Boat Trader Scraper

Scrape Boat Trader (boattrader.com) — one of the largest boat resale marketplaces in the US, listing new and used boats from private sellers and dealers nationwide. Browse by boat type, class, brand, condition, fuel type, hull shape, and US state, filter by price / model year / length, or fetch full listing detail for specific boats by ID or URL. No login, no cookies, no paid proxy required — an optional free datacenter proxy can be enabled for extra reliability.

What this actor does

• Two modes: browse (filter-driven search) and byId (direct listing lookup)
• Rich filter taxonomy: boat type, boat class (88 sub-categories), boat group/activity, brand (100 curated + free-text override), condition, fuel type, hull shape, US state
• Keyword search: full-text keyword across title/description/equipment (matches Boat Trader's own site search — e.g. searching an engine brand returns boats powered by it, not just that brand of boat)
• Range filters: price, model year, and length (feet)
• Full listing detail on lookup: engines/horsepower, hull material, dealer contact, description, dimensions, images, video
• Empty fields are omitted

Data source / limitations

Boat Trader's robots.txt disallows automated access to /search-results/ and several query-string display parameters (sort, PerPage, ViewType, etc.). This actor never touches those paths — it exclusively uses the public /boats/{filters}/ browse taxonomy and /boat/{id}/ listing pages, both of which are open to crawling.

• Boat Trader's filter taxonomy (/boats/type-X/class-Y/make-Z/state-W/...) enforces a fixed segment order server-side; this actor always builds URLs in the verified valid order, and any filter combination the site itself rejects is reported as zero matching listings rather than silently substituting broader results.
• Price / model year / length filters are applied by the actor after fetching each results page, since Boat Trader's browse taxonomy does not expose numeric range segments natively. Very narrow combinations of taxonomy filters + range filters may scan a bounded number of upstream pages before giving up (matching typical real-world usage, not the entire multi-hundred-thousand-listing catalog).
• boatGroup (activity-based browsing, e.g. "Fishing Boats") is a separate taxonomy from boatType/boatClass on the live site and cannot be combined with them — setting boatGroup takes priority.
• Fields that only exist on the full listing page (engine specs, hull material, dealer contact detail, description, video) are populated in mode=byId; mode=browse returns the lighter field set available directly from the results page (still includes price, year, length, condition, dealer name, images, and location).
• This is an independent, third-party actor. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Boat Trader or Boats Group.

Output per boat listing

• boatId — Boat Trader's numeric listing ID
• title — e.g. 2025 Bennington 22SSBSE
• make, model, year
• condition — new or used
• status — listing status (e.g. active)
• boatType — power / sail / pwc / small
• boatClass, secondaryClasses[] — sub-category taxonomy (mode=byId enriches this)
• fuelType — gasoline / diesel / electric / other
• hullMaterial, hullShape, hullKeelType, hin (Hull Identification Number, mode=byId)
• price, priceCurrency, priceDropAmount, priceHidden
• lengthFt, beamFt (mode=byId), seatingCapacity (mode=byId)
• engineCount, totalHorsepower, engineModels[] (mode=byId)
• locationCity, locationState, locationZip, locationCountry, latitude, longitude
• dealerName, dealerPhone
• isFsbo, isFinanceable (mode=byId)
• dateListed, dateModified (mode=byId)
• description, overview (mode=byId)
• images[], primaryImageUrl, videoUrl
• listingUrl, sourceUrl
• recordType: "boatListing", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	browse	browse (filter search) or byId (direct lookup)
boatIds	array	–	Listing IDs or URLs to fetch directly (mode=byId)
boatType	string	power	power / sail / pwc / small (mode=browse)
boatClass	string	–	Sub-category, e.g. power-pontoon, sail-sloop (mode=browse)
boatGroup	string	–	Activity-based category, e.g. fishing-boats — replaces boatType/boatClass (mode=browse)
make	string	–	Brand, from the top 100 most-listed brands (mode=browse)
makeCustom	string	–	Free-text brand for any brand not in make (mode=browse)
condition	string	–	new or used (mode=browse)
fuelType	string	–	gas / diesel / electric / other (mode=browse)
hullShape	string	–	Hull shape, e.g. pontoon, deep-vee, catamaran (mode=browse)
state	string	–	Two-letter US state code (mode=browse)
keyword	string	–	Full-text keyword search (mode=browse)
minPrice / maxPrice	int	–	Price range in USD
minYear / maxYear	int	–	Model year range
minLengthFt / maxLengthFt	int	–	Length range in feet
maxItems	int	20	Hard cap on emitted records (1–1000)
proxyConfiguration	object	off	Optional Apify proxy (free AUTO datacenter group); enable only if you see blocked/empty runs

Example: browse new pontoon boats in Florida

{
  "mode": "browse",
  "boatType": "power",
  "boatClass": "power-pontoon",
  "condition": "new",
  "state": "fl",
  "maxItems": 30
}

Example: used Sea Ray boats under $150,000

{
  "mode": "browse",
  "make": "sea-ray",
  "condition": "used",
  "maxPrice": 150000,
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: browse fishing boats 20–30 ft, built since 2015

{
  "mode": "browse",
  "boatGroup": "fishing-boats",
  "minLengthFt": 20,
  "maxLengthFt": 30,
  "minYear": 2015,
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: full listing detail lookup by ID/URL

{
  "mode": "byId",
  "boatIds": [
    "9979385",
    "https://www.boattrader.com/boat/2011-regal-42-sport-coupe-9935643/"
  ]
}

Use cases

• Boat shoppers — track new listings matching a brand, budget, and region
• Dealership market research — monitor competitor inventory and pricing by state
• Marine industry analytics — study price/length/year distributions across boat classes
• Lead generation — pull dealer contact info for outreach on newly listed boats
• Price-tracking tools — snapshot listings over time to detect price drops (priceDropAmount)

FAQ

What is the data source? Boat Trader (boattrader.com), one of the largest boat marketplaces in the United States, operated by Boats Group.

Is this affiliated with Boat Trader? No. This is an independent third-party actor that reads Boat Trader's publicly accessible browse and listing pages.

Why do some listings have fewer fields than others? mode=browse returns the fields available on the results page (price, year, length, condition, dealer, images, location). mode=byId fetches the full listing page and includes additional detail (engine specs, hull material, description, dealer phone detail, video).

Why is price sometimes missing? Some dealers mark their listing "Call for price" (priceHidden: true); in that case no numeric price is published by Boat Trader, so none is returned.

Can I combine boatGroup with boatType? No — on the live site these are mutually exclusive taxonomies. If boatGroup is set, it takes priority and boatType/boatClass are ignored.

Can I search across all 50 states at once? Yes — leave state blank to search nationwide (the default).

How fresh is the data? Every run fetches Boat Trader's live pages at request time; there is no caching.

Does this actor need a proxy or login? No. It loads Boat Trader's free/public pages directly — no cookies, no API key, no paid proxy group required. An optional free Apify (AUTO) datacenter proxy can be turned on in the input if you ever see empty runs from your IP.