Carsandbids APIcarsandbids.com ↗
Access live auction listings, detailed vehicle data, and completed auction results from Cars & Bids via a structured JSON API. VIN, bids, mileage, and more.
What is the Carsandbids API?
The Cars & Bids API provides access to three endpoints covering live auctions, individual listing details, and paginated completed auction results from the Cars & Bids enthusiast car auction platform. The list_auctions endpoint returns up to 100 live listings per request with fields including current bid, auction end time, and location, while get_listing_detail exposes per-vehicle data such as VIN, engine, transmission, make, model, and seller username for any listing URL.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/f44a2812-e883-42bd-9961-ac2a1644dcce/list_auctions?sort=ending_soon&limit=10&offset=0' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Typed, relational, agent-ready
A generated client with real types, enums, and the links between objects — the structure a flat JSON response can't carry. Autocompletes in your editor and reads cleanly to coding agents.
- Fully typed · autocompletes
- Objects link to objects
- Typed errors & pagination
Typed Python client. Set up the SDK in your uv project, then pull this API’s typed client:
uv add parse-sdk uv run parse init uv run parse add --marketplace carsandbids-com-api
uv run parse add --marketplace pulls a pinned snapshot of this canonical API — it won’t change underneath you. To customize it, subscribe and swap to your own copy.
"""Walkthrough: Cars & Bids SDK — bounded, re-runnable; every call capped."""
from parse_apis.carsandbids_com_api import CarsAndBids, Sort, ListingNotFound
client = CarsAndBids()
# Browse live auctions ending soonest
for auction in client.auctions.list(sort=Sort.ENDING_SOON, limit=3):
print(auction.title, auction.current_bid, auction.location)
# Drill into the first no-reserve auction for full details
auction = client.auctions.list(sort=Sort.NO_RESERVE, limit=1).first()
if auction:
listing = auction.details()
print(listing.title, listing.make, listing.model, listing.year)
print(listing.engine, listing.transmission, listing.mileage_text)
print(listing.exterior_color, listing.interior_color)
if listing.additional_images:
print("hero:", listing.hero_image_url)
print("extra:", listing.additional_images.image_1)
# Browse completed auction results
for result in client.auction_results.list(limit=3):
print(result.title, result.status, result.sold_price)
# Drill into one completed auction for full details
result = client.auction_results.list(limit=1).first()
if result:
detail = result.details()
print(detail.title, detail.vin, detail.body_style, detail.title_status)
# Direct listing lookup by URL with error handling
try:
specific = client.listings.get(url="https://carsandbids.com/auctions/rkywe58L")
print(specific.title, specific.seller, specific.listing_detail[:80])
except ListingNotFound as e:
print("listing not found:", e)
print("exercised: auctions.list / auction.details / auction_results.list / listings.get")
Retrieve live auctions from Cars & Bids. Returns vehicle details including title, current bid, auction end time, location, mileage, and auction URL. Results are sorted by the chosen criteria. The response includes a total count so callers can paginate through all available auctions by advancing the offset. Each item carries `url`, the canonical listing URL (https://carsandbids.com/auctions/<id>), which is the same value get_listing_detail.url and get_auction_results.items[].url emit for the same listing and can be passed to get_listing_detail unchanged.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| sort | string | Sort order for auction results. |
| limit | integer | Maximum number of auctions to return per request (1–100). |
| offset | integer | Number of auctions to skip for pagination. Use with limit to page through results. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"count": "number of auctions returned in this response",
"total": "total number of live auctions available",
"auctions": "array of auction objects with vehicle details",
"auctions[].id": "listing identifier",
"auctions[].url": "canonical listing URL https://carsandbids.com/auctions/<id>; join key shared with get_listing_detail and get_auction_results",
"auctions[].auction_end": "ISO-8601 auction end time (UTC)",
"auctions[].auction_url": "canonical listing URL (kept for compatibility; same value as url)",
"auctions[].current_bid": "current high bid in USD as an integer"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"count": 1,
"total": 286,
"auctions": [
{
"id": "9A5l7OR5",
"url": "https://carsandbids.com/auctions/9A5l7OR5",
"title": "1999 Audi A6 2.8 Quattro Sedan",
"seller": "ThePhotographersGarage",
"mileage": "73,300 Miles",
"featured": false,
"location": "123 Main St, Springfield, IL 62704",
"subtitle": "1 Owner, 73k Miles, V6 Power, AWD, California-Owned, Unmodified",
"image_url": "https://media.carsandbids.com/4822e9034b0b6b357b3f73fabdfc10e586c36f68/photos/application/s-ZAK5V8d/edit/_sr4l.jpg?t=178783343918",
"no_reserve": true,
"auction_end": "2026-09-08T17:33:00.000+00:00",
"auction_url": "https://carsandbids.com/auctions/9A5l7OR5",
"current_bid": 3000
}
]
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the Carsandbids API
Live Auctions
The list_auctions endpoint returns an array of active auction objects alongside a total count, making it straightforward to paginate through all live inventory using the limit and offset parameters (up to 100 results per call). Each object includes current_bid in USD as an integer, auction_end as an ISO-8601 UTC timestamp, and a canonical url that serves as a join key across all three endpoints. Results can be sorted via the optional sort parameter.
