How to scrape eBay: A step-by-step guide for beginners

As the second most visited online marketplace in 2023, eBay accumulates vast amounts of useful data for entrepreneurs, marketers, researchers, and others. By scraping eBay data in real time, you can get up-to-date information for you to analyze in whatever way best suits your business. For example, a small seller on eBay can use eBay data to optimize their pricing strategy, while a market researcher can use it to track consumer trends.

In this guide, we'll show you how to use eBay data, what types of information you can get, how to set up eBay scraping tools, and how to scrape eBay. You'll learn how to extract your first data and overcome challenges related to eBay scraping.

We'll use an eBay scraping API and Python to extract eBay data. Don't worry - the instructions are beginner-friendly.

What is web scraping?

Web scraping lets you automatically grab data from websites, web pages, and online documents. You use special software called a web scraper to navigate a website, find and extract specific data, and save it in a structured format for analysis or other uses.

Web scraping has a lot of applications, including market research, data mining, and tracking website changes.

An eBay web scraper helps you collect data about products, including titles, prices, images, and reviews. This eBay data can help you analyze market trends, track competitor prices, and improve your own product listings.

Here's a real-world example of a Reddit user describing how they plan to scrape eBay data to automate part of their processes:

“About My Business: I run an eBay business where I sell branded items and flip collectible video games and trading cards. I have a vision to scale up my business in the realm of collectibles with the assistance of automation.

My Automation Ideas:

Automation 1: I'm thinking of using a web scraper to search eBay and other platforms for undervalued items. The scraped data would be sent to a spreadsheet, where I've set up formulas to determine whether I should make a purchase. For instance, if an item typically sells for $100 and I need to buy it at $70 to make a profit, I want to scrape and highlight listings that fit this criteria for further review.

Automation 2: Another idea is to scrape sales data for specific items, including their selling price and frequency of sales. This data can help me decide which items to target in Automation 1. Imagine having a list of 100 items, and the automation tool goes to eBay, fetches the sales data for each item over the last 90 days, and organizes it in a new spreadsheet.”

What is a scraping API?

A web scraping API handles the heavy lifting for you. It's a tool that extracts data from websites automatically. Instead of writing your own scraping code, you just interact with the API. You can tell the scraping API what website you want to scrape and the data you need from that website, and it extracts the data and returns it to you in a structured format (like JSON).

A scraping API (like those from SOAX) acts as an intermediary between you and the website you want to interact with. It means you can extract data from a website without having to understand its internal workings. So you don't need to set up your own proxies, write complex scraping code, or worry about website changes. You simply send your requests to the API and receive the data you need.

At SOAX, we provide ecommerce scraping APIs (along with many others) that you can use to scrape data from Amazon, eBay, and many other ecommerce websites.

Why scrape data from eBay?

According to NBER research, eBay sales and competitor data lead to an increase in weekly sales by an average of 3.6%.

If you're in the ecommerce industry, you can use eBay data for:

• Market analysis
• Price monitoring
• Product development

Market analysis

• You can extract data from eBay to find out what your customers want. Lots of bids on an item, or lots of sales, could mean that product is becoming more popular, or that a new market is emerging
• You can also look at what your competitors sell and what their customers say, to find ways to stand out that are backed by data
• You can discover seasonal trends by looking at when different products sell best during the year, helping you get your inventory ready at the right time

Price monitoring

• You can make sure your prices remain competitive by keeping an eye on your competitors' prices
• eBay scraping lets you check if your resellers, distributors, dealers, and retailers are sticking to your Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) rules
• If you're looking for suppliers, you can also check how prices have changed over time or pick sellers from specific areas

Product development insights

• By looking at the different product options (for example, sizes, colors, or features) your competitors offer, you can spot opportunities to create new product lines
• You can also use an eBay web scraper to find which product features are popular, helping you create new products that match these trends
• You can get ideas for design changes, making sure your new products better fit what users need and want by checking out customer reviews

What data can you scrape from eBay?

You can extract lots of types of data from eBay, including but not limited to:

• Product details
• Pricing information
• Customer interactions
• Seller information
• Shipping details
  

Get set up to scrape eBay

Using a web scraping API for eBay makes your data scraping job way easier. It gives you all you need to collect basic info, handle tasks like page navigation, manage proxies, get past CAPTCHAs, pull out data, and format answers. So you don't have to build your own eBay scraper from scratch.

