# Yahoo Auctions Japan Scraper - Bids, Prices & Listings (`logiover/yahoo-auctions-scraper`) Actor

Export Yahoo Auctions Japan listings in bulk: title, current price, buy-it-now price, bid count, time left, end time, seller rating, free-shipping flag, category, image and auction URL. Track Japanese auctions and download as JSON, CSV or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/logiover/yahoo-auctions-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Logiover](https://apify.com/logiover) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.10 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Yahoo Auctions Japan Scraper — Bids, Prices & Listings

Yahoo Auctions Japan in rows: title, current price, buy-it-now price, bid count, time left, exact end time, seller feedback rating, free-shipping flag, category, image and auction link.

### What does the Yahoo Auctions Scraper do?

This Actor collects listings from **Yahoo Auctions Japan** (ヤフオク), the country's largest auction marketplace and the main source for Japanese collectors' items, used electronics, car parts and vintage goods. It returns one row per listing with the fields as **data rather than display text**: the price is the integer 17050 rather than the string "17,050円", and the end time is a real timestamp rather than "7時間" counting down.

Those values are not scraped from the rendered card. Yahoo annotates every listing with `data-auction-*` attributes and a packed parameter string that carries the buy-it-now price, the exact start and end timestamps and **the seller's positive-feedback percentage** — a field the card never displays at all. Reading those is what produces an export you can sort, filter and schedule against.

### Who is it for?

- **Proxy buying and forwarding services** sourcing listings for overseas customers.
- **Resellers and arbitrage buyers** watching Japanese prices against Western markets.
- **Collectors** tracking specific models, makers or eras.
- **Auction analysts** studying bid behaviour and closing prices.
- **Parts dealers** monitoring used car and camera part supply.
- **Market researchers** measuring Japanese second-hand demand.

### Use cases

- Track every listing for a model and record what it closes at.
- Find auctions ending soon with no bids — the classic bargain filter.
- Compare buy-it-now prices against auction prices for the same item.
- Build a seller shortlist using the feedback rating column.
- Monitor a category for new listings on a schedule.
- Filter to free-shipping listings only.
- Study how bid counts relate to final prices in a category.

### Why use this Yahoo Auctions Scraper?

- **Seller feedback rating on every row**, extracted from data the card does not show.
- **Exact end timestamps**, not a relative countdown that is meaningless once exported.
- **Bid counts including zero.** A zero-bid auction is a real and interesting answer, not a missing value.
- **Buy-it-now price separated from the current price**, so fixed-price and auction supply can be told apart.
- **50 listings per page** with keyword or whole-category crawling.
- **Japan-pinned residential proxying**, because the site serves its own market.

### What data can you extract?

| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `auctionId` | Yahoo's own auction identifier |
| `title` | Listing title |
| `currentPrice` | Current price in yen |
| `buyNowPrice` | Buy-it-now price, where the listing has one |
| `bids` | Number of bids so far, zero included |
| `timeLeft` | Time remaining as the site words it |
| `endsAt` | Exact end time, ISO 8601 |
| `categoryId` | Yahoo Auctions category identifier |
| `sellerRating` | Seller's positive-feedback percentage |
| `isFleaMarket` | Fixed-price marketplace listing rather than an auction |
| `freeShipping` | Free shipping flag |
| `imageUrl` | Listing thumbnail |
| `url` | Direct link to the auction |

#### Sample output

```json
{
  "auctionId": "c1113828077",
  "title": "送料無料／30日保証 ■ ノートPC用 内蔵スピーカー／DELL Inspiron 15より取外し品",
  "currentPrice": 2480,
  "buyNowPrice": null,
  "bids": 0,
  "timeLeft": "50秒",
  "endsAt": "2026-08-26T07:46:27.000Z",
  "categoryId": "2084193583",
  "sellerRating": 99.4,
  "isFleaMarket": false,
  "freeShipping": true,
  "imageUrl": "https://auc-pctr.c.yimg.jp/i/auctions.c.yimg.jp/images/auc.jpg",
  "url": "https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c1113828077"
}
```

### How to use the Yahoo Auctions Scraper

#### Option A — search terms

Put terms into **Search terms**. Japanese returns the most listings, but Latin brand and model names appear in a great many titles too.

#### Option B — a whole category

Set **Category ID** to the `auccat` number from a category URL and leave the search empty.

#### Option C — bargain hunting

Sort by **Ending soonest** and filter the export to rows where `bids` is 0.

#### Option D — fixed-price only

Tick **Buy-it-now only** to return listings that carry a fixed price.

