Web Scraping eBay Organic Results with Nodejs

What will be scraped

Ebay Search Engine Results API

Alternatively, you can use the Ebay Search Engine Results API from SerpApi. SerpApi is a free API with 100 searches per month. If you need more searches, there are paid plans.

The difference is that you don't have to use browser control solutions (like Puppeteer) which is much more time-consuming, you also don't have to look for the right selectors that can change over time, bypass blocking from robots and maintain a solution written from scratch. Instead, you will get ready-made structured JSON. Check out the playground.

First we need to install google-search-results-nodejs. To do this you need to enter in your command line: npm i google-search-results-nodejs

const SerpApi = require("google-search-results-nodejs");
const search = new SerpApi.GoogleSearch(process.env.API_KEY);     //your api key from serpapi.com

const searchString = "playstation";                                       // what we want to search
const pagesLimit = 10;                                                    // limit of pages for getting info
let currentPage = 1;                                                      // current page of the search

const params = {
  engine: "ebay",                                                         // search engine
  _nkw: searchString,                                                     // search query
  ebay_domain: "ebay.com",                                                // ebay domain of the search
  _pgn: currentPage,                                                      // page of the search
};

const getOrganicResults = ({ organic_results }) => {
  return organic_results.map((element) => {
    const { link, title, condition = "No condition data", price = "No price data", shipping = "No shipping data", thumbnail = "No image" } = element;
    return {
      link,
      title,
      condition,
      price: price && price.raw ? price.raw : `${price.from?.raw} - ${price.to?.raw}`,
      shipping,
      thumbnail,
    };
  });
};

const getJson = (params) => {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    search.json(params, resolve);
  });
};

const getResults = async () => {
  const organicResults = [];
  while (true) {
    if (currentPage > pagesLimit) break;
    const json = await getJson(params);
    if (json.search_information?.organic_results_state === "Fully empty") break;
    organicResults.push(...(await getOrganicResults(json)));
    currentPage++;
  }
  return organicResults;
};

getResults().then(console.log)

Code explanation

Declare constants from required libraries:

const SerpApi = require("google-search-results-nodejs");
const search = new SerpApi.GoogleSearch(API_KEY);

Code	Explanation
`SerpApi`	SerpApi Node.js library
`search`	new instance of GoogleSearch class
`API_KEY`	your API key from SerpApi

Next, we write down what we want to search and the necessary parameters for making a request:

const searchString = "playstation";
const pagesLimit = 10;
let currentPage = 1;

const params = {
  engine: "ebay",
  _nkw: searchString,
  ebay_domain: "ebay.com",
  _pgn: currentPage,
};

Code	Explanation
`searchString`	what we want to search
`pagesLimit`	limit of pages for getting info
`currentPage`	current page of the search
`engine`	search engine
`_nkw`	search query
`ebay_domain`	ebay domain: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk
`_pgn`	current page

Next, we write a callback function in which we describe what data we need from the result of our request:

const getOrganicResults = ({ organic_results }) => {
  return organic_results.map((element) => {
    const { link, title, condition = "No condition data", price = "No price data", shipping = "No shipping data", thumbnail = "No image" } = element;
    return {
      link,
      title,
      condition,
      price: price && price.raw ? price.raw : `${price.from?.raw} - ${price.to?.raw}`,
      shipping,
      thumbnail,
    };
  });
};

Code	Explanation
`organic_results`	an array that we destructured from response
`link, title, condition, price, shipping, thumbnail`	other data that we destructured from element of news_results array
`thumbnail = "No image"`	we set default value `No image` if `thumbnail` is `undefined`
`price: price && price.raw ? price.raw : '${price.from?.raw} - ${price.to?.raw}'`	in this line we use ternary operator to set vailid price. If we can get `price` and data with `raw` key we set it to our `price`, otherwise in `price` we set `price.from` and `price.to`

Next, we wrap the search method from the SerpApi library in a promise to further work with the search results:

const getJson = (params) => {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    search.json(params, resolve);
  })
}

getJson(params).then(getKnowledgeGraph).then(console.log)

