# Atomic Avenue Comic Scraper - Back Issues, Grades & Prices (`lulzasaur/atomicavenue-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Atomic Avenue, the ComicBase back-issue comic marketplace. Search any title and get comic title, issue number, publisher, condition grade, price, seller, cover date, image and URL — one row per copy for sale across sellers.

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

## Pricing

from $10.00 / 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.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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

## Atomic Avenue Comic Scraper

Scrape **[Atomic Avenue](https://atomicavenue.com)** — the ComicBase-powered online marketplace for back-issue comic books. Search any title and get structured data for every issue and every copy for sale across the site's sellers.

### What it does

Given one or more search terms (comic titles / keywords), the actor:

1. Searches Atomic Avenue and pages through the results (up to 50 issues per page).
2. For each in-stock issue, opens the issue page and extracts **every copy for sale** — condition grade, price, seller, and seller country.
3. Pushes one row per copy to the dataset (or one row per issue when per-copy scraping is disabled).

### Output fields

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `title` | Comic series title (e.g. `Batman`) |
| `issue` | Issue number (e.g. `1`, `181`, `-1`) |
| `publisher` | Publisher (e.g. `Marvel`, `DC`, `Image`) |
| `condition` | Condition grade of the copy (e.g. `Near Mint`, `Very Fine to Near Mint`) |
| `price` | Price of this copy, USD |
| `seller` | Seller / store username |
| `sellerCountry` | Seller country code |
| `inventoryId` | Atomic Avenue inventory ID of the copy |
| `coverDate` | Cover date (e.g. `Jul 1997`) |
| `copiesAvailable` | Total copies available for the issue |
| `imageUrl` | Cover image URL |
| `url` | Issue page URL |
| `query` | The search term that produced the row |
| `source` | `atomicavenue.com` |
| `scrapedAt` | ISO timestamp |

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `searchQueries` | array | `["batman"]` | Comic titles / keywords to search |
| `maxItems` | integer | `60` | Max issues to process per query |
| `scrapeListings` | boolean | `true` | Open each issue for per-copy grade/price/seller; off = issue-level only |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | none | Optional Apify Proxy (not required — the site is plain SSR HTML) |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "searchQueries": ["batman", "amazing spider-man", "saga"],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "scrapeListings": true
}
```

### Sample output row

```json
{
  "title": "Spider-Man",
  "issue": "1",
  "publisher": "Marvel",
  "condition": "Near Mint",
  "price": 2.95,
  "seller": "kochcom",
  "sellerCountry": "US",
  "inventoryId": "7640985",
  "coverDate": "Aug 1990",
  "copiesAvailable": 6,
  "imageUrl": "https://www.atomicavenue.com/Covers/1/4/2290/1411302290.jpg",
  "url": "https://atomicavenue.com/atomic/item/177420/1/SpiderMan-1",
  "source": "atomicavenue.com"
}
```

### Use cases

- Track back-issue comic prices and condition-grade spreads across sellers.
- Build arbitrage / deal-finder tools comparing Atomic Avenue with eBay, MyComicShop, etc.
- Feed a comic price guide or collection-valuation app.

### Notes

- Data comes from Atomic Avenue's public search and issue pages (server-rendered HTML).
- Pricing is per result row (dataset item). Please scrape responsibly.

# Actor input Schema

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

Comic titles / keywords to search on Atomic Avenue (e.g. 'batman', 'spider-man', 'x-men', 'saga').

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

Maximum number of issues to process per search query (up to 50 issue cards per results page). Each in-stock issue can yield several copy rows.

## `scrapeListings` (type: `boolean`):

Open each in-stock issue page to extract every copy for sale (condition grade, price, seller, country). Turn off for a faster issue-level scrape (title, publisher, cover date, lowest price only).

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

Proxy settings. Atomic Avenue serves plain server-rendered HTML with no anti-bot wall, so no proxy is needed by default. Enable Apify Proxy (datacenter) if you hit IP rate limits.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "batman"
  ],
  "maxItems": 60,
  "scrapeListings": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# 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": [
        "batman"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("lulzasaur/atomicavenue-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": ["batman"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("lulzasaur/atomicavenue-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": [
    "batman"
  ]
}' |
apify call lulzasaur/atomicavenue-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lulzasaur/atomicavenue-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/bVzzGangYcxaWTk14/builds/33v2GlWoL3NQ9fzx5/openapi.json