### Input parameters

| Parameter | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `searchQueries` | array | Search terms, one per line |
| `categoryId` | string | Category ID from a Yahoo Auctions URL |
| `sortBy` | select | Ending soonest, price, bids or newly listed |
| `sortOrder` | select | Ascending or descending |
| `onlyBuyNow` | boolean | Only listings with a fixed buy-it-now price |
| `maxItems` | integer | How many listings to collect in total |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Japan-pinned residential proxy, required |

### Tips for best results

- **Leave the proxy pinned to Japan.** Yahoo Auctions serves its own market and behaves differently from elsewhere.
- **Japanese search terms return far more listings.** `ノートパソコン` finds a great deal that `laptop` misses.
- **Sort by ending soonest and re-run on a schedule** to build a record of closing prices.
- **`buyNowPrice` is empty on most rows** because most listings are true auctions with no fixed price — that is the signal, not a gap.
- **Use `endsAt`, not `timeLeft`, for anything you keep.** A countdown is meaningless the moment the run finishes.

### Integrations

Send results to Google Sheets, Airtable, Slack, Zapier, Make or your own endpoint through Apify's integrations, or run on a schedule to track a category continuously.

### API usage

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_USERNAME~yahoo-auctions-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "searchQueries": ["ノートパソコン"],
    "sortBy": "end",
    "maxItems": 1000
  }'
```

Results export as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS.

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

Available as a tool through Apify's MCP server, so an agent can find listings, check closing prices or watch a category on request.

### FAQ

#### Do I need a Yahoo Japan account?

No. The search pages this Actor reads are open to any visitor.

#### How many listings can one run return?

Search results page deep, so several thousand listings from one run is normal.

#### Does it collect final sold prices?

It collects the price at the moment of the run. Schedule a run near an auction's end time, or re-run against the same search, to capture closing prices.

#### Why is `bids` zero on so many rows?

Because most auctions receive no bids until the final hours. Zero is recorded as zero rather than left empty, which is what makes the bargain filter possible.

#### What is `sellerRating`?

The seller's positive-feedback percentage. Yahoo does not print it on the search card; the Actor reads it from the listing's own tracking parameters.

#### What is `isFleaMarket`?

Yahoo runs a fixed-price marketplace alongside the auctions. The flag tells the two apart.

#### Can I search in English?

Yes, and it works for brand and model names. Japanese terms return substantially more.

#### Can I export to CSV or Excel?

Yes — JSON, CSV, Excel, XML and RSS.

#### How fresh is the data?

Every run reads Yahoo Auctions live.

#### Why did my run return zero listings?

Usually a category ID that does not exist, or a search term with no current listings. Check it on the site first.

### Is it legal to scrape Yahoo Auctions?

This Actor reads publicly visible search pages, and collecting publicly available data is generally lawful. You are responsible for how you use it — check Yahoo Japan's terms, respect seller intellectual property in images and descriptions, and do not use the data for unsolicited bulk contact.

### Related scrapers

Pair with the other marketplace and auction Actors in the store to cover Japanese, European and North American second-hand supply together.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

What to look for on Yahoo Auctions, one term per line. Japanese terms return the most listings, but English brand and model names work too.

## `categoryId` (type: `string`):

Optional. Crawl a whole category instead of searching. The ID is the auccat number in a Yahoo Auctions category URL.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Which field Yahoo orders results on.

## `sortOrder` (type: `string`):

Ascending or descending within the chosen sort field.

## `onlyBuyNow` (type: `boolean`):

Return only listings that carry a fixed buy-it-now price.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

How many listings to collect in total across every search term.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Required. Yahoo Auctions serves Japan, so the run is pinned to Japanese residential addresses.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "laptop"
  ],
  "sortBy": "end",
  "sortOrder": "a",
  "onlyBuyNow": false,
  "maxItems": 500,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "JP"
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Every record collected in this run. Open the Dataset tab to browse, filter or export as JSON, CSV or Excel.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "laptop"
    ],
    "maxItems": 500,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ],
        "apifyProxyCountry": "JP"
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("logiover/yahoo-auctions-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchQueries": ["laptop"],
    "maxItems": 500,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
        "apifyProxyCountry": "JP",
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("logiover/yahoo-auctions-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "laptop"
  ],
  "maxItems": 500,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "JP"
  }
}' |
apify call logiover/yahoo-auctions-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,logiover/yahoo-auctions-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/gy53O1a4AsF0QjMe1/builds/Fdn841ycd6QmrQg6J/openapi.json