CollectingCars.com Search Scraper: Extract Car Auction Listings at Scale

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What Is CollectingCars.com?

CollectingCars.com is a fast-growing online auction platform specialising in classic, sports, and enthusiast vehicles. It hosts curated listings with detailed provenance, high-quality photography, and transparent bidding. For anyone tracking auction trends, pricing benchmarks, or inventory availability, manually browsing the platform is impractical. The CollectingCars.com Search Scraper automates collection of structured listing data directly from search and filter pages.

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Overview

This scraper targets CollectingCars.com search result pages — including filtered views by listing stage (e.g., comingsoon, live, ended) — and extracts rich auction data for each vehicle. Ideal for:

• Classic car dealers monitoring market pricing and competition
• Collectors tracking specific makes, models, or variants
• Market researchers analysing auction trends and price bands
• Aggregator platforms ingesting curated enthusiast car listings

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Input Format

{
  "urls": [
    "https://collectingcars.com/buy?page=2&refinementList%5BlistingStage%5D%5B0%5D=comingsoon"
  ],
  "ignore_url_failures": true,
  "max_items_per_url": 50
}

Field	Type	Description
urls	array	One or more CollectingCars.com search/filter page URLs. Supports filtered views by stage, make, model, etc. Add URLs one by one or via bulk edit.
max_items_per_url	integer	Maximum number of listings to collect per URL. Default: 20.
ignore_url_failures	boolean	If true, the scraper continues running when a URL fails rather than stopping the entire run. Recommended for bulk jobs.

URL tips:

• Use the site's filter UI to build your query, then copy the resulting URL.
• The refinementList[listingStage] parameter accepts values like comingsoon, live, or ended.
• Paginate by incrementing page=N across multiple URLs to collect larger datasets.

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Output Format

Sample output

{
  "accepts_offers": false,
  "auction_id": 88077,
  "coords": [
    42.93800354003906,
    12.621621131896973
  ],
  "country_code": "IT",
  "currency_code": "eur",
  "current_bid": 0,
  "drive_side": "left",
  "dt_stage_ends_utc": null,
  "embedding": [
    0.20958299934864044,
    0.4811711311340332,
    -0.04391103982925415,
    -0.18119440972805023,
    -0.14103807508945465,
    0.002100928220897913,
    -0.05640484020113945,
    0.36233898997306824
  ],
  "embedding_price_band": [
    0.10715838521718979,
    0.5759180188179016,
    -0.22132427990436554,
    -0.3829845190048218,
    -0.039388883858919144,
    0.3739745318889618,
    -0.11291992664337158,
    -0.24612067639827728,
    -0.03143339604139328,
    0.4728073179721832,
    0.3573031723499298,
    -0.23668378591537476,
    -0.25384587049484253,
    -0.11005544662475586,
    0.06305769830942154,
    -0.00645893020555377,
    0.20438207685947418,
    -0.06973008066415787,
    0.111756332218647,
    -0.3939947783946991,
    -0.11149656027555466,
    -0.13000597059726715,
    -0.07519514113664627,
    -0.14619222283363342,
    0.1853833794593811,
    0.12888315320014954,
    -0.016481582075357437,
    -0.28398948907852173,
    0.20834700763225555
  ],
  "features": {
    "drive_side": "LHD",
    "fuel_type": "Petrol",
    "mileage": "92,592 Km (Indicated)",
    "model_year": "1969",
    "transmission": "Automatic"
  },
  "generation_id": "2144",
  "generation_name": "W114/W115",
  "has_taxonomy": true,
  "id": "88077",
  "is_boosted": "0",
  "is_sold_price_hidden": false,
  "listing_stage": "comingsoon",
  "location": "Umbria",
  "lot_type": "car",
  "main_image_path": "/088077/AS-14-05-10.jpg",
  "main_image_url": "https://images.collectingcars.com/088077/AS-14-05-10.jpg",
  "make_id": "8",
  "make_name": "Mercedes-Benz",
  "model_id": "3673",
  "model_name": "E-Class",
  "no_bids": 0,
  "no_reserve": "false",
  "object_id": null,
  "popularity": 9,
  "powertrain_id": "3182",
  "powertrain_name": "2.5L I6 (M114)",
  "price_band": "10000-15000",
  "price_buy_now": 0,
  "price_sold": 0,
  "product_make": "Mercedes-Benz",
  "product_year": "1969",
  "rank": 501795010520,
  "region_code": "Europe",
  "reserve_lowered": false,
  "reserve_met": false,
  "sale_format": "auction",
  "slug": "1969-mercedes-benz-w114-250-ce-1",
  "stage": "comingsoon",
  "tags": [
    "italy"
  ],
  "taxonomy_id": "38857",
  "title": "1969 Mercedes-Benz (W114) 250 CE",
  "ts_published_utc": null,
  "variant_id": "2978",
  "variant_name": "250CE",
  "vat_q": "false",
  "vehicle_make": "Mercedes-Benz",
  "vendor_type": "private",
  "from_url": "https://collectingcars.com/buy?page=2&refinementList%5BlistingStage%5D%5B0%5D=comingsoon"
}

