Collectors · E-commerce

eBay scraper API in Python

eBay listings for a keyword — price, condition, format, shipping, seller location. One POST from Python with query, rows back as JSON with 26 fields, $0.003 per delivered listing. No proxies or parsers to maintain.

Get an API key See the collector

A Python requests snippet that posts { — A Python requests call to the ebay_search collector returns one dict per listing, at $0.003 each.

First call

Install, call, read the rows.

pip install requests

The only dependency.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/ebay_search/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "query": "running shoes",
        "country": "us",
        "max_results": 50,
    },
    timeout=120,
)
r.raise_for_status()
run = r.json()["payload"]
print(run["count"], "rows,", run["cost"]["usd"], "USD")
for row in run["results"]:
    print(row.get("item_id"), row.get("title"), row.get("price"), row.get("price_value"))

Python: one eBay search run (Scarpe (ebay.com)), printing item_id, title, price, price_value

The key comes from an environment variable, never from the code. The run answers in the same request when it finishes in time; payload.results holds the rows and payload.cost what they cost.

Request parameters

What the collector takes.

Input of the eBay search collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`query`	string	yes	What to search on eBay, e.g. "running shoes".
`condition`	string: `any`, `new`, `used`	no (default any)	Restrict to new or used listings.
`buy_it_now_only`	boolean	no (default false)	Exclude auctions.
`country`	string	no	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code — picks the local site AND the proxy exit (default us).
`max_results`	integer	no (default 25)	How many listings to deliver at most (1–250). You pay only for delivered listings.

Response fields

26 fields per listing.

Fields of each row (listing)
Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based position across pages.
`page`	integer	Search page the row came from.
`item_id`	string	eBay item id.
`title`	string	Listing title.
`price`	string, nullable	Price as shown.
`price_value`	number, nullable	Numeric price.
`list_price`	string, nullable	Struck-through price when discounted.
`condition`	string, nullable	Condition chip (Brand New, Pre-Owned…).
`attributes`	string[]	Variant/brand chips shown under the title.
`format`	string, nullable	Buying format (Buy It Now, bids…).
`shipping`	string, nullable	Shipping/delivery line.
`location`	string, nullable	Seller location line.
`returns`	string, nullable	Returns line when shown.
`sponsored`	boolean	True for paid placements.
`image`	string, nullable	Thumbnail URL.
`url`	string, nullable	Listing URL.
`best_offer`	boolean	True when the listing accepts offers.
`shipping_cost`	number, nullable	Shipping cost parsed from the shipping line (0 when free).
`bids`	integer, nullable	Bid count on auctions.
`time_left`	string, nullable	Auction time left as shown ("6d 11h").
`rating`	number, nullable	Product star rating when the listing is tied to a catalog product.
`reviews_count`	integer, nullable	Number of product ratings.
`product_id`	string, nullable	eBay catalog product id (ePID) when present.
`watchers`	integer, nullable	Watcher count when the card shows it.
`badge`	string, nullable	Card caption ("NEW LOW PRICE", "NEWLY LISTED").
`urgency`	string, nullable	Urgency line ("Last one").

Add ?format=csv to the runs endpoint to get the same rows as CSV.

Long runs

Run in the background, then poll.

A run that needs more time can go to the background: send "async": true, get 202 with the run id, and poll the runs endpoint until the status is done. Reading a run is free.

import os, time, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"}
r = requests.post("https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/ebay_search/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{"query":"running shoes","country":"us","max_results":50}, "async": True}, timeout=30)
run_id = r.json()["payload"]["run_id"]
while True:
    run = requests.get(f"https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/runs/{run_id}", headers=H, timeout=30).json()["payload"]
    if run["status"] in ("done", "failed"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)
print(run["status"], run["count"])

Python: background run and polling

Errors

What can come back, and what is billed.

Collector run errors
Status	Meaning	Billed
`400`	The input does not match the collector (`payload.errors`)	No
`401`	Missing or wrong API key	No
`402`	Balance and free credit do not cover the run: top up	No
`422`	The input can never resolve; retrying the same input cannot help	No
`424`	The run failed at the source (blocked, timed out, layout changed); safe to retry	No
`429`	Rate limit or a per-account brake; wait for `Retry-After`	No

Only delivered rows are billed: a run that delivers nothing costs nothing.

Price

$0.003 per delivered listing.

What eBay search rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.003
1,000	$3.00
10,000	$30.00

Up to 250 listings per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 666 listings. No subscription; paid tiers lower the unit price. All collector prices: collector pricing.

Before you run it

Questions developers ask

Is there a free eBay search API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 666 listings of this collector at $0.003 each, with no card.

Do I have to handle proxies, retries or blocks?

No. The collector runs on our network and handles them; a run blocked at the source returns 424 and is not billed.

How many rows can one run return?

Up to 250 listings per run (the max_results input, where the collector has one).

Can an AI agent run it?

Yes: the MCP server exposes it as the run_collector tool, with the same input and price. See the MCP server.

Run it on the free credit.

Create an API key, export it as QD_API_KEY and run the example. $0.003 per delivered listing, no subscription.

Get an API key eBay scraper API