Listing Detail
Passing any public Cars & Bids listing URL to get_listing_detail returns a single object with structured vehicle data: vin, make, model, year, engine, mileage (integer odometer reading in miles), transmission type, and seller username. The slug portion of the URL is optional — the numeric listing id alone is sufficient. This endpoint works on both live and completed listings.
Completed Auction Results
The get_auction_results endpoint pages through historical sale records in fixed sets of 36 items, ordered most-recently-ended first. Each item includes a sold boolean (true for both auction sales and post-auction sales), title, year, seller, and the same canonical url shared with the other endpoints. The response also surfaces items_total and pages_total so callers can determine the full scope of the archive before iterating. Requesting a page beyond pages_total returns an empty items array with metadata intact.
The Carsandbids API is a managed, monitored endpoint for carsandbids.com — not a raw scraper you maintain. Every endpoint is automatically health-checked on a schedule, and when carsandbids.com changes and a check fails, the API is automatically queued for repair and re-verified. It is built to keep working as the site underneath it changes.
This isn't an official carsandbids.com API — it's an independent, maintained REST wrapper over public data. Where the source has no official API (or only a limited one), Parse gives you a stable contract over a source that never promised one, and keeps it current. Need a new endpoint or field? You can revise it yourself in plain English and the agent rebuilds it against the live site in minutes — contributing the change back to the shared API is free.
Will this API break when the source site changes?+
Is this an official API from the source site?+
Can I fix or extend this API myself if I need a new endpoint or field?+
What happens if I call an endpoint that has an issue?+
- Track real-time bid prices on specific makes or models using
current_bidandauction_endfromlist_auctions - Build a price history database for enthusiast cars by iterating
get_auction_resultspages and recordingsoldstatus and sale price - Alert users when a vehicle with a specific VIN or model appears in live auctions by cross-referencing
get_listing_detail - Analyze market trends for manual-transmission cars by filtering
transmissionfields returned byget_listing_detail - Compare mileage-adjusted valuations by joining
mileageandcurrent_bidacross live and completed listings - Monitor seller activity by aggregating auction history by
sellerusername across completed results - Populate a vehicle research tool with structured specs — engine, body style, year, make, model — from
get_listing_detail
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 200 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 100 req/min |
| Team | $300/mo | 20,000 | 300 req/min |
| Company | $1,000/mo | 100,000 | 500 req/min |
Each endpoint has a fixed posted price per successful call — most fall between 1 and 10 credits — shown on this API's page before you run it. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does Cars & Bids have an official developer API?+
What does `get_auction_results` return, and how does pagination work?+
items_total and pages_total so you know the full archive size before iterating. The page parameter is 1-based; a page number beyond pages_total returns an empty items array with the totals still populated.Does the API expose bid history or individual bidder data for a listing?+
list_auctions and final sale outcome via get_auction_results, but per-bid history and individual bidder identities are not included in any endpoint response. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add a bid-history endpoint if that data is available on the listing page.Are images or photo galleries included in the listing detail response?+
get_listing_detail returns structured vehicle metadata — VIN, engine, transmission, mileage, seller — but photo URLs are not part of the response. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to include image fields.How fresh is the `current_bid` value returned by `list_auctions`?+
current_bid reflects the state of the listing at the time the request is made. Cars & Bids auctions are live and bids can change frequently, so for auctions nearing their auction_end time, polling at short intervals will give a more current figure.