What IAAI is
IAAI (Insurance Auto Auctions) is the other big salvage auction in North America, next to Copart. Its sellers are mostly insurers, but also rental companies, banks, charities and dealers. Cars are sold online, many of them with a damage history, some of them fully running.
For an importer the two auctions together are the market: the same make and model can appear at both in the same week, at different prices.
What an IAAI lot contains
The record follows the lot page, field by field:
- VIN, make, model, generation, year, engine, fuel and transmission
- Primary and secondary damage, airbags and whether keys are present
- Title and its state, odometer, the starts-and-drives status when shown
- Selling branch, city and state, and the sale date
- Current bid, Buy Now price, and the seller reserve when IAAI shows it
- The photo gallery, and the final bid once the sale is over
Stock number or item ID
IAAI shows two numbers for a car: the stock number buyers quote, and an item ID in the address of the lot page. The lookup accepts either, so a link pasted from the site is enough to find the car.
Pass the source with the lookup every time: Copart and IAAI numbers can look alike, and the source tells the API which auction you mean.
One format for Copart and IAAI
Through MotorAPIs, IAAI lots arrive in exactly the same record as Copart lots. Damage types and titles use shared dictionaries, so a filter like "front end, clean title" means the same on both auctions, and a car offered at both shows up with both lots.
This is what makes price comparison possible: the final bids of sold lots from both auctions sit in one archive.
Data only, no bidding
The API reads IAAI lots and returns them. Bidding stays on IAAI, through a buyer account or a broker. What the API gives you is the information to bid with, in time and in a shape your software can use.