Bid.cars Vehicle Auction Scraper

This Apify Actor scrapes vehicle auction data from bid.cars, an aggregator over the Copart and IAAI salvage auctions. Extract comprehensive vehicle information — specifications, pricing, damage, images, sellers and auction status — perfect for automotive market research, price tracking and vehicle valuation analysis. A ready-made bid.cars API alternative: run on schedule or on demand and get structured JSON, CSV or Excel instead of copying listings by hand.

🚀 Key Features

• 🔎 Scrape listings from bid.cars search pages or individual vehicle lot pages
• 🚗 Extract detailed vehicle information (VIN, specs, damage, odometer, title, seller)
• 📍 Location-based filtering across auction sites, live and finished auctions
• 💰 Comprehensive pricing data (prebid, current bid, final bid, estimates, ACV/ERC)
• 🌐 Direct links back to the originating Copart / IAAI lot (sourceUrl)
• 🧾 Import-cost breakdown as calculated by bid.cars (auction fees, trucking, shipping, EU tax/VAT)
• 📜 Sales history per lot (auction, date, bid, odometer, status, seller)
• 🖼️ Vehicle images (standard + full-size), video and 360° view URLs
• 📊 Pagination support for large result sets, structured data with 70+ fields
• ⚙️ Residential proxy support for stable, anonymous scraping

❓ Why Use This Actor

• ✅ Automate vehicle auction data collection — no manual browsing and copying
• ✅ Build datasets for automotive market analysis and price tracking
• ✅ Monitor vehicle availability, damage mix and pricing trends over time
• ✅ Research vehicle values and auction performance before bidding
• ✅ Feed data into automotive platforms, pricing models and tools via API, schedule or integration

👥 Who Is This Actor Suitable For?

• 🚗 Auto dealers and auction buyers
• 📈 Automotive market researchers and analysts
• 🧠 Data scientists studying vehicle markets
• 🧰 Developers building automotive platforms
• 💼 Insurance companies and vehicle appraisers

📥 Input

Fill the fields in the Input tab — no JSON needed for common cases.

Field	What it does
What to scrape	Preset: Search filters / Specific URLs / Finished auctions
Make / Model / Keyword	e.g. Honda / Civic / a VIN fragment or seller name; All or empty = everything
Vehicle type	Automobile, Motorcycle, Truck, … (15 categories)
Auction	All, Copart or IAAI
Year from / to	Model-year range
Start URLs	Search or lot URLs — used only in the Specific URLs preset
How many vehicles	Cap per run; empty = everything matched
Full lot details	ON = specs, photos, video, sales history, import cost; OFF = listings only, much faster
Advanced filters	Mileage, price, engine, color, transmission, drive, start condition, ordering
Proxy configuration	Apify Proxy, Residential preselected

Own proxies (proxyUrls / proxyListKey) are optional and stay collapsed unless needed.

📤 Output

Each scraped vehicle returns structured data like this:

{
    "lot": "0-46061209",
    "vin": "5J6RM4H79DL028463",
    "name": "2013 Honda CR-V, Ex-L",
    "year": 2013,
    "make": "Honda",
    "model": "CR-V",
    "location": "Concord (NC)",
    "odometer": 172968,
    "primaryDamage": "Normal wear & tear",
    "saleDocument": "Clear-dealer only (North carolina)",
    "seller": "Non-insurance Company",
    "prebidPrice": "$25",
    "estimatedMin": 1850,
    "estimatedMax": 3650,
    "statusLabel": "active",
    "platformCode": "IAAI",
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.iaai.com/Search?Keyword=46061209",
    "imagesLarge": ["https://pluto.bid.car/0-46061209/2013-Honda-CR-V-5J6RM4H79DL028463-1.jpg"],
    "detailUrl": "https://bid.cars/en/lot/0-46061209/2013-Honda-CR-V-5J6RM4H79DL028463",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-09-12T18:23:54.527Z"
}

You can download the dataset in JSON, CSV or Excel. The full record carries 70+ fields — specs, condition, seller, pricing, auction state, powertrain, media, platform links, import cost, sales history and provenance. Key fields:

Field	Description
lot / vin / make / model / year	Vehicle identity
location / odometer / color	Condition basics
primaryDamage / secondaryDamage / lossType	Damage report
saleDocument / titleHasLien	Title paperwork
prebidPrice / currentBid / finalBid	Auction pricing
estimatedMin / estimatedMax / acv / erc	Valuation figures
statusLabel / timeLeftFormatted / prebidCloseTime	Auction state
engine / transmissionLabel / fuelTypeLabel / driveTypeLabel	Powertrain
images / imagesLarge / videoUrl / view360Url	Media
platformCode / sourceUrl	Originating Copart / IAAI lot
salesHistory	Past auction attempts for the lot
importCost	Lot price, auction fees, trucking, shipping, tax/VAT, estimated total

💰 Pricing

Pay-per-event: from $0.0009 per exported vehicle (vehicle event, the primary event) — tiered by your plan, at or below comparable bid.cars scrapers, with 70+ fields per record (specs, damage, pricing, photos, sales history, import cost). Dataset items carry only a nominal $0.0001 charge. You pay only for records actually delivered — the charge fires after each record is written to the dataset. Set a max cost per run in the run options to cap spending.

💡 Tips

• Start with 10–50 vehicles to verify your filters, then scale up.
• Pick Finished auctions to research sold prices; live lots are the default.
• Filter by auction (Copart / IAAI) when you only source from one.
• Prefer Residential proxies for runs beyond a few dozen lots — datacenter IPs get challenged quickly.

🤖 Use from AI assistants (MCP)

Any MCP-compatible assistant (Claude, Cursor, VS Code + Copilot) can run this Actor as a tool via the Apify MCP server. One-time setup:

1. Add the server to your client. Easiest: apify mcp install cursor (also supports claude-code, vscode, codex), or paste https://mcp.apify.com as an MCP server URL and sign in with Apify.
2. Ask in plain language, for example: “Using wdnameless/bid-cars-scraper, get 50 Honda Civics with full details.” The assistant discovers the input schema itself and calls the Actor.
3. To pin just this Actor instead of the whole Store: https://mcp.apify.com?tools=wdnameless/bid-cars-scraper.

Running Actors through MCP needs an Apify API token (Settings → Integrations); billing follows the same pay-per-event pricing above.

❓ FAQ

Live or finished auctions? Both. Live lots are the default; set archived: true in Search filters for finished ones.

Do I need my own proxies? For small runs, no — Apify Proxy (Residential) is the default. For sustained large runs, your own residential list via proxyUrls works too.

How do I get the original Copart / IAAI listing? Every record has sourceUrl pointing at the originating auction lot.

Can I run this on a schedule or via API? Yes — use Schedules for recurring runs and the API tab for programmatic access.

Is there a bid.cars API? bid.cars publishes no public API. This Actor is the practical alternative: the same listings (live and finished Copart/IAAI lots) as structured data, on schedule or on demand.

Copart or IAAI direct, or bid.cars? bid.cars aggregates both auctions in one search. Use the Auction filter for one of them, or run separate searches per platform and merge the datasets.

⚖️ Disclaimer

Our Actors are ethical and only extract publicly available data — vehicle listings any visitor can see. Results may contain seller names as published on the listing. Comply with bid.cars Terms of Service, rate limits and applicable regulations (including GDPR where personal data is involved).

🛟 Support

Found a field that looks wrong or need an extension? Report it via the Issues tab. For programmatic access see the API tab.