Get Live Auctions

List currently active Bring a Trailer collector car auctions. Use this endpoint for live market discovery, ending-soon pages, watchlists, and polling workflows.

GET https://api.oldcarsdata.com/auctions/live

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

Live auction behavior

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

Responses include live-only fields such as auction_end_at, image_url, and updated_at. Responses are privately cached for 15 seconds.

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. Live auctions are currently limited to `bringatrailer`.
`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 requests

response = 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_date": "2026-05-06",
      "auction_end_at": "2026-05-06T19:30:00Z",
      "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.jpg",
      "featured_image_url": "https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/porsche-911-featured.jpg",
      "created_at": "2026-05-01T15:12:00Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-05-04T02:45:00Z",
      "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, plus:

Field	Type	Description
`data[].auction_end_at`	string \| null	Auction ending timestamp in ISO 8601 format when available.
`data[].image_url`	string \| null	Primary live listing image URL when available.
`data[].updated_at`	string \| null	Last update timestamp in ISO 8601 format. Use with `updated_since` for polling.

Error Responses

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"
}