Ebay
Scraping Teardown
Find out everything you need to know to reliably scrape Ebay,
including scraping guides, Github Repos, proxy performance and more.
Ebay Web Scraping Overview
Ebay implements multiple layers of protection to prevent automated data extraction. This section provides an overview of its anti-bot systems and common challenges faced when scraping, along with insights into how these protections work and potential strategies to navigate them.
Scraping Summary
eBay is an international e-commerce corporation, well-known for its auctions and consumer-to-consumer sales, and is a popular target for web scraping for price comparisons, sentiment analysis, and market research. However, eBay employs various anti-scraping mechanisms, which makes it a challenging website to scrape. It uses dynamic content generation and JavaScript techniques to complicate scraping process, so data extraction requires advanced technology and know-how in handling Document Object Model (DOM) parsing. Moreover, eBay also uses CAPTCHA and IP rate limiting to deter bots, which necessitates utilization of good quality residential proxies and correct bot behavior mimicry to successfully scrape it.
Subdomains
Best Ebay Proxies
Proxy statistics and optimal proxy providers for scraping Ebay. Learn which proxy types work best, their success rates, and how to minimize bans with the right provider.
Proxy API Providers
Compare the top proxy providers for scraping Ebay. See which providers offer the best performance, success rates, and value for your web scraping needs.
ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator
Use over 20+ web scraping proxy API providers from a single proxy port. The ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator automatically selects the best-performing and most cost-effective provider for each request, continuously monitors performance, and switches providers if one gets blocked. Never worry about CAPTCHAs or bans again—we handle it all automatically.
Compare multiple proxy providers side-by-side using the last 7 days of Ebay proxy performance data gathered with the ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator.
| Proxy Provider | Enabled Functionality | Cost/ Performance Score | Success Rate | Avg. Success Latency | API Credits | CPM | Provider Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ScrapeOps | Access all providers above through the ScrapeOps Proxy API Aggregator. We automatically match you to the best provider for each request. Learn more → | ||||||
| Zyte API | - | 83.5 | 100% | 4.6s | Tier 1 | $130 | PAYG ($13) |
| Scrapingant | - | 39.3 | 97% | 17.2s | 1 credit | $190 | Enthusiast ($19/month) |
| Scrapingdog | - | 22.3 | 79% | 5.2s | 1 credit | $200 | Lite ($40/month) |
| ScrapingBee | - | 22.3 | 94% | 4.2s | 1 credit | $327 | Freelance ($49/month) |
| Scrape.Do | - | 18.6 | 50% | 9.3s | 1 credit | $290 | Basic ($29/month) |
| ScraperAPI | - | 18.2 | 84% | 5.8s | 1 credit | $490 | Hobby ($49/month) |
| ZenRows | Residential | 4.8 | 70% | 12.2s | 10 credits | $1,290 | Startup ($129/month) |
| Zenscrape | Residential | 3.1 | 97% | 14.6s | 20 credits | $1,660 | Large ($249/month) |
| Scrapfly | - | 1.7 | 100% | 11.2s | 26.6 credits | $2,394 | Enterprise ($500/month) |
Residential Proxy Providers
Compare the top residential and mobile proxy providers for scraping Ebay. See which providers offer the best performance, success rates, and value for your web scraping needs.
ScrapeOps Residential Proxy Aggregator
Use over 20+ residential & mobile proxy providers from a single proxy port. The ScrapeOps Residential Proxy Aggregator automatically selects the best-performing and most cost-effective provider for each request, continuously monitors performance, and switches providers if one gets blocked. Never worry about CAPTCHAs or bans again—we handle it all automatically.
Residential Proxy Performance Comparisons
We're working on bringing you comprehensive residential and mobile proxy provider comparisons. Check back soon for detailed statistics, performance metrics, side-by-side comparisons, and recommendations to help you choose the best residential proxy provider for scraping Ebay.
Ebay Anti-Bots
Anti-scraping systems used by Ebay to prevent web scraping. These systems can make it harder and more expensive to scrape the website but can be bypassed with the right tools and strategies.
Ebay Custom Anti-Bot
Ebay uses their own custom built anti-scraping system designed to hamper and/or prevent web scraping. Ebay uses a combination of techniques to detect and block scrapers. Ebay's protections can be bypassed using a number of techniques.