And finally, we declare and run the function getResult that gets info from all pages between currentPage and pagesLimit and return it.

const getResults = async () => {
  const organicResults = [];
  while (true) {
    if (currentPage > pagesLimit) break;
    const json = await getJson(params);
    if (json.search_information?.organic_results_state === "Fully empty") break;
    organicResults.push(...(await getOrganicResults(json)));
    currentPage++;
  }
  return organicResults;
};

getResults().then(console.log)

Code	Explanation
`organicResults.push(...(await getOrganicResults(json)))`	in this code, we use spread syntax to split the array from result that was returned from `getOrganicResults` function into elements and add them in the end of `organicResults` array

Output

[
   {
      "link":"https://www.ebay.com/itm/324950767168?hash=item4ba8933640:g:yQsAAOSwU8phwB9l",
      "title":"Sony PlayStation PS Vita OLED (PCH-1001) Firmware FW 3.60, 128GB - Ship in 1-DAY",
      "condition":"Open Box",
      "price":"$179.95",
      "shipping":"Free shipping",
      "thumbnail":"https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/yQsAAOSwU8phwB9l/s-l225.jpg"
   },
   {
      "link":"https://www.ebay.com/itm/393419045168?hash=item5b999a3930:g:NzYAAOSwBPNiBoAk",
      "title":"PS4 PlayStation 4 Sony Original Slim Pro 500GB 1TB 2TB Console Used Ship first",
      "condition":"Pre-Owned",
      "price":"$259.80 - $484.99",
      "shipping":"Free shipping",
      "thumbnail":"https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/NzYAAOSwBPNiBoAk/s-l225.jpg"
   },
   ...and other results
]

DIY Preparation

First, we need to create a Node.js* project and add npm packages puppeteer, puppeteer-extra and puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth to control Chromium (or Chrome, or Firefox, but now we work only with Chromium which is used by default) over the DevTools Protocol in headless or non-headless mode.

To do this, in the directory with our project, open the command line and enter npm init -y, and then npm i puppeteer puppeteer-extra puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth.

*If you don't have Node.js installed, you can download it from nodejs.org and follow the installation documentation.

📌Note: Also, you can use puppeteer without any extensions, but I strongly recommend using it with puppeteer-extra with puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth to prevent website detection that you are using headless Chromium or that you are using web driver. You can check it on Chrome headless tests website. The screenshot below shows you the difference.

stealth

Process

SelectorGadget Chrome extension was used to grab CSS selectors by clicking on the desired element in the browser. If you have any struggles understanding this, we have a dedicated Web Scraping with CSS Selectors blog post at SerpApi.
The Gif below illustrates the approach of selecting different parts of the results.

how2

DIY Code

const puppeteer = require("puppeteer-extra");
const StealthPlugin = require("puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth");

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

const searchString = "playstation";                   // what we want to search
const pagesLimit = 10;                                // limit of pages for getting info
let currentPage = 1;                                  // current page of the search

const URL = "https://www.ebay.com";

async function getPageResults(page) {
  const pageResults = await page.evaluate(function () {
    return Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("ul .s-item__wrapper")).map((el) => ({
      link: el.querySelector(".s-item__link").getAttribute("href"),
      title: el.querySelector(".s-item__title").textContent.trim(),
      condition: el.querySelector(".SECONDARY_INFO")?.textContent.trim() || "No condition data",
      price: el.querySelector(".s-item__price")?.textContent.trim() || "No price data",
      shipping: el.querySelector(".s-item__shipping")?.textContent.trim() || "No shipping data",
      thumbnail: el.querySelector(".s-item__image-img")?.getAttribute("src") || "No image",
    }));
  });
  return pageResults;
}

async function getOrganicResults() {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    headless: false,
    args: ["--no-sandbox", "--disable-setuid-sandbox"],
  });

