# Elderly Instruments Scraper - Vintage & Used Guitars (`lulzasaur/elderly-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Elderly.com (Elderly Instruments) vintage, used & new guitars, banjos, mandolins and music gear via its search API. Extract title, brand, price, condition (New/Used/Vintage), year, category, availability, image and URL. Great for vintage-gear price tracking and market research.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lulzasaur/elderly-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

## Elderly Instruments Scraper — Vintage & Used Guitars, Banjos, Mandolins

Scrape **[Elderly Instruments](https://www.elderly.com)** — one of the world's most famous vintage & used instrument dealers (Lansing, Michigan, est. 1972) — via its official search API. Get clean, structured JSON for vintage, used and new guitars, banjos, mandolins, ukuleles, fiddles, amps, and accessories.

### What it does

- Searches Elderly.com by keyword (e.g. `stratocaster`, `martin dreadnought`, `pre-war banjo`)
- Filters by condition: **New / Used / Vintage** (vintage = used instruments built 30+ years ago)
- Optionally restricts to in-stock items only
- Enriches each product with its authoritative **brand (vendor)** and product type
- Outputs price, list/compare-at price, year built, decade, consignment status, category tree, availability, image and URL

### Why Elderly Instruments data?

Elderly is a benchmark source for vintage fretted-instrument pricing. Dealers, collectors, and resellers track its listings to:

- **Price vintage gear** — compare your Martin, Gibson, Fender, or Gretsch against a trusted dealer's asking prices
- **Spot arbitrage** — cross-reference against Reverb, eBay and local listings
- **Monitor inventory** — get alerted when rare instruments (pre-war Martins, 60s Fenders) hit the market
- **Market research** — analyze price trends by brand, decade and condition

### Input

```json
{
    "searchQueries": ["stratocaster", "mandolin"],
    "maxListings": 40,
    "condition": "vintage",
    "inStockOnly": true,
    "scrapeDetails": true
}
```

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `searchQueries` | array | `["stratocaster"]` | Keywords to search |
| `maxListings` | integer | `40` | Max products per query (0 = up to 1000) |
| `condition` | enum | `any` | `any` / `new` / `used` / `vintage` |
| `inStockOnly` | boolean | `false` | Only currently available items |
| `scrapeDetails` | boolean | `true` | Fetch authoritative brand + product type per item |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | none | Not needed normally |

### Output

One record per product:

```json
{
    "id": "8265355133119",
    "sku": "30U-223532",
    "title": "Fender Stratocaster (1966)",
    "brand": "Fender",
    "price": 14500,
    "listPrice": null,
    "currency": "USD",
    "condition": "Vintage",
    "year": 1966,
    "decade": "1960s",
    "onConsignment": true,
    "category": "Guitars > Electric Guitars > Solid Body Electric Guitars",
    "productType": "Electric Guitars",
    "availability": "In Stock",
    "quantity": 1,
    "image": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0147/9412/9472/files/...jpg",
    "url": "https://www.elderly.com/products/fender-stratocaster-30u-223532",
    "searchQuery": "stratocaster",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-07-31T20:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### Use cases

- Vintage guitar price tracking and valuation datasets
- Reverb / eBay arbitrage screening
- Inventory alerts for rare instruments
- Brand/decade market analysis for collectors and dealers

### FAQ

**Is this legal?** The actor accesses only publicly available product listings via the site's public search API, at a respectful request rate. No login, no personal data.

**Why do some items show "Out of Stock"?** Elderly keeps sold vintage instruments listed as a price-history reference — that's valuable comp data.

**What does "Vintage" mean here?** Used instruments whose recorded build year/decade is 30+ years old. Newer second-hand items are labeled "Used".

# Actor input Schema

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

List of search terms to scrape on Elderly.com (e.g., 'stratocaster', 'martin dreadnought', 'gibson mandolin', '5-string banjo'). Each query produces a separate set of results.

## `maxListings` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of products to scrape per search query. Set to 0 for maximum available (capped at 1000).

## `condition` (type: `string`):

Filter by instrument condition. 'Vintage' means used instruments built 30+ years ago (by Elderly's year/decade data).

## `inStockOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Only return products currently available for purchase.

## `scrapeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch each product's detail JSON to get the authoritative brand (vendor) and product type. Adds one fast request per product; disable for maximum speed (brand falls back to a title heuristic).

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

Proxy settings. Elderly.com and its search API are accessible without a proxy; enable one only if you hit rate limits at scale.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "stratocaster"
  ],
  "maxListings": 40,
  "condition": "any",
  "inStockOnly": false,
  "scrapeDetails": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

# 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": [
        "stratocaster"
    ]
};

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

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

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).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": [
    "stratocaster"
  ]
}' |
apify call lulzasaur/elderly-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=lulzasaur/elderly-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/z2VNDzGqnoaLnYFhv/builds/0cL4ZphENBMZ9eBBw/openapi.json