HeyDealer Auction API: Data on Cars Owners Offer to Dealers

Where HeyDealer Auction sits

HeyDealer describes itself as a site where owners sell their car through an auction among dealers nationwide. The consumer side is heydealer.com; the dealer side, dealer.heydealer.com, is HeyDealer Auction. In KoreaCarsAPI the dealer side is an auction source, so its records come back with is_auction=true.

KoreaCarsAPI is an independent data service, not affiliated with HeyDealer. It returns data only and plays no part in the auction.

Access to the auction itself is for HeyDealer's member dealers. KoreaCarsAPI does not change that: it gives you the data in a structured form, and anything you do about a car still goes through HeyDealer and its members.

Why owner-offered cars are interesting

Most data shows cars that a dealer already owns. HeyDealer Auction shows cars before that step, which helps several kinds of users.

• Analysts who want to see what private owners are putting on the market, by model and age.
• Pricing teams who study the earliest point in a car's trade chain.
• Exporters working with a member dealer who want to review cars in a structured form.
• Developers building tools for dealers that combine several Korean auctions.

What a HeyDealer Auction record holds

The vehicle part has year, brand, model, generation, trim, engine volume, fuel, transmission, body type, colour and options. The listing part has the URL, title, odometer, condition and damage fields, photos, auction_at where the source shows a date, and the created_at, updated_at and last_seen_at dates.

Price and current_bid are returned where shown, as data. Which fields are filled depends on what the source shows for each car, so allow for gaps.

Because these cars come straight from owners, the record is often the first structured description the car has in the trade. The vehicle part still links to the shared brand, model and generation dictionaries, and options come through the translated options dictionary, so an owner-offered car lines up with the same model on any marketplace or auction in KoreaCarsAPI.

Exporting HeyDealer Auction cars

Use GET /cars with is_auction=true and the HeyDealer Auction entry in domains[]. Follow next_url to read every active car.

If you only need some cars, GET /search narrows by brand, model, generation, year, odometer, fuel and transmission; add domains[] with the HeyDealer Auction ID from GET /domains to search that source only. Either way, store car_id as your key, because the same car may later appear on a marketplace or another auction and you will want to link the records.

# SOURCE_ID is the HeyDealer Auction entry from GET /domains
curl --get https://api.auctionsapi.com/cars \
  -d is_auction=true \
  -d "domains[]=SOURCE_ID" \
  -d lang=en \
  -d api_key=$API_KEY

Practical tips

Owner-offered cars have their own quirks.

• Expect a shorter life per car than on marketplaces, and refresh more often if timing matters to you.
• Read condition, damage and photos together, since owner-offered cars may have less formal documentation.
• Use car_id and VIN to follow a car if it later reappears on a marketplace or another auction.
• Keep current_bid as a captured value with its update time, never as a result.
• Treat missing reports as unknown, never as a clean history.

HeyDealer Auction with HeyDealer and other auctions

Paired with the HeyDealer marketplace, which sells certified used cars, HeyDealer Auction lets you see two ends of one company's flow: cars that owners offer to dealers, and cars sold to retail buyers.

Next to Lotte Auto Auction, Autobell Auction and K Car Auction, HeyDealer Auction adds owner-offered cars to the lots that larger auction houses run. A VIN lookup with GET /cars/vin/{vin} links a car if it moves from one channel to another.

To test HeyDealer Auction data with your own tools, ask for a demo key. Paid access is based on the sources and volume you need.

Questions