  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(60000);
  await page.goto(URL);
  await page.waitForSelector("#gh-ac");
  await page.focus("#gh-ac");
  await page.keyboard.type(searchString);
  await page.waitForTimeout(1000);
  await page.click("#gh-btn");

  const organicResults = [];

  while (true) {
    await page.waitForSelector(".srp-results");
    const isNextPage = await page.$(".pagination__next");
    if (!isNextPage || currentPage > pagesLimit) break;
    organicResults.push(...(await getPageResults(page)));
    await page.click(".pagination__next");
    currentPage++;
  }

  await browser.close();

  return organicResults;
}

getOrganicResults().then(console.log);

Code explanation

Declare constants from required libraries:

const puppeteer = require("puppeteer-extra");
const StealthPlugin = require("puppeteer-extra-plugin-stealth");

Code	Explanation
`puppeteer`	Chromium control library
`StealthPlugin`	library for prevent website detection that you are using web driver

Next, we "saying" to puppeteer use StealthPlugin:

puppeteer.use(StealthPlugin());

Next, we write variables with our search parameters:

const searchString = "playstation";
const pagesLimit = 10;
let currentPage = 1;

const URL = "https://www.ebay.com";

Code	Explanation
`searchString`	what we want to search
`pagesLimit`	limit of pages for getting info
`currentPage`	current page of the search

Next, we write down a function for getting information from page:

async function getPageResults(page) {
  const pageResults = await page.evaluate(function () {
    return Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("ul .s-item__wrapper")).map((el) => ({
      link: el.querySelector(".s-item__link").getAttribute("href"),
      title: el.querySelector(".s-item__title").textContent.trim(),
      condition: el.querySelector(".SECONDARY_INFO")?.textContent.trim() || "No condition data",
      price: el.querySelector(".s-item__price")?.textContent.trim() || "No price data",
      shipping: el.querySelector(".s-item__shipping")?.textContent.trim() || "No shipping data",
      thumbnail: el.querySelector(".s-item__image-img")?.getAttribute("src") || "No image",
    }));
  });
  return pageResults;
}

Code	Explanation
`pageResults`	an array with information about all goods from page
`page.evaluate(function () {`	is the Puppeteer method for injecting `function` in the page context and allows to return data directly from the browser
`document.querySelectorAll("ul .s-item__wrapper")`	returns a static NodeList representing a list of the document's elements that match the css selectors with class name `s-item__wrapper` which is any child of `ul` html element
`el.querySelector(".s-item__link")`	returns the first html element with class name `s-item__link` which is any child of the `el` html element
`.getAttribute("href")`	gets the `href` attribute value of the html element
`.trim()`	removes whitespace from both ends of a string

And finally, a function to control the browser, change pages, and run getPageResults from each page:

async function getOrganicResults() {
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    headless: false,
    args: ["--no-sandbox", "--disable-setuid-sandbox"],
  });

  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(60000);
  await page.goto(URL);
  await page.waitForSelector("#gh-ac");
  await page.focus("#gh-ac");
  await page.keyboard.type(searchString);
  await page.waitForTimeout(1000);
  await page.click("#gh-btn");

  const organicResults = [];

  while (true) {
    await page.waitForSelector(".srp-results");
    const isNextPage = await page.$(".pagination__next");
    if (!isNextPage || currentPage > pagesLimit) break;
    organicResults.push(...(await getPageResults(page)));
    await page.click(".pagination__next");
    currentPage++;
  }

  await browser.close();