Ebay Data
Explore the key data types available for scraping and alternative methods such as public APIs, to streamline your web data extraction process.
Data Types
No data types found
Public APIs
API Description
eBay provides a suite of different APIs, each designed to provide specific services. Through these APIs, users can access resources such as inventory and order fulfillment and data such as product details and reviews. The vast array of APIs offered by eBay provide in-depth accessibility, allowing users to programmatically interact with the website in a variety of ways. This means acquiring product data, managing transactions, searching for items and reading reviews, among other things; all this made possible through their APIs.
Access Requirements
To use eBay APIs a user need to enroll in eBay Developers Program. A user or application needs to agree to eBay Developers Program & API License Agreement.
API Data Available
Why People Use Web Scraping?
Developers can resort to web scraping in situations where eBay's APIs are limiting, or certain tasks are not achievable through the available APIs. For instance, the APIs may impose rate-limits, constraining the amount of data retrieved in a certain time period. Moreover, there might be instances when developers need to access very specific data points that are not directly accessible with the APIs. In such cases, web scraping can prove to be a valid alternative.Additionally, while the APIs should suffice for most use cases, the specificity of some tasks may necessitate using web scraping. For example, if developers require continuous real-time updates on a certain product's details, they may choose scraping over the APIs. Also, the APIs may not provide all information available on the website in such a structured manner that scraping can, such as color of products in images, information layout on the website, etc.
Ebay Web Scraping Legality
Understand the legal considerations before scraping Ebay. Review the website's robots.txt file, terms & conditions, and any past lawsuits to assess the risks. Ensure compliance with applicable laws and minimize the chances of legal action.
Legality Review
eBay's robots.txt file and terms of service significantly limit automated web scraping of its site, even on publicly visible pages. These directives are not universally legally enforceable, but they articulate eBay's expectations. While scraping publicly accessible data is often considered legal when not bypassing access controls, eBay's terms prohibit unauthorized automated access.
The real legal risks generally hover around authenticated areas, gathering personal data, and circumventing technical barriers such as logins. In eBay's case, the risk elevates when you have accepted their terms by creating an account. When scraping, it’s crucial to be mindful of these aspects, to follow respectful crawling guidelines, avoid restricted areas, and exercise caution when dealing with personal data or potential copyright infringement. Lastly, it's worth noting that eBay has pursued legal action against unwarranted web scraping in the past, indicating their resolve in enforcing their stance.
Ebay Robots.txt
Does Ebay robot.txt permit web scraping?
Summary
The robots.txt file for eBay has numerous restrictive rules for most web scrapers. It contains several directives, such as Disallow: /, Disallow: *_ipg, and Disallow: /adchoice/, which block virtually all portions of the site from being scraped by automated bots. These rules apply to all user agents, the only exceptions made are for chosen search engine bots like Googlebot and Bingbot.
In this file, specified paths allowed for general web scraping can't be identified, only specific allowances like Allow: /ws/ exist for permitted user-agents. The configuration also specifies the location of the sitemap in lines such as Sitemap: https://www.ebay.com/lst/SitemapIndex_US_en-US.xml. This set up greatly limits what general web scrapers can access, though search engines still maintain indexing rights. Ultimately, the robots.txt file signals a strong restrictive stance on web scraping, with free access granted only to a select few recognized crawlers.
Ebay Terms & Conditions
Does Ebay Terms & Conditions permit web scraping?
Summary
The terms of service for eBay include explicit statements about automated access and data extraction. The terms state:
“You may not use any robot, spider, scraper, data mining tools, data gathering and extraction tools, or other automated means to access the Services for any purpose without our prior express written permission.”
“You agree not to bypass our robot exclusion headers or other measures we use to prevent or restrict access to the Services, or to interfere with the proper working of the Services or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure.”
