# /liveauctioneers/items/search

`POST /api/liveauctioneers/items/search`

Price: 20 credits

Search LiveAuctioneers lots that are open for bidding or coming up, by keyword, category, lot country and state, distance from a ZIP code, auction house, auction format, sale date, listing date, shipping options, top-rated houses, estimate, current bid and buyer's premium. Returns lot cards with estimates, current bid, bid count, sale timing, images, lot location and the auction house.

## How to use it

Search lots open for bidding or scheduled; for lots that already sold use liveauctioneers/price_results/search. Take category ids from liveauctioneers/categories or from an item's category lists, and pass a result's id to liveauctioneers/items for the description and condition report.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `keyword` (string, nullable) — Search text (examples: "lalique vase"; minLength: 1)
- `category_ids` (array) — Category, material, style period, creator or origin ids from liveauctioneers/categories or from an item's category lists (default: []; examples: ["25787"], ["5","251"]; maxItems: 10)
- `country_codes` (array) — Countries where the lot is located, ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 (default: []; examples: ["US","DE"])
- `auction_house_ids` (array) — Only lots from these auction houses (default: []; examples: ["1998"])
- `excluded_auction_house_ids` (array) — Leave out lots from these auction houses (default: []; examples: ["10344"])
- `sale_types` (array) — Auction formats to include (default: []; one of: "live_auction", "timed_auction", "timed_plus_auction", "buy_now", "catalog_only")
- `estimate_min` (integer, nullable) — Lowest low estimate, in US dollars (min: 0)
- `estimate_max` (integer, nullable) — Highest low estimate, in US dollars (min: 0)
- `sale_date_from` (string, nullable) — Earliest auction start date, UTC (format: date; examples: "2024-01-01")
- `sale_date_to` (string, nullable) — Latest auction start date, UTC, inclusive (format: date; examples: "2024-12-31")
- `publish_date_from` (string, nullable) — Earliest date the lot was listed, UTC (format: date; examples: "2024-01-01")
- `publish_date_to` (string, nullable) — Latest date the lot was listed, UTC, inclusive (format: date; examples: "2024-12-31")
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of lots to return (min: 1; max: 7500)
- `sort` (string) — Result order (default: "relevance"; one of: "relevance", "newest", "sale_start", "most_bids", "highest_estimate", "highest_bid", "lowest_bid", "lot_number")
- `shipping` (array) — Shipping or pickup options; free_local_pickup and in_house_shipping select lots whose auction offers them, which the lot's own has_free_local_pickup and has_in_house_shipping do not reflect (default: []; one of: "live_shipping", "free_local_pickup", "in_house_shipping", "flat_rate_shipping", "free_shipping")
- `state` (string, nullable) — State or region of the lot's location (examples: "CA", "NY", "LONDON"; minLength: 1)
- `top_rated_only` (boolean) — Only lots from top-rated auction houses (default: false)
- `current_bid_min` (integer, nullable) — Lowest current bid, in US dollars (min: 0)
- `current_bid_max` (integer, nullable) — Highest current bid, in US dollars (min: 0)
- `buyers_premium_min` (integer, nullable) — Lowest buyer's premium, percent (min: 0)
- `buyers_premium_max` (integer, nullable) — Highest buyer's premium, percent (min: 0)
- `near_postal_code` (string, nullable) — US ZIP code to search around, used with radius_miles (examples: "10001"; minLength: 3)
- `radius_miles` (integer, nullable) — Distance in miles from near_postal_code (examples: 20; min: 1; max: 5000)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "LiveAuctioneersLot")
- `id` (string, required)
- `url` (string, nullable)
- `lot_number` (string, nullable)
- `short_description` (string, nullable)
- `images` (array) (default: [])
- `catalog_id` (string, nullable)
- `catalog_title` (string, nullable)
- `catalog_status` (string, nullable)
- `catalog_lot_count` (integer, nullable)
- `currency` (string, nullable)
- `start_price` (number, nullable)
- `low_estimate` (number, nullable)
- `high_estimate` (number, nullable)
- `market_estimate_low` (number, nullable)
- `market_estimate_high` (number, nullable)
- `market_estimate_confidence` (number, nullable)
- `current_bid` (number, nullable)
- `sale_price` (number, nullable)
- `buy_now_price` (number, nullable)
- `buy_now_status` (string, nullable)
- `bid_count` (integer, nullable)
- `bid_activity_count` (integer, nullable)
- `is_sold` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_passed` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_available` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_locked` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_paused` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_extended` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_deleted` (boolean, nullable)
- `has_reserve` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_reserve_met` (boolean, nullable)
- `restricted_categories` (array) (default: [])
- `is_promoted` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_great_find` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_live_auction` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_timed_auction` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_timed_plus_auction` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_catalog_only` (boolean, nullable)
- `sale_start_at` (integer, nullable)
- `sale_end_estimated_at` (integer, nullable)
- `lot_end_estimated_at` (integer, nullable)
- `has_free_shipping` (boolean, nullable)
- `has_free_local_pickup` (boolean, nullable)
- `has_in_house_shipping` (boolean, nullable)
- `has_live_shipping` (boolean, nullable)
- `has_flat_rate_shipping` (boolean, nullable)
- `flat_rate_shipping_amount` (number, nullable)
- `location` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "LiveAuctioneersLocation")
  - `city` (string, nullable)
  - `region` (string, nullable)
  - `postal_code` (string, nullable)
  - `country_code` (string, nullable)
- `seller` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "LiveAuctioneersLotSeller")
  - `id` (string, required)
  - `name` (string, nullable)
  - `url` (string, nullable)
  - `city` (string, nullable)
  - `state_code` (string, nullable)
  - `country_code` (string, nullable)
  - `image` (string, nullable)
  - `rating` (number, nullable)
  - `review_count` (integer, nullable)
  - `is_top_rated` (boolean, nullable)
- `winning_bidder_id` (string, nullable)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

The entity was not found, or a precondition failed

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.