  return organicResults;
}

Code	Explanation
`puppeteer.launch({options})`	this method launches a new instance of the Chromium browser with current `options`
`headless`	defines which mode to use: headless (by default) or non-headless
`args`	an array with arguments which is used with Chromium
`["--no-sandbox", "--disable-setuid-sandbox"]`	these arguments we use to allow the launch of the browser process in the online IDE
`browser.newPage()`	this method launches a new page
`page.setDefaultNavigationTimeout(60000)`	changing default (30 sec) time for waiting for selectors to 60000 ms (1 min) for slow internet connection
`page.goto(URL)`	navigation to `URL` which is defined above
`page.waitForSelector("#gh-ac")`	stops the script and waits for the html element with the `#gh-ac` selector to load
`page.focus("#gh-ac")`	focus on the html element with the `#gh-ac` selector
`page.keyboard.type(searchString)`	this method emulates keyboard input stored in `searchString` text
`page.waitForTimeout(1000)`	waiting 1000 ms before continue
`page.click("#gh-btn")`	this method emulates mouse click on the html element with the `#gh-btn` selector
`const isNextPage = await page.$(".pagination__next")`	in this line of code, we find the html element with the `.pagination__next` selector and save it in `isNextPage` constant
`if (!isNextPage ┃┃ currentPage > pagesLimit) break`	in this line of code, we check that `isNextPage` is not equal to `true` (`!` character) and `currentPage` is greater than `pagesLimit`. And if the expression in brackets is `true` we run `break` which ends the `while` loop
`organicResults.push(...(await getPageResults(page)))`	in this code, we use spread syntax to split the array from result that was returned from `getPageResults` function into elements and add them in the end of `organicResults` array
`browser.close()`	after all we close the browser instance

📌Note: In this case, we can skip

await page.waitForSelector("#gh-ac");
await page.focus("#gh-ac");
await page.keyboard.type(searchString);
await page.waitForTimeout(1000);
await page.click("#gh-btn");

and we can add search query directly in URL so there's no need to open the main page and then make the extra request to display product results. I write it because I wanted to show some helpful methods of puppeteer. But you can remove this code, change the URL constant to https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=${searchString} and write searchString constant in URI encoding like const searchString = encodeURI("playstation");.

Now we can launch our parser. To do this enter node YOUR_FILE_NAME in your command line. Where YOUR_FILE_NAME is the name of your .js file.

Output

[
   {
      "link":"https://www.ebay.com/itm/324843125086?epid=4039276585&hash=item4ba228b95e:g:iygAAOSwJfFdty6D&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4BFods1e0MuxITheGVrICxhRAyEmOAtx6%2BT28euOBHuShbOsuqcQpMnhGTsxgz2hVdsgoUlbIYGe5nghV6CFsQVPDoRG%2FKhoBe2ilQMTPM%2BmcyGm8Qx%2B2DL%2BOg3UZAGCbXM0jikrzbg0zKp1PCYgcINmwxFqy7MaNP%2BnO2TMJEIK45mGxj6Ymsx2lDyuT84SMvBClalDYs9rJMZmrzQqIgyo0Kerk6Wk6F1l%2BBDyJ%2Blpe%2BmwoYqzu2FzQxAX3gAyRF0XSTyrDRu2IYXb0Kh89kbvtuq0KNyNG%2B2lZdO78M0R%7Ctkp%3ABFBMjMe8n6Vg",
      "title":"Dusk Diver Day One Edition PlayStation 4, PS4 Brand New Factory Sealed",
      "condition":"Brand New",
      "price":"$37.49",
      "shipping":"Free shipping",
      "thumbnail":"https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/iygAAOSwJfFdty6D/s-l225.webp"
   },
   {
      "link":"https://www.ebay.com/itm/265719188920?epid=110660824&hash=item3dde190db8:g:-oEAAOSwztpimIB~",
      "title":"Sony PlayStation with xStation installed (PS1, NTSC SCPH-5501)",
      "condition":"Pre-Owned",
      "price":"$289.99",
      "shipping":"+$13.15 shipping",
      "thumbnail":"https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/-oEAAOSwztpimIB~/s-l225.webp"
   },
   ...and other results
]

Links

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Web Scraping eBay Organic Results with Nodejs

Mikhail Zub

What will be scraped

Ebay Search Engine Results API

Code explanation

Output

DIY Preparation

Process

DIY Code

Code explanation

Output

Links

Free Plan · 100 searches / month

APIs

Easy Integrations

Features

Use Cases

What will be scraped

Ebay Search Engine Results API

Code explanation

Output

DIY Preparation

Process

DIY Code

Code explanation

Output

Links

Free Plan · 100 searches / month