Each listing returns up to 53 fields. Below is a full breakdown by category:

Identification

Field	Meaning
ID	Internal listing identifier
Object ID	Algolia search index object ID
Auction ID	Unique auction reference number
Slug	URL-friendly listing identifier
Title	Full listing title as displayed on site

Vehicle Classification

Field	Meaning
Make ID / Make Name	Manufacturer identifier and name (e.g., Porsche)
Model ID / Model Name	Model identifier and name (e.g., 911)
Variant ID / Variant Name	Specific variant (e.g., Carrera RS)
Generation ID / Generation Name	Model generation grouping
Taxonomy ID	Internal taxonomy classification ID
Has Taxonomy	Whether the listing has a taxonomy classification assigned
Product Make / Vehicle Make	Make as stored in product and vehicle data layers
Product Year	Model year of the vehicle
Powertrain ID / Powertrain Name	Drivetrain type (e.g., petrol, electric)
Features	Notable features or highlights extracted from the listing
Tags	Keyword tags associated with the listing

Auction & Sale Data

Field	Meaning
Listing Stage	Current stage: comingsoon, live, ended, etc.
Stage	Normalised stage value used internally
Sale Format	Auction format (e.g., timed auction, buy now)
Lot Type	Type of lot (standard, featured, etc.)
Current Bid	Latest bid amount in the listing currency
Price Buy Now	Fixed buy-now price if available
Price Sold	Final sold price for completed auctions
Is Sold Price Hidden	Whether the sold price is publicly visible
Price Band	Estimated price range category
Embedding Price Band	Price band used for search embedding/ranking
No Bids	Number of bids placed
No Reserve	true if the auction has no reserve price
Reserve Met	Whether the reserve price has been reached
Reserve Lowered	Whether the seller has lowered the reserve
Accepts Offers	Whether the seller accepts pre-auction offers
DT Stage Ends UTC	UTC timestamp when the current listing stage ends
TS Published UTC	UTC timestamp when the listing was published

Listing Visibility & Ranking

Field	Meaning
Rank	Position rank in search results
Popularity	Engagement/popularity score
Is Boosted	Whether the listing has paid promotion applied
Embedding	Vector embedding identifier for semantic search

Location & Region

Field	Meaning
Location	Human-readable location string (city, country)
Coords	Geographic coordinates (lat/lng)
Country Code	ISO country code (e.g., GB, US)
Region Code	Regional subdivision code
Drive Side	Left-hand or right-hand drive

Vendor & Commercial

Field	Meaning
Vendor Type	Seller type (private, trade/dealer)
Currency Code	Currency for all price fields (e.g., GBP)
VAT Q	VAT qualification flag (relevant for UK/EU buyers)

Media

Field	Meaning
Main Image URL	Full URL of the primary listing image
Main Image Path	Relative CDN path for the main image

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How to Use

1. Build your search URL — Apply filters on CollectingCars.com (stage, make, year, etc.) and copy the filtered URL from your browser.
2. Configure input — Paste URLs into the urls array. For multi-page scraping, create one URL entry per page.
3. Set item limit — Use max_items_per_url to cap results per page (typically 24–48 listings per page on site).
4. Enable failure tolerance — Keep ignore_url_failures: true for bulk runs.
5. Export — Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Best practices:

• Scrape comingsoon listings early to monitor upcoming auctions before bidding opens.
• Combine multiple filtered URLs (by make or region) in a single run for comprehensive market snapshots.
• Use DT Stage Ends UTC to sort and prioritise time-sensitive listings.

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Use Cases & Business Value

• Price benchmarking: Analyse Price Sold and Current Bid across makes and models to understand true market value
• Inventory monitoring: Track comingsoon and live listings for specific vehicles
• Vendor analysis: Distinguish private vs. trade seller behaviour using Vendor Type
• Regional insights: Filter by Country Code or Region Code for geographic market analysis
• Feed integration: Power a custom car search tool or dealership platform with live auction data

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Conclusion

The CollectingCars.com Search Scraper delivers structured, granular auction data from one of the most respected classic and enthusiast car platforms online. With 50+ output fields covering pricing, taxonomy, location, media, and auction mechanics, it provides everything needed to analyse the market or build data-driven tools.