BringaTrailer Auctions Scraper: Collect Collector Car Data at Scale

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What Is BringaTrailer.com?

BringaTrailer.com is the premier online auction platform for collector vehicles, classic cars, and automotive enthusiasts worldwide. With thousands of active auctions at any given time, the platform generates real-time pricing data, market trends, and bidding behavior that are invaluable for dealers, collectors, researchers, and market analysts. Extracting this data manually is impractical at scale — the BringaTrailer Auctions Scraper automates comprehensive data collection from auction listings, enabling you to build databases, analyze market trends, and monitor competitor activity.

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Overview

The BringaTrailer Auctions Scraper extracts detailed records from BringaTrailer auction pages, converting raw listings into structured, machine-readable data. It is designed for:

• Automotive dealers tracking market prices and demand trends
• Collectors and enthusiasts monitoring vehicles of interest and bidding patterns
• Researchers studying collector car markets and valuation trends
• Market analysts building datasets for pricing models and competitive intelligence
• Data aggregators feeding automotive inventory into multi-platform databases

The scraper captures over 30 data points per auction, including bid history, vehicle specifications, location data, premium flags, and real-time auction status — everything needed for comprehensive market analysis.

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Input Format

The Actor supports two scraping modes — use only one at a time:

1. Scrape by URLs — scrape data directly from a list of Bring a Trailer auction or category URLs.

{
  "urls": [
    "https://bringatrailer.com/auctions/"
  ],
  "ignore_url_failures": true,
  "max_items_per_url": 200
}

2. Scrape by search filters — scrape data using a keyword and additional filters (location, category, era, price, etc.) instead of providing URLs.

{
  "keyword": "a",
  "location": "US",
  "category": "",
  "era": "",
  "year_from": "1900",
  "year_to": "2026",
  "end_within": "120",
  "current_bid": "50000",
  "sort_by": "ta",
  "page": 1,
  "max_items_per_url": 200
}

There is also a General settings group that applies to both modes.

1. Scrape by URLs

Use this mode when you already have specific auction or category URLs. When this mode is used, all options in the "Scrape by search filters" section will be disabled.

Field	Type	Default	Description
urls	array	(required)	Direct links to Bring a Trailer auction pages or category URLs (e.g., search results, filtered lists). You can paste URLs one by one, or use the Bulk edit section to add a prepared list.
ignore_url_failures	boolean	true	If true, the scraper continues running when a URL fails instead of stopping the entire run. If false, the run stops on the first error. Recommended to keep enabled for bulk jobs.

Tip: Use category or search result URLs to collect multiple auctions in one run (e.g., https://bringatrailer.com/auctions/?make=Ferrari). Set max_items_per_url to 200 to capture a full page of results.

2. Scrape by search filters

Use this mode when you want to search using a keyword and additional filter attributes instead of scraping by URLs. If you use this mode, leave the urls field above empty.

Field	Type	Default	Description
keyword	string	—	The keyword to search for.
location	string	"" (Any)	Filter by listing location. Options: Any, Canada (CA), United States (US), Belgium (BE), Italy (IT), Netherlands (NL), United Kingdom (GB), Japan (JP), Puerto Rico (PR).
category	string	"" (Any)	Filter by vehicle/item category, e.g. Aircraft, All-Terrain Vehicles, Boats, Charity & Non-Profit, Convertibles, Electric Vehicles, Go-Karts, Hot Rods, Kei Vehicles, Military Vehicles, Minibikes & Scooters, Motorcycles, Parts, Projects, Race Cars, Right-Hand Drive, RVs & Campers, Service Vehicles, Side-by-Sides, Station Wagons, Tractors, Trains, Truck & 4x4, Vans, Wheels.
era	string	"" (Any)	Filter by decade: 2020s, 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s, 1940s, 1930s, 1920s, 1910s, 1900s, or Pre-1900.
year_from	integer	—	Minimum model year to include.
year_to	integer	—	Maximum model year to include.
end_within	string	"" (Any)	Only include auctions ending within a given time window: 1 hour, 4 hours, 1 day, 5 days, or 7 days.
current_bid	string	"" (Any)	Filter by current bid ceiling: less than $10k, $25k, $50k, $100k, or $250k.
sort_by	string	—	Sort order for results: Ending Soonest, Ending Latest, Bid: Lowest First, Bid: Highest First.

3. General settings

Applies to both scraping modes above.

Field	Type	Default	Description
max_items_per_url	integer	20	The maximum number of auction listings to collect per URL/search. Higher values (e.g. 200) capture more data but increase runtime.