You can use tools like Postman or cURL to test the API and get data without any coding. But if you want to automate data collection and processing, or integrate it into your system, you'll need some basic programming tools. Here's why:

• A programming language simplifies sending requests to the API and handling responses. You can use Python, as it’s easy to use and has strong support for working with APIs.
• Python provides libraries that simplify API interactions and JSON handling. While requests and json are popular choices, consider modern alternatives like aiohttp for asynchronous networking or httpx for a more streamlined HTTP client, especially in Python 3 projects.
• A virtual environment in Python sets up a separate directory for installing project-specific libraries and packages, simplifying dependency management and keeping the environment clean and consistent.

Depending on your project’s scale and systems, you might need the following tools:

• Integration of the scraping eBay API with your system to send requests and process data
• A database or storage solution if handling large amounts of data
• Error handling for request limits, timeouts, or unexpected data formats, even though the API manages most complexities
• Automated scripts to regularly query the API and keep your data updated

How to scrape eBay listings

Step 1. Install Python

Download Python: Head to the Python website and download the latest version for your operating system (Python 3.x).

Windows installation

Run the downloaded installer. During installation, make sure to check the box that says Add Python to PATH. This will allow you to run Python from the command line. Then click Install Now and follow the prompts.

macOS installation

Run the downloaded .pkg file and follow the installation instructions.

Linux installation

Python 3 is usually pre-installed on most Linux distributions. If not, you can install it using your package manager. For example, in a Debian-based distro, you can use:

Open a terminal or command prompt and type either:

python --version

or

python3 --version

and press Enter. You should be able to see the installed Python version.

Step 2. Sign up for a scraping eBay API service

1. Sign up for a scraping API. For this example, we'll use the SOAX eBay scraping API. (You can try our scraping APIs for three days for just $1.99.)
2. Get API access credentials. After signing up, you'll receive an API key that you’ll use to authenticate your requests to the API.

Step 3. Read the API documentation

Access the API documentation. Here you’ll find details on:

• Endpoints (URLs you’ll send requests to)
• Required parameters (e.g., eBay product URL or ASIN)
• Response structure (what the returned data will look like)
• Rate limits (how many requests you can make per minute/hour)
• Error handling (how to interpret and handle errors)

Look for specific endpoints related to the data you want to scrape, such as product names, ratings, prices, images, and descriptions.

Step 4. Set up your development environment

1. Choose a programming language. If you're new to programming, Python is a great choice because it's beginner-friendly and offers many libraries for working with APIs.
2. Install required libraries. If you use Python, you'll need requests for making HTTP requests and json for handling the JSON data returned by the API.

You can install these by running:

pip install requests

Step 5. Write your API request

First, set up your script. Start by writing a simple script to send a request to the API and extract details about a specific eBay product. Add your API key and a product URL here (e.g. https://www.ebay.com/itm/323653812825):

API_KEY = "<your_api_key>"
"param": "<product_url_to_parse>

Here’s a code snippet you can use:

import requests
API_URL = "https://scraping.soax.com/v1"
API_KEY = "<your_api_key>"
headers = {
  "X-SOAX-API-Secret": str(API_KEY)
}
# Send request for retrieving product information.
get_product_params = {
  "store": "EBAY",
  "function": "getProduct",
  "param": "<product_url_to_parse>,  # e.g. https://www.ebay.com/itm/323653812825,
  "nocache": True,  # Set to True if you want to retrieve the most actual data.
}

Now you can run the script. Execute the script in your terminal or IDE. This will send a request to the SOAX API, which will scrape the data from the eBay website and return it in a structured format.

If you're using the terminal:

python scrape_product.py

If you're using an IDE, you can often just click a Run button (usually in the top menu or toolbar of the IDE).

Step 6. Extract and process the data

The API will return a JSON object with the product data. You need to parse this JSON to extract the specific pieces of data you want. Example of parsing the response:

