Get Auction Bids

Retrieve paginated Bring a Trailer bid history for a live or completed auction. Use the id returned by Get Auctions or Get Live Auctions as auction_id.

GET https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/{auction_id}/bids

Beta: Auction bids are currently in beta and limited to Bring a Trailer (bringatrailer) listings.

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 currently limited to BaT 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)

bash

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

Recent bids (cURL)

bash

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

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

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.

json

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 12345,
      "auction_id": 98765,
      "bidder_name": "user123",
      "amount": 25000,
      "currency": "USD",
      "bid_at": "2026-05-03T18:42:11.000Z",
      "created_at": "2026-05-03T18:43:02.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "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	Time the bid was placed, in ISO 8601 format when available.
`data[].created_at`	string \| null	Time the bid record was created, in ISO 8601 format.
`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

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:

json

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

401 — Unauthorized:

json

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