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Output Format

Sample output

{
  "active": true,
  "categories": [
    "7"
  ],
  "comments": null,
  "current_bid": 500000,
  "current_bid_formatted": "USD $500,000",
  "current_bid_label": "Bid:",
  "country": "United States",
  "country_code": "US",
  "country_code_alpha3": "USA",
  "country_flag": "<img class=\"countries-flags\" src=\"https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/themes/bringatrailer/assets/img/countries/us.svg\" alt=\"United States\" />",
  "currency": "USD",
  "era": "1990",
  "excerpt": "This Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6 is one of the first 288 North American-market examples produced, each of which was assembled in early-mid 1993 for the 1994 model year. Ordered in Guards Red over a black interior with all-leather seats, the car is powered by a turbocharged 3.6-liter flat-six paired with a five-speed manual transaxle.",
  "in_subscription": false,
  "keyword_pages": [
    1833043,
    1832975,
    89009061
  ],
  "lat": "33.6894",
  "lon": "-111.837",
  "noreserve": false,
  "premium": true,
  "processing_type": null,
  "pusher": "post;list;112989832",
  "repeat": false,
  "searchable": "German 964 Turbo Porsche Located in United States WP0AC296XRS480113 1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6 United States",
  "sold_text": "",
  "sold_text_timestamp": 1782752400,
  "thumbnail_url": "https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1994_porsche_911-turbo-3.6_Web205071420199420Porsche2091120Turbo202-1-18023.jpg?w=470&h=318&crop=1",
  "timestamp_end": 1782752400,
  "title": "27k-Mile 1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6",
  "url": "https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1994-porsche-911-turbo-3-6-33/",
  "views": null,
  "watch_url": "https://bringatrailer.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=bat_listing_watch&listing=112989832&watch=yes",
  "watched": false,
  "watchers": null,
  "year": "1994",
  "id": 112989832,
  "from_url": "https://bringatrailer.com/auctions/"
}

Each scraped auction returns a comprehensive record with 34 fields covering vehicle details, bidding data, and auction status:

Auction Identification & Basics

Field	Meaning
ID	Unique BringaTrailer identifier for this auction
Title	Auction title as displayed (e.g., "1987 Ferrari Testarossa")
URL	Direct link to the auction listing page
Excerpt	Short summary text of the vehicle
Thumbnail URL	Image URL for the auction thumbnail
Watch URL	URL to add the auction to your watchlist

Bidding & Pricing Data

Field	Meaning
Current Bid	Highest bid amount as a numeric value
Current Bid Formatted	Formatted bid amount with currency symbol (e.g., "$125,000")
Current Bid Label	Text label for bid status (e.g., "Highest bid", "Reserve not met")
No Reserve	Boolean flag: true if auction has no reserve price
Sold Text	Final sale status text if auction ended (e.g., "Sold for $145,000")
Sold Text Timestamp	Timestamp when the auction closed/sold

Auction Status & Activity

Field	Meaning
Active	Boolean: true if auction is currently live
Watched	Boolean: true if you are watching this auction
Watchers	Count of users watching this auction
Comments	Number of comments/questions on the listing
Views	Total number of page views for this auction
Timestamp End	Expected auction end date/time (ISO format)

Vehicle & Category Information

Field	Meaning
Year	Vehicle model year (e.g., 1987)
Era	Vehicle era/generation classification
Categories	Vehicle categories (e.g., "Classic Cars", "Supercars")
Searchable	Boolean: whether the vehicle appears in search results
Keyword Pages	Related keyword pages or tags

Geographic & Currency Data

Field	Meaning
Country	Country name where the vehicle is located
Country Code	Two-letter ISO country code (e.g., US, DE)
Country Code Alpha3	Three-letter country code (e.g., USA, DEU)
Country Flag	Emoji or URL of the country flag
Currency	Currency of the bid amount (e.g., USD, EUR)
Latitude	Geographic latitude of vehicle location
Longitude	Geographic longitude of vehicle location

Auction Flags & Features

Field	Meaning
Premium	Boolean: true if this is a premium/featured listing
In Subscription	Boolean: true if included in a subscription service
Repeat	Boolean: true if the vehicle is being re-auctioned
Processing Type	Auction processing method (e.g., standard, express)
Pusher	Boolean or value indicating if auction has promotional push

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How to Use

1. Identify auction URLs — Navigate to BringaTrailer.com and copy URLs of auction pages or search results you want to scrape. Examples:

   • Single auction: https://bringatrailer.com/auctions/1987-ferrari-testarossa/
   • Category/search: https://bringatrailer.com/auctions/?make=Ferrari&year=1980-1989
   • All auctions: https://bringatrailer.com/auctions/

2. Configure the scraper — Paste URLs into the urls array. Set max_items_per_url based on your needs:

   • 20–50 for targeted, quick scrapes
   • 200+ for comprehensive dataset collection

3. Enable error handling — Keep ignore_url_failures: true to prevent one failed URL from stopping your entire run.

4. Execute the scraper — Start the actor and monitor progress in the run log.

5. Download and process — Export results as JSON, CSV, or Excel for analysis in spreadsheets, databases, or custom applications.

Best practices:

• Spread large scrapes across multiple runs to avoid timeouts
• Use filtered category URLs to reduce max_items_per_url needs
• Cross-reference Sold Text Timestamp with Timestamp End to identify completed auctions

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Use Cases & Business Value

• Market pricing analysis: Track historical bid trends and final sale prices across vehicle categories and eras
• Competitor monitoring: Watch what vehicles competitors are bidding on and at what price points
• Inventory management: Build datasets of available vehicles for dealerships or auction analytics platforms
• Collector intelligence: Identify vehicles of interest, monitor watchers, and analyze market demand
• Academic research: Study collector car markets, pricing elasticity, and auction dynamics

The BringaTrailer Auctions Scraper transforms raw auction listings into actionable intelligence, enabling data-driven decisions in automotive trading, investment, and market research.

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Conclusion

The BringaTrailer Auctions Scraper is an essential tool for anyone serious about collector car markets. With over 30 data fields per auction covering bidding activity, vehicle specs, location, and real-time status, it delivers the complete picture needed for market analysis, competitive research, and investment decisions. Automate your data collection today and unlock insights that manual browsing cannot provide.