Retrieve paginated bid history for live or completed Bring a Trailer, Cars & Bids, Hemmings, Hagerty, PCAR Market, All Collector Cars, and Sotheby's Motorsport auctions where bid data is available. Use the id returned by Get Auctions or Get Live Auctions as auction_id.

GEThttps://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/{auction_id}/bids

Beta7 bid-history sourcesView coverage

Coverage is actively evolving. Use the source slug when filtering API or MCP requests.

Bring a Trailer bringatrailer
Cars & Bids carsandbids
Hemmings hemmings
Hagerty hagerty
PCAR Market pcarmarket
All Collector Cars acc
Sotheby's Motorsport sothebysmotorsport

Child resource

This endpoint is scoped to a single auction. It returns the full bid history as its own paginated collection instead of embedding bids inside auction search results.

Authentication

This endpoint requires authentication. Include your API key in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Request Parameters

Field	Type	Required	Description
`Authorization`#	header	Yes	Bearer token with your API key: `Bearer YOUR_API_KEY`
`auction_id`#	path integer	Yes	Auction ID returned by Get Auctions or Get Live Auctions. Bid history is returned when available for supported Bring a Trailer, Cars & Bids, Hemmings, Hagerty, PCAR Market, All Collector Cars, and Sotheby's Motorsport auctions.
`bid_after`#	date-time	No	Only include bids placed at or after this ISO 8601 timestamp.
`bid_before`#	date-time	No	Only include bids placed at or before this ISO 8601 timestamp.
`sort`#	enum	No	Sort field. Options: "bid_at" (default), "amount", "created".
`direction`#	enum	No	Sort direction. Options: "asc" (default), "desc".
`page`#	integer	No	Page number for pagination. Minimum: 1, default: 1.
`limit`#	integer	No	Number of bids per page. Range: 1-100, default: 100.

Code Examples

Full bid history (cURL)

curl "https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/98765/bids" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Cars & Bids example (cURL)

curl "https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/20410/bids?limit=10&sort=amount&direction=desc" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Recent bids (cURL)

curl "https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/98765/bids?bid_after=2026-05-03T00:00:00Z&sort=bid_at&direction=asc" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

JavaScript

const auctionId = 98765;
const params = new URLSearchParams({
  sort: 'bid_at',
  direction: 'asc',
  limit: '100',
});

const response = await fetch(
  `https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/${auctionId}/bids?${params}`,
  {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'
    }
  }
);
const data = await response.json();

Python

import requests

response = requests.get(
    'https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/98765/bids',
    params={'sort': 'bid_at', 'direction': 'asc', 'limit': 100},
    headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'}
)
data = response.json()

Success Response (200)

Bid history retrieved successfully.

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 12345,
      "auction_id": 98765,
      "bidder_name": "user123",
      "amount": 25000,
      "currency": "USD",
      "bid_at": "2026-05-03 18:42:11.000",
      "created_at": "2026-05-03 18:43:02.000"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "total": 42,
    "page": 1,
    "limit": 100,
    "total_pages": 1
  }
}

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
`data`#	array	Array of bid objects.
`data[].id`#	number \| null	Unique bid identifier.
`data[].auction_id`#	number \| null	Auction ID this bid belongs to.
`data[].bidder_name`#	string \| null	Bidder username as reported by the auction source.
`data[].amount`#	number \| null	Bid amount.
`data[].currency`#	string \| null	ISO 4217 currency code, such as "USD" or "CAD".
`data[].bid_at`#	string \| null	Bid placement wall-clock timestamp in `YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss[.ffffff]` format when available. No UTC offset is included.
`data[].created_at`#	string \| null	Record creation wall-clock timestamp in `YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss[.ffffff]` format. No UTC offset is included.
`meta`#	object	Pagination metadata.
`meta.total`#	number	Total number of matching bids.
`meta.page`#	number	Current page number.
`meta.limit`#	number	Number of bids per page.
`meta.total_pages`#	number	Total number of pages.

Error Responses

400Invalid requestCheck required values and accepted formats.

401UnauthorizedAdd a valid Bearer API key.

403Access deniedVerify your email and confirm plan access.

429Rate limit reachedWait for the reset window before retrying.

Field	Type	Description
`error`#	string	Error type identifier, such as "Validation Error" or "HTTP Error".
`message`#	string	Human-readable error message.
`details`#	object	Validation error details on 400 responses. Keys are field names, values are arrays of error messages.

400 — Validation Error:

{
  "error": "Validation Error",
  "message": "auctionId: Number must be greater than 0",
  "details": {
    "auctionId": ["Number must be greater than 0"]
  }
}

401 — Unauthorized:

{
  "error": "Unauthorized",
  "message": "API key is required. Provide it via Authorization: Bearer <key> header"
}

Try this request

GET/auctions/98765/bids?sort=bid_at&direction=asc

Edit request3 parameters

auction_idsortdirectionAPI keyKept in memory for this page only and sent directly to the API.

curl "https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/98765/bids?sort=bid_at&direction=asc" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OCD_API_KEY"

Sends directly from your browser

Response example200

{
  "data": [
    {
      "amount": 72000,
      "bid_at": "2026-05-04 18:42:11",
      "bidder_username": "collector_911"
    }
  ]
}

Your key is never saved to local storage or sent through the docs server.

Get Auction Bids

Authentication

Request Parameters

Code Examples

Full bid history (cURL)

Cars & Bids example (cURL)

Recent bids (cURL)

JavaScript

Python

Success Response (200)

Response Fields

Error Responses

On this page

Get Auction Bids

AuthenticationCopy Anchor Link

Request ParametersCopy Anchor Link

Code ExamplesCopy Anchor Link

Full bid history (cURL)Copy Anchor Link

Cars & Bids example (cURL)Copy Anchor Link

Recent bids (cURL)Copy Anchor Link

JavaScriptCopy Anchor Link

PythonCopy Anchor Link

Success Response (200)Copy Anchor Link

Response FieldsCopy Anchor Link

Error ResponsesCopy Anchor Link

On this page

Authentication

Request Parameters

Code Examples

Full bid history (cURL)

Cars & Bids example (cURL)

Recent bids (cURL)

JavaScript

Python

Success Response (200)

Response Fields

Error Responses