response = requests.get(f"{API_URL}/request", params=get_product_params, headers=headers)
assert response.status_code == 200, f"Unexpected status_code, {response.status_code}, {response.json()}"
data = response.json()
print(data)  # This line will show the response data in the JSON format.
"""
{
    "data": {
        "id": "4c8c24c5-ea54-4cbd-bc2a-ae3bdc0c044e",
        "status": "in-progress",
        "value": None
    }
}
The example of expected response. The crucial part here is an id parameter. 
This id represents the task which is running on the SOAX side. Initially the task 
status is in-progress. You should wait until the status changes to done.
After that you will be able to retrieve parsed product data by using the id parameter.
"""
# Wait for task completion and then retrieve 'id'.
task_id = data["data"]["id"]
response = requests.get(f"{API_URL}/result/{task_id}")
assert response.status_code == 200, f"Unexpected response, {response.status_code}, {response.json}"
data = response.json()
print(data)
"""
Example response: 
{
    "id": "4c8c24c5-ea54-4cbd-bc2a-ae3bdc0c044e",
    "status": "done",
    "value": {
        "sku": "323653812825",
        "store": "EBAY",
        "variations": [
          {
            "price": false,
            "shipping": false,
            "retail": false,
            "stock": false,
            "sku": "323653812825",
            "shippingDays": "1",
            "images": [],
            "quantity": false,
            "attributes": {
              "service provider": "Verizon",
              "color": "Alpine Green",
              "size": "1TB"
            }
          },
          {
            "price": false,
            "shipping": false,
            "retail": false,
            "stock": false,
            "sku": "323653812825",
            "shippingDays": "1",
            "images": [],
            "quantity": false,
            "attributes": {
              "service provider": "Unlocked",
              "color": "Sierra Blue",
              "size": "256GB"
            },
            ...
        ]
    }
}
In the case of the success response print(data) will display parsed data in the JSON format. 
"""
# Example of how to get the price and quantity of a product.
product_price = data["value"]["variations"][0]["price"]
product_quantity = data["value"]["variations"][0]["quantity"]
print(product_price, product_quantity)

Step 7. Automate and scale

• Automation: If you need to scrape data regularly, consider setting up a cron job (macOS/Linux) or Task Scheduler (Windows) that runs your script at specific intervals.
• Scaling: As you scale up, you might need to manage API rate limits or handle large volumes of data by distributing the scraping across multiple servers or using cloud services.

Is it legal to scrape eBay?

If you are using the data for research purposes and only scraping publicly available data, it’s generally legal. However, be aware that eBay’s User Agreement doesn’t allow scraping or gathering information from eBay to use on another site.

You can ensure you are scraping eBay legally by:

• Collecting personal data in accordance with privacy laws. For example, be careful with such data types as seller names and locations.
• Scraping eBay at slow rates to avoid overloading eBay servers.
• Checking your local laws and consult with a lawyer to eliminate legal risks in the activity. For example, in the US, the case HIQ Labs, Inc. v. Linkedin Corp. affirms that scraping publicly accessible information generally does not constitute a violation of the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act).

Why use SOAX to scrape eBay?

Instead of worrying about the technical stuff, with SOAX you can focus on what is important: using eBay's data to increase your sales. 

Our eBay scraping API helps you to overcome common eBay data extraction challenges.

Built-in proxy rotation

eBay employs robust anti-scraping and bot-detection measures, including IP blocking.

So to keep your accounts safe, our eBay scraping API uses a vast network of residential and mobile proxies, automatically rotating your IP address with each request. All our proxies have unique IP addresses (we do not share them with other proxy providers). 

This mimics regular user browsing behavior, minimizing the risk of being blocked and ensuring uninterrupted data extraction.

CAPTCHA handling

CAPTCHAs can be a significant hurdle when scraping eBay. Our API includes advanced CAPTCHA-solving capabilities, either bypassing or resolving CAPTCHAs automatically. This functionality saves you time and effort, allowing your eBay scraper to operate continuously without manual intervention.

Structured data output

Raw HTML can be difficult and time-consuming to process. Our API extracts and organizes essential product information from eBay (such as titles, prices, descriptions, reviews, and images) into a clean and structured format (JSON or CSV). 

This eliminates the need for manual parsing and cleaning, enabling seamless integration into your applications or databases.

Reliability and scalability

Our infrastructure is designed to handle any scraping volume. Whether you need data from a handful of pages or thousands, we provide real-time data delivery without compromising performance.

Ease of use

Our API is user-friendly and easy for beginners, providing a straightforward solution for those wondering how to scrape eBay with limited technical expertise. You’ll be able to get started quickly, focusing on leveraging the data rather than struggling with complex setups.

Rate limiting and ethical scraping

SOAX ecommerce scraping API helps you scrape eBay at controlled rates to avoid overloading eBay servers. Our system automatically manages request frequencies, ensuring your scraping activities remain within acceptable limits.

This helps maintain the stability of eBay's servers and reduces the risk of eBay flagging or blocking your scraping activities. SOAX scraping APIs help you maintain a good relationship with eBay while still getting the data you need.

Talk to our experts to get the SOAX scraper trial.