Specialty Auction Deal Monitor

Classify supplied auction lots and estimate landed costs.

Requires supplied lot records. It does not scrape auctions or read rigging PDFs. Check unknownCosts and assumptionShare. Qualified deal signals are included without a separate deal charge.

Quick start

Paste this input into the Actor, or save it as input.json for the API example. Inline records with example.com URLs are fictional demonstration data. Form prefill values are examples, not defaults for empty API requests.

{
  "lots": [
    {
      "lotId": "demo-lot-1",
      "auctionHouse": "Demo Auctions",
      "sourceUrl": "https://example.com/lot/1",
      "title": "Rotary SPOA10 2-post vehicle lift",
      "description": "Untested, sold as-is. Buyer responsible for rigging and removal. A 15% buyer's premium applies to all lots. Missing arm adapters.",
      "currentBid": 1500,
      "city": "Tacoma",
      "state": "WA",
      "latitude": 47.2529,
      "longitude": -122.4443,
      "closesAt": "2026-08-05T18:00:00Z",
      "pickupDeadline": "2026-08-08T23:00:00Z",
      "observedAt": "2026-07-28T00:00:00Z"
    },
    {
      "lotId": "demo-lot-2",
      "auctionHouse": "Demo Auctions",
      "sourceUrl": "https://example.com/lot/2",
      "title": "Hunter TCX575 tire changer",
      "description": "Powers on. 3-phase 208V supply required. 18% buyer's premium.",
      "currentBid": 2200,
      "city": "Spokane",
      "state": "WA",
      "latitude": 47.6588,
      "longitude": -117.426,
      "closesAt": "2026-08-06T18:00:00Z",
      "observedAt": "2026-07-28T00:00:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "categories": [
    "vehicle-lift",
    "tire-changer",
    "wheel-balancer",
    "alignment-rack"
  ],
  "states": [
    "WA",
    "OR",
    "ID"
  ],
  "maximumBid": 5000,
  "maximumDistanceMiles": 500,
  "onlyNewLots": true,
  "defaultBuyerPremiumPercent": 15,
  "salesTaxPercent": 9.5,
  "riggingCost": 350,
  "transportCostPerMile": 2.5,
  "minimumTransportCost": 250,
  "electricalConversionCost": 400,
  "missingPartsAllowance": 300,
  "comparableValues": [
    {
      "equipmentType": "vehicle-lift",
      "brand": "Rotary",
      "value": 6500,
      "note": "Used-market replacement cost, installed"
    },
    {
      "equipmentType": "tire-changer",
      "brand": "Hunter",
      "value": 7500
    }
  ],
  "dealScoreThreshold": 55,
  "originLatitude": 47.6062,
  "originLongitude": -122.3321,
  "originState": "WA",
  "stateStoreName": "auction-lot-state"
}

Input and output

Duplicate removal uses auction/source plus lot ID, or a canonical source URL when no ID is supplied. Matching titles, cities, and closing dates do not prove two lots are the same asset. Supply stable IDs across observations; cross-platform copies with unrelated IDs remain separate until the upstream data establishes their identity.

The Input tab documents every supported option and default. Supply lots or a compatible sourceDatasetId. A run supports at most 10,000 supplied records. Split larger inputs into separate runs.

Returns shared signal envelopes: entityId, entityType, signalType, severity, confidence, observedAt, sourceUrl, evidence, and Actor-specific payload. Compatible envelopes are unwrapped on input; payload fields must still match this Actor’s expected input. A common envelope does not join or enrich separate observations automatically.

Confidence is a heuristic evidence/completeness indicator, not a calibrated probability. Inspect evidence and missing inputs before acting. Dataset exports support JSON and CSV; nested fields are available through the dataset API.

Pricing and spending limits

Pay per event, with platform usage included. The Apify Store pricing panel shows the current prices.

• $0.02 per classified auction lot. One supplied auction lot classified with estimated landed cost. Any associated deal output is included in this event price.
• Startup: $0.005 per GB of allocated memory, with a minimum of one startup event. The default memory allocation is 1 GB or less.

Diagnostics and included extra signals have no output-event charge; the startup charge still applies. Set the maximum run cost to control spending. If the remaining budget cannot cover the next event, the Actor stops and returns the results already completed. Check the run summary before assuming the entire input was processed. Fees from a separate upstream scraper are not included.

Errors and repeat runs

Malformed or empty required input fails with an actionable error. Unsupported or insufficient records can produce free diagnostic signals or rejection counts in OUTPUT. Check the run status, summary, diagnostics, and billing record together; zero results does not establish that no opportunities or problems exist.

Use the same stateStoreName for sequential observations of the same population. Use a different name for independent workflows. Do not overlap runs sharing a state store. Only delivered listing/lot results advance their reporting snapshot; a budget cutoff defers remaining work. Repeated or interrupted runs can still produce duplicate outputs because dataset writes, charging and state updates are separate operations; deduplicate downstream by entity, signal type and observation time.

Run it from the API

Start asynchronously to avoid request timeouts on larger inputs. Use the returned run ID to wait for completion, then download its dataset.

curl --request POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/repairiq~specialty-auction-deal-monitor/runs' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary @input.json

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const input = JSON.parse(await (await import('node:fs/promises')).readFile('input.json', 'utf8'));
const run = await client.actor('repairiq/specialty-auction-deal-monitor').call(input);
if (run.status !== 'SUCCEEDED') throw new Error('Run failed; inspect its log before using partial results.');
const dataset = client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId);
for (let offset = 0; ; ) {
    const { items } = await dataset.listItems({ offset, limit: 1000 });
    for (const item of items) console.log(item);
    if (items.length < 1000) break;
    offset += items.length;
}

Limitations and support

Requires supplied lot records. It does not scrape auctions or read rigging PDFs. Check unknownCosts and assumptionShare. Qualified deal signals are included without a separate deal charge.

Use data you have permission to process, and respect source restrictions. No affiliation with the named software vendors, marketplaces, or agencies is implied. Report reproducible problems through the Actor Issues tab with a run ID and a minimal input; omit credentials and private customer data.

Local development

Requires Node.js 22 or newer. Run npm ci, npm run build, and npm test from this Actor directory. Put local input in storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json, then run npm start. The repository root’s npm run verify also checks schemas, shared copies and real entry-point smoke scenarios.