Get Live Auctions#

List currently active Bring a Trailer, Cars & Bids, Hemmings, Hagerty, PCAR Market, All Collector Cars, Gooding & Co, RM Sotheby's, Sotheby's Motorsport, Car & Classic, The Market, MB Market, Mecum Auctions, and PistonHeads collector car auctions. Use this endpoint for live market discovery, ending-soon pages, watchlists, source-specific feeds, and polling workflows.

GEThttps://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/live

GET/auctions/live?sort=ending&direction=asc&limit=10

Edit request3 parameters

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

curl "https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/live?sort=ending&direction=asc&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OCD_API_KEY"

Sends directly from your browser

Response example200

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 98765,
      "title": "1997 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe",
      "auction_status": "active",
      "auction_end_at": "2026-05-06 19:30:00"
    }
  ]
}

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

Beta14 live 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
Gooding & Co gooding
RM Sotheby's rmsothebys
Sotheby's Motorsport sothebysmotorsport
Car & Classic carandclassic
The Market themarket
MB Market mbmarket
Mecum Auctions mecum
PistonHeads pistonheads

Live auction behavior

This endpoint only returns listings where auction_status is active. No anchor parameter is required, so you can request the active market or narrow by make, model, VIN, seller, source, keyword, year, price, ending window, or update time.

Responses include ending fields such as auction_end_at and auction_end_precision, plus the live-only updated_at field. Responses are privately cached for 15 seconds.

Timestamp output

Response fields such as auction_end_at, created_at, and updated_at preserve the stored wall-clock value and use YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss[.ffffff]. They do not include a UTC offset, so do not append Z or assume UTC. For auction_end_at, check auction_end_precision: exact means the time is known, while date means only the date is known and 00:00:00 is a normalization placeholder. Timestamp filter inputs still require ISO 8601 values with an offset.

Authentication#

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

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Starter Plan Limitation: Starter plan users are limited to the latest 20 live auctions regardless of filters or pagination. Upgrade to a paid plan for full live inventory access.

Request Parameters#

Field	Type	Required	Description
`Authorization`#	header	Yes	Bearer token with your API key: `Bearer YOUR_API_KEY`
`make`#	string	No	Exact normalized make from Get Makes.
`model`#	string	No	Exact normalized model from Get Models.
`vin`#	string	No	Exact VIN match.
`seller_username`#	string	No	Exact seller username match.
`year_min`#	integer	No	Minimum year filter (inclusive).
`year_max`#	integer	No	Maximum year filter (inclusive).
`price_min`#	integer	No	Minimum current bid or listed price (inclusive).
`price_max`#	integer	No	Maximum current bid or listed price (inclusive).
`source`#	string	No	Source platform filter. Supported live values include `bringatrailer`, `carsandbids`, `hemmings`, `hagerty`, `pcarmarket`, `acc`, `gooding`, `rmsothebys`, `sothebysmotorsport`, `carandclassic`, `themarket`, `mbmarket`, `mecum`, and `pistonheads`.
`keyword`#	string	No	Search keyword to match in title and description (case-insensitive).
`ending_after`#	date-time	No	Only include auctions ending at or after this ISO 8601 timestamp.
`ending_before`#	date-time	No	Only include auctions ending at or before this ISO 8601 timestamp.
`updated_since`#	date-time	No	Only include auctions updated at or after this ISO 8601 timestamp. Useful for polling.
`sort`#	enum	No	Sort field. Options: "ending" (default), "created", "updated", "price", "year", "bids".
`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 results per page. Range: 1-100, default: 50.

Code Examples#

Ending soon (cURL)#

bash

curl "https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/live?sort=ending&direction=asc&limit=10" \  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Live Porsche auctions updated recently (cURL)#

bash

curl "https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/live?make=Porsche&updated_since=2026-05-04T00:00:00Z" \  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

JavaScript#

javascript

const params = new URLSearchParams({  make: 'Porsche',  sort: 'ending',  direction: 'asc',  limit: '10',});const response = await fetch(  `https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/live?${params}`,  {    headers: {      'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'    }  });const data = await response.json();

Python#

python

import requestsresponse = requests.get(    'https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/live',    params={'make': 'Porsche', 'sort': 'ending', 'direction': 'asc', 'limit': 10},    headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'})data = response.json()

Success Response (200)#

Live auctions retrieved successfully.

json

{  "data": [    {      "id": 98765,      "source": "bringatrailer",      "url": "https://bringatrailer.com/listing/...",      "title": "1997 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe",      "auction_status": "active",      "price": 72000,      "currency": "USD",      "auction_end_at": "2026-05-06 19:30:00",      "auction_end_precision": "exact",      "mileage": 42000,      "vin": "WP0AA2997VS320123",      "title_status": "clean",      "city": "Portland",      "state": "OR",      "seller_username": "aircooled-market",      "year": 1997,      "has_reserve": true,      "listing_make": "Porsche",      "listing_model": "911 Carrera",      "ocd_make_name": "Porsche",      "ocd_model_name": "911",      "image_url": "https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/porsche-911-featured.jpg",      "featured_image_url": "https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/porsche-911-featured.jpg",      "created_at": "2026-05-01 15:12:00",      "updated_at": "2026-05-04 02:45:00",      "stats": {        "views": 14320,        "watches": 256,        "likes": 42,        "bids": 18      },      "modifications": [],      "known_flaws": [],      "recent_service_history": [],      "listing_details": []    }  ],  "meta": {    "total": 42,    "page": 1,    "limit": 10,    "total_pages": 5  }}

Response Fields#

Live auction responses include every field from Get Auctions, including auction_end_at and auction_end_precision, plus:

Field	Type	Description
`data[].image_url`#	string \| null	Deprecated alias for `featured_image_url`. Use `featured_image_url` for new integrations.
`data[].updated_at`#	string \| null	Last update wall-clock timestamp in `YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss[.ffffff]` format. No UTC offset is included. Use with `updated_since` for polling.

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 (e.g., "Validation Error", "HTTP Error").
`message`#	string	Human-readable error message.
`details`#	object	Validation error details (only on 400 responses). Keys are field names, values are arrays of error messages.

400 — Validation Error:

json

{  "error": "Validation Error",  "message": "ending_after: Invalid ISO datetime",  "details": {    "ending_after": ["Invalid ISO datetime"]  }}

401 — Unauthorized:

json

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