Goofish (Xianyu / 闲鱼) Scraper: Fast Search & Deals ($2/1k)

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Table of contents

• Overview
• Why choose this scraper?
• Features
• How to scrape Goofish
• Use cases
• Input parameters
• Output data
• Pricing
• Real-Time API and MCP server
• Integrations and export
• Tips and limitations
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Compliance & Privacy
• Support and custom solutions
• Related Actors

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Overview

Goofish (闲鱼 / Xianyu / Idle Fish) is Alibaba's premier C2C secondhand marketplace with over 500 million registered users. It is Asia's largest trading hub for pre-owned consumer electronics, gaming gear, vintage cameras, designer fashion, anime collectibles, and musical instruments.

Scraping Goofish typically presents severe technical barriers:

• Aggressive Alibaba anti-bot protection and dynamic MTOP signature verification.
• Mandatory Chinese mobile number (+86) SMS verification and QR login walls.
• Strict IP reputation scoring and residential dirty-node throttling.
• Session expiration and recurring sliding captcha challenges.

Goofish Xianyu Search Scraper by UnitBytes solves all of these challenges. Operating via an automated stealth engine with in-flight proxy rotation, this Actor extracts thousands of listings seamlessly worldwide with zero login, zero cookies, zero Chinese phone number, and zero server compute fees ($0.00 compute).

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Why choose this scraper?

Feature	UnitBytes Goofish Scraper	Standard Scrapers	Commercial Data APIs
Pricing Model	Pay-Per-Result (PPE)	Heavy Monthly Subscription ($80–$300/mo)	High Per-Request Rates
Server Compute Fees	100% Free ($0.00)	Billed per GB memory & runtime hour	Hidden infrastructure fees
Chinese Phone / Account	None (100% Global Access)	Requires Chinese (+86) Phone & Login	Requires Corporate KYC Verification
Dual Extraction Modes	Summary (Fast & Cheap) + Full Detail	❌ Single rigid mode only	Limited fixed fields
Seller Zhima Credit	Full Ratings (信用极好), Sales & Reviews	❌ Missing or incomplete	❌ Not available
Physical Condition & Specs	Enriched (Brand, Model, Wear Grade)	Raw text blobs	Unstructured data
Media Quality	Original Uncompressed HD Photos	Low-resolution thumbnails	Compressed images
Personal Seller Filter	Built-in (filterPersonal)	❌ Mixed with commercial spam	❌ No filtering
Anti-Bot Resilience	In-Flight Proxy Auto-Rotation	Frequent IP blocks and empty outputs	Cloudflare / WAF errors

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Features

• 🛡️ 100% Zero-Cookie Guest Mode: No Chinese phone number (+86), Alipay account, or session cookies required. Runs immediately out of the box worldwide.
• ⚡ Dual Extraction Modes:
  • Summary Mode (summary): High-speed, cost-efficient deal discovery returning 13 essential fields (ID, title, price CNY, photo, location, tags, seller ID, wants count).
  • Full Detail Mode (full): Deep product inspection with 25+ comprehensive fields (full HD photo gallery, exact specifications, item wear grade, seller Zhima credit rating, review percentage, total sold).
• 🛡️ Seller Background & Zhima Credit Intelligence: Capture seller Zhima Credit tiers (信用极好 Excellent, 信用良好 Good), account age (registeredDays), transaction volume (totalSold), 24-hour reply rate, and customer feedback percentages to eliminate counterfeit risks.
• 🎯 Smart Arbitrage Filters: Filter specifically for private individual sellers (filterPersonal) to bypass commercial dropshippers and uncover genuine underpriced deals.
• 🖼️ Uncompressed HD Media: Extracts full-resolution photo URLs directly from Alibaba CDNs without compression artifacts.
• 🌐 English & Chinese Query Support: Search using global brand names (e.g. iPhone 15, Switch OLED, Sony A7M4, RTX 4090) or native Chinese keywords (手办, 胶片相机).
• 🔄 Universal URL Dispatcher: Paste search keywords, direct item web URLs (goofish.com/item?id=...), or bare numeric product IDs.
• 🤖 Built-in Real-Time API & MCP Server: Query listings synchronously in sub-second latency or connect directly to Claude Code, Cursor, or ChatGPT.

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How to scrape Goofish

Scraping Goofish with UnitBytes requires no coding and takes under 30 seconds:

1. Open the Actor: Navigate to Goofish Xianyu Search Scraