ThriftBooks Scraper

Apify Actor for scraping ThriftBooks used book marketplace listings. Uses CheerioCrawler for fast, efficient HTML parsing without a browser.

Features

• Search ThriftBooks by keyword (title, author, subject, ISBN)
• Two modes: quick search results or full detail scraping
• Extracts titles, authors, prices, conditions, and formats from search results
• Detail mode adds: ISBNs, publisher, release date, page count, all edition prices by condition, reviews, and ratings
• Parses JSON-LD structured data (Book offers, Reviews) with HTML fallback
• Automatic pagination (50 results per page)

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
searchQueries	string[]	["fiction"]	Search terms to scrape
maxListings	integer	100	Max listings per query (0=unlimited)
scrapeDetails	boolean	false	Visit each book page for full details
proxyConfiguration	object	{}	Proxy settings (recommended for large runs)

Example Input

{
    "searchQueries": ["python programming", "harry potter"],
    "maxListings": 50,
    "scrapeDetails": true
}

Output

Search-only mode (scrapeDetails: false)

{
    "title": "Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner",
    "url": "https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/python-programming.../300868/",
    "author": "Michael Dawson",
    "price": 8.19,
    "condition": "Very Good",
    "format": "Paperback",
    "imageUrl": "https://i.thriftbooks.com/api/imagehandler/m/...",
    "position": 0,
    "searchQuery": "python programming",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-03-17T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Detail mode (scrapeDetails: true)

{
    "title": "Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Third Edition",
    "url": "https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/python-programming.../300868/",
    "author": "Michael Dawson",
    "price": 8.19,
    "condition": "Very Good",
    "format": "Paperback",
    "language": "English",
    "isbn": "1435455002",
    "isbn13": "9781435455009",
    "releaseDate": "January 2010",
    "publisher": "Cengage Learning",
    "pages": 464,
    "rating": 4.43,
    "reviewCount": 6,
    "description": "If you are new to programming with Python...",
    "lowestPrice": 6.89,
    "conditionPrices": [
        { "condition": "Like New", "price": 11.09 },
        { "condition": "Very Good", "price": 8.19 },
        { "condition": "Good", "price": 7.19 },
        { "condition": "Acceptable", "price": 6.89 }
    ],
    "offers": [
        {
            "isbn13": "9781435455009",
            "price": 8.19,
            "currency": "USD",
            "condition": "Used",
            "sku": "8099977",
            "availability": "InStock"
        }
    ],
    "reviews": [
        {
            "author": "Huntdawg",
            "rating": 5,
            "title": "Excellent book for a beginner.",
            "body": "Above",
            "date": "9/6/2023 7:21:13 PM"
        }
    ],
    "imageUrl": "https://i.thriftbooks.com/api/imagehandler/m/...",
    "searchQuery": "python programming",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-03-17T12:00:00.000Z"
}

How It Works

1. Builds search URLs for each query using ThriftBooks browse endpoint
2. Parses search results from AllEditionsItem-tile HTML elements (50 per page)
3. Extracts title, author, price, condition, format, and thumbnail from each tile
4. Automatically paginates via b.p parameter when more results are available
5. Optionally visits each book's detail page for rich data extraction
6. Detail pages are parsed via JSON-LD Book and Review schemas plus HTML metadata

Quick Start

$apify run --purge

Deploy to Apify

apify login
apify push

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