This covers scraping and crawling across both public and logged‑in areas of the site. While enforceability can depend on whether a user has explicitly agreed to the terms (for example, by creating an account or continuing to use the site), eBay frames these restrictions as broadly applicable to all access to the Services.
eBay provides official APIs for approved use cases (see developer.ebay.com), and the terms indicate that attempts to bypass barriers such as logins, rate limits, or CAPTCHAs would violate the rules above. The terms outline potential consequences, including technical and account‑level enforcement (e.g., IP blocking, activity restrictions, account suspension/termination) and legal remedies for violations. In practice, scraping is only possible under specific conditions—namely, with prior express permission or by using the official APIs in accordance with their terms.
Ebay Lawsuits
Legal Actions Against Scrapers: A history of lawsuits filed by the website owner against scrapers and related entities, highlighting legal disputes, claims, and outcomes.
Lawsuits Summary
Ebay has been involved in 2 legal disputes related to web scraping, primarily targeting companies and individuals who scrape its product data, pricing information, and customer reviews without authorization.
Found 2 lawsuits
eBay Inc. v. Bidder's Edge, Inc.won
eBay sued Bidder's Edge for scraping auction listings from its website without permission. The case focused on whether automated access to a public website could be considered trespass to chattels.Bidder's Edge argued that the information was publicly available, but eBay claimed the scraping activity was harmful to its servers.
Plaintiff
eBay Inc.
Defendant
Bidder's Edge, Inc.
Date filed
1 Jan 2000 - 24 May 2000
Legal Basis
More Links
eBay Inc. v. Bidder's Edge Inc.settled
In 2000, eBay sued Bidder's Edge, an auction data aggregator, for using automated bots to collect data from its site without authorization. The court ruled in favor of eBay, issuing an injunction to prevent Bidder's Edge from continuing its scraping activities. This case involved the scraping of publicly available auction data from eBay's platform.
Plaintiff
eBay Inc.
Defendant
Bidder's Edge Inc.
Date filed
10 Dec 1999 - 1 Mar 2001
Legal Basis
More Links
Ebay Github Repos
Find the best open-source scrapers for Ebay on Github. Clone them and start scraping straight away.
Language
Code Level
Stars
ebay-scraper
Ebay Scraper is a sophisticated solution designed to gather data from eBay website in real time without hassle. It allows users to extract various types of eBay content, including product information and customer reviews, through a seamless API integration.
Page Types: Product Page, Product Search
3 years ago
ebay-kleinanzeigen-api
Ebay Kleinanzeigen API is a powerful interface that enables users to fetch listings and specific data from Ebay-Kleinanzeigen.de. It supports automated search agents and provides detailed listing information through API endpoints.
Page Types: Product Page, Product Search
2 years ago
Ebay-Scraper
Ebay Scraper is a tool that retrieves average prices and product listings from eBay. It provides functionality to analyze sold items and current listings based on user-defined parameters such as product query, country, and condition.
Page Types: Product Page, Product Search
3 years ago
gs-scraper
gs-scraper is a tool designed for searching across multiple classifieds and garage/estate sale sites for retro video games. It allows users to find deals by scraping data from sources like eBay, although the project is currently abandoned and incomplete.
Page Types: Product Page, Category Page
7 years ago
ebay-products-scraper
ebay-products-scraper is a tool designed for extracting product details and images from eBay. It leverages the Scrapy framework to facilitate the scraping process and outputs the data in a structured format.
Page Types: Product Page
4 years ago
scraper
Scraper is a tool that helps users easily track prices of products across multiple websites. It allows visualization of price trends over time to aid in making informed purchasing decisions.
Page Types: Product Page, Product Search
5 years ago
Deals-Scraper
Deals Scraper is a tool designed to help users find good deals on websites like Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, Ebay, and Lespacs. It allows users to specify price ranges, blacklist keywords, and schedule searches to continuously monitor for deals.
Page Types: Product Page, Category Page
4 years ago
Ebay Web Scraping Articles
Find the best web scraping articles for Ebay. Learn how to get started scraping Ebay.
Language
Code Level
How to Scrape eBay for Rolex Watches Over $15,000?
This guide shows how to efficiently scrape eBay for Rolex watches priced above $15,000, using the Scrapy and Playwright frameworks to handle dynamic content. By following the techniques outlined, users can collect accurate data on high-value listings while learning about data storage and legal considerations.
1 min to read
datahut.co
How to Scrape Ebay Using Python (2025 Update)
This tutorial shows how to scrape eBay using Python, offering detailed guidance on extracting data such as product listings and search results. It includes code examples and techniques to avoid being blocked while scraping.
1 min to read
scrapfly.io
How to Extract eBay Product Reviews Data using Python? | by ReviewGators | Medium
This article shows how to extract product reviews data from eBay using Python, focusing on mobile phones. It provides a detailed step-by-step guide for scraping review and pricing information to help brands track competitive pricing on eBay.
1 min to read
medium.com
How to scrape eBay data: step-by-step guide in 2024
This article shows how to scrape eBay data effectively to extract product descriptions, prices, images, and other relevant details without relying on the eBay API. It guides users through the scraping process, providing detailed steps to collect and export the data in various formats.
1 min to read
apify.com
How to Scrape eBay With Python Requests and BeautifulSoup | ScrapeOps
This guide shows how to scrape eBay using Python Requests and BeautifulSoup. It details the process of extracting product information and reviews while addressing legal and ethical considerations.
1 min to read
scrapeops.io
How to Scrape eBay Search Results
This article shows how to scrape eBay search results using SerpApi, providing a detailed tutorial on setting up the necessary tools and libraries. It highlights the advantages of using SerpApi for data extraction, which simplifies the process of retrieving valuable information from eBay for business and research purposes.
1 min to read
serpapi.com
eBay Scraping in 2023: The Ultimate Guide
This guide shows how to effectively scrape product data from eBay that can be utilized for competitor analysis and market research. It covers best practices, tools, and techniques to ensure accurate data extraction while minimizing legal risks.
Published
2 years ago
14 min to read
data-ox.com
Ebay Web Scraping Videos
Find the best web scraping videos for Ebay. Learn how to get started scraping Ebay.
Language
Code Level
Free eBay Scraper Tool 2025 | Extract eBay Product Data Instantly Using Chrome Extension
This video tutorial teaches how to use a free eBay scraper tool from scrapeanywebsitedata.com to extract product data from eBay listings without coding. It covers steps to perform data extraction, including downloading a Chrome extension and utilizing eBay search URLs to gather product details in CSV or Excel format.
3 months ago
How to Scrape eBay with Python (Full Code Included!)
This video tutorial teaches how to scrape eBay product listings using Python, specifically employing the requests and BeautifulSoup libraries. Viewers will also learn methods to avoid getting blocked while scraping by utilizing reliable residential proxies.
9 months ago
eBay Scraper Sourcer Google Sheet for Product Research
This Google Sheet programmatically scrapes product data directly from eBay, including titles, prices, sales history, and seller feedback, allowing users to filter products based on specific criteria. The code sophistication level is professional, as it involves automated data extraction and web scraping techniques, likely using either JavaScript (for Google Apps Script) or another backend language along with relevant libraries for web scraping and data processing.
1 year ago
Best eBay Scraper! How to Scrape eBay Data in 5 Minutes?
The video demonstrates how to scrape product listings from eBay using an API, providing detailed information such as product specifications, seller details, and shipping information to streamline e-commerce tasks. Viewers can utilize tools like Postman or RapidAPI for querying the eBay scraper endpoint to access comprehensive product data quickly.
1 year ago
Web Scraping Ebay Products
This tutorial teaches how to scrape eBay using the Scrapy framework, covering project setup, spider creation, data extraction using XPath and selectors, handling pagination and AJAX requests, and saving the extracted data while avoiding bans. By the tutorial's end, viewers will gain a comprehensive understanding of web scraping on eBay and the ability to adapt this knowledge to other websites.
3 years ago
How To Scrape Ebay in minutes - No code or complex software needed | Video Tutorial
The tutorial demonstrates how to easily scrape eBay listings using Hexomatic, enabling users to monitor prices, conduct market analysis, and export data with minimal technical knowledge. It guides users through creating a scraping recipe to gather product details and images, and automate data export to Google Drive or Sheets.
3 years ago
How to scrape product information from eBay？
The video tutorial by François Dufaur-Boidin demonstrates how to use Octoparse 8.5 for web scraping product data from eBay, providing step-by-step guidance on creating a task, extracting relevant information, and managing settings. Viewers can learn about the legal aspects, types of data that can be scraped, and common applications of web scraping through the tutorial.
3 years ago