📚 ThriftBooks Scraper: Cheap Books, Condition Prices & Stock Data

Get ThriftBooks prices for every condition tier, ready for your spreadsheet in minutes. Pulls live listings from ThriftBooks.com, the largest independent used-book marketplace, with pricing broken out by New, Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable condition on every title.

💲 Priced by condition Five separate prices per book, from New through Acceptable, not just one headline number.

📖 Full book specs Publisher, page count, ISBN-10/13, weight, dimensions, and age or grade range.

📤 Any export you need Download as CSV, Excel, or JSON, or send results straight to Google Sheets.

🛡️ Built to avoid blocks Rotating residential connections keep runs completing instead of hitting block pages.

ThriftBooks is the largest independent used-book marketplace online, with millions of secondhand and new titles. This Actor turns its public listing and product pages into clean, structured records, so you can track pricing and inventory without copying anything by hand. Built for book dealers, collectors, price-comparison sites, resellers, and retail researchers.

🔍 What does ThriftBooks Scraper do?

This Actor turns ThriftBooks listing and search pages into clean, structured data you can analyze. It fetches each book's own detail page in addition to the listing page, so plan on roughly 15 to 20 books a minute depending on category traffic. Each run pulls:

• Format & quality options: Every paperback, hardcover, mass market, and board book variation.
• Pricing & condition details: All available condition tiers (New, Like New, Very Good, Good, Acceptable) with a separate price for each one.
• Book specifications: Original MSRP, publisher, publication year, page count, language, physical weight and dimensions, recommended age or grade range, star ratings, and ISBN-10/13 codes.

Export everything as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML and load it into any spreadsheet, dashboard, or workflow tool.

💡 Why use ThriftBooks Scraper?

Real inventory data is essential for competitive book dealing, pricing strategy, and catalog curation. ThriftBooks Scraper gives you the clean details automatically.

• I am a used-book reseller tracking ThriftBooks condition prices against my own eBay or AbeBooks listings, so I always know if I am underpriced or leaving money on the table.
• I am a book collector watching a specific genre for first editions and signed copies, so I can catch new listings before other collectors do.
• I am a price-comparison site owner keeping my catalog's ThriftBooks prices in sync across formats and conditions, so my visitors always see current numbers.
• I am a textbook reseller comparing required course titles across editions, so my customers can find the cheapest acceptable copy that still works for the semester.

🚀 How to use ThriftBooks Scraper

Running a search takes three steps.

STEP 1 Pick your target Search a keyword, browse a genre, or paste a direct book link.

STEP 2 Set your limit Smaller test runs finish fastest and cost less while you check the data shape.

STEP 3 Export your data Download as CSV, Excel, or JSON, or send it straight to Google Sheets.

📥 Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
mode	enum	Yes	How to browse: search by keyword, browse a category, or retrieve a specific book details page.
query	string	No	Search keyword terms, title names, or authors (active in Search mode).
category	enum	No	The book genre or category to browse, covering all 27 ThriftBooks genres (active in Category mode).
bookUrl	string	No	Paste a direct ThriftBooks book page link (active in URL mode).
maxItems	integer	Yes	Maximum number of books to return. The Actor fetches each book's own detail page for full condition pricing, so larger values take proportionally longer.
maxConcurrency	integer	No	How many pages the Actor requests at once. The Actor also paces its own request rate to stay reliable on ThriftBooks, so raising this does not shorten runtime in a straight line.
debugLogging	boolean	No	Set to true to show detailed logging steps.
proxyConfiguration	object	Yes	Proxy settings. Defaults to residential proxies for the most reliable access.

---

📤 Output

Each row in the dataset represents a single book variant. Here is a real-world example:

{
  "book_id": "249579",
  "url": "https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets-by-jk-rowling/249579/",
  "scraped_at": "2026-06-19T10:31:04.414Z",
  "title": "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets",
  "author": "J.K. Rowling",
  "publish_year": 1998,
  "publisher": "Scholastic",
  "page_count": 368,
  "language": "English",
  "format": "Paperback",
  "condition": "Good",
  "price": 4.39,
  "price_formatted": "$4.39",
  "lowest_price": 4.39,
  "price_new": 28.56,
  "price_likenew": 12.79,
  "price_verygood": 9.49,
  "price_good": 6.79,
  "price_acceptable": 4.39,
  "msrp": 17.99,
  "discount_percent": 76,
  "availability": "InStock",
  "isbn10": "0439064864",
  "isbn13": "9780439064866",
  "rating": 3.37,
  "review_count": 23,
  "image_url": "https://i.thriftbooks.com/api/imagehandler/m/81F48E44BF15719E1662C93AD9E71A644D9C1B2B.jpeg"
}

📊 Data table

Field	Type	Description
book_id	text	The product identification code.
url	link	Direct link to the book page.
scraped_at	date	The exact time this data was extracted.
title	text	Full book title.
author	text	Author or writer name.
category	text	Genre or book category name.
description	text	Full book summary copy.
publish_year	integer	The year of publication.
publisher	text	Publisher name.
page_count	integer	Total page count.
language	text	Book edition language.
format	text	Format of the book edition (Paperback, Hardcover, Board Book).
condition	text	Quality condition of this specific listing (New, Like New, Very Good, Good, Acceptable).
price	number	Current active price for this listing's condition, in USD.
price_formatted	text	Formatted price with the dollar sign.
lowest_price	number	The lowest available used price across all condition tiers.
price_new	number	Price for a New copy, when ThriftBooks offers one.
price_likenew	number	Price for a Like New copy, when available.
price_verygood	number	Price for a Very Good copy, when available.
price_good	number	Price for a Good copy, when available.
price_acceptable	number	Price for an Acceptable copy, when available.
msrp	number	Original retail list price.
discount_percent	number	Savings percentage off the original list price.
availability	text	Current stock status (InStock, OutOfStock).
isbn10	text	ISBN-10 identifier, when available.
isbn13	text	ISBN-13 identifier, when available.
weight	text	Physical shipping weight of the book, when listed.
dimensions	text	Physical size of the book, when listed.
age_range	text	Publisher-recommended reader age range, for children's and YA titles.
grade_range	text	Publisher-recommended school grade range, for education titles.
rating	number	Average star rating out of 5.
review_count	number	Total number of customer reviews.
image_url	image	Cover image link.

💰 Pricing

This Actor runs on pay-per-result pricing. You pay only for book records that actually land in your dataset, so a search that returns nothing costs nothing.

Your per-record rate automatically drops as your Apify plan tier goes up (Bronze, Silver, Gold, and above), with no setup needed on your side. Check the Pricing tab on this page for your exact current rate.

💰 Cost-saving tip: This Actor uses lightweight HTML parsing instead of a full browser, so it runs fine on the lowest memory tier (512 MB). A 10 to 20 book test run is also the cheapest way to confirm the data shape before scaling up to a full catalog pull.

⭐ Enjoying ThriftBooks Scraper?

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ If this Actor helped you land a cheap first edition or a matching-condition price, leave a quick review. A 5-star rating takes 10 seconds and helps other book dealers and collectors find it. Your feedback also tells us what to build next.

★  Rate this Actor on Apify

✨ Tips

• Start small: Run a small query with 10 to 20 products first to verify the data shape matches your needs.
• Combine filters: Search for specific keywords across different categories. The scraper automatically combines them to locate all products.
• Keep residential proxies on: They cut down on access-block pages far more than datacenter proxies on large catalog scans.

❓ FAQ, disclaimers, and support

Does ThriftBooks Scraper get blocked?

Rarely. The Actor routes requests through rotating residential connections by default, which cuts down on the access-block pages that hit plain datacenter requests. If a page still comes back blocked, the Actor retries automatically.

Does it access private account or order information?

No. The Actor only reads public catalog and book pages, the same pages search engines can see. It never logs into ThriftBooks and never touches order history, saved payment details, or any page behind a sign-in wall.

How fresh is the data?

Every run fetches live pages at request time. Nothing is cached or reused from a previous run, so prices, stock status, and ratings reflect what ThriftBooks shows right now.

Are all book categories supported?

Yes. All 27 categories in the ThriftBooks browse menu are available, from Literature & Fiction and Mystery, Thriller & Suspense through Education & Reference and Large Print, plus the ThriftBooks Deals clearance section.

Is scraping ThriftBooks legal?

This Actor reads publicly visible product information that is open to the public and to search engines. You are responsible for checking that your use case complies with local regulations and ThriftBooks' own terms.

What is the difference between price, msrp, and discount_percent?

price is the current price for that listing's specific condition. msrp is the original list price before any discount. discount_percent is how much that price saves versus the original list price.

What if some fields come back empty?

Not every book has a list price, reviews, or full physical specs on ThriftBooks. When a field is not available, it is left blank rather than filled with a placeholder, so your spreadsheet stays accurate.

Can I get a custom solution?

Open an issue in the Actor's Issues tab in Apify Console for feature requests, custom fields, or integration help.

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