day

You can cap the cost of a run with Apify's maximum charge per run.

Limitations (please read)

• The VIN is partial. Copart masks the last digits (1FMEU7FEXAU******). NHTSA specs are decoded from the visible part, which identifies make, model, year, engine and plant, but not the exact vehicle.
• The margin is an indicative signal, not a quote. It uses the current bid, which is often low days before the auction; the final price is usually higher. Copart's value and repair estimates are its own and can be wrong.
• Incremental mode has no "newest first" order. Copart's search does not offer it, so each run reviews the lots with the nearest auction dates (up to twice maxItems). A newly listed lot whose auction is far away may take a few runs to appear.
• IAAI is experimental and off by default: IAAI blocks datacenter IPs, so it needs a residential proxy (extra cost) and may return nothing.
• If Copart blocks or does not answer, the run fails with a clear status message instead of returning an empty "successful" run.

Use it from code, n8n or Make

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/radar-scraper~copart-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "toyota rav4", "maxItems": 200, "incrementalMode": true}'

In n8n or Make, use the Apify "Run Actor" module with the same input, then map the dataset items to your sheet, CRM or messaging tool.

FAQ

Does it log in to Copart? No. It only reads what an anonymous visitor can see. Can I get the full VIN? Not from public search results: Copart masks it. How fresh is the data? It is read live at run time. Bids change until the auction closes.

⚖️ Legal & data notice

This Actor extracts publicly available information that is visible to any anonymous visitor of the source website. It does not log in, bypass paywalls, or access private areas. It does not collect personal data. You are responsible for ensuring that your use of the extracted data complies with applicable laws (including GDPR and Colombia's Law 1581 of 2012) and with the source website's terms. If you are unsure, consult a lawyer.

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🇪🇸 Para importadores de Latinoamérica

¿Importas autos de subasta de EE. UU.? Este Actor lee las subastas de Copart por marca, modelo o palabra clave y te entrega, por cada lote: puja actual, fecha de subasta, daño, tipo de título, foto y las especificaciones oficiales de la NHTSA (motor, tracción, carrocería, planta de fabricación).

• Feed diario de lotes nuevos: activa incrementalMode y prográmalo cada día. Solo recibes (y solo pagas) los lotes que no habías recibido antes. Conéctalo con n8n o Make para enviarlos a Google Sheets, a tu CRM o a WhatsApp.
• Filtra "Run and Drive" (el vehículo arranca y se mueve) con margen estimado de al menos $1.500 usando onlyArbitrageDeals, o ordena tú por estimatedGrossMarginUSD.
• Tipo de título según la propia agrupación de Copart (limpio, salvamento, no reparable), con los títulos reconstruidos (REBUILT_TITLE) aparte.
• Precio: $5 USD por cada 1.000 lotes.
• Ten en cuenta: el VIN viene parcialmente oculto por Copart, el margen se calcula sobre la puja actual (la final suele ser mayor) y Copart no permite ordenar por "más recientes". Úsalo como una señal para priorizar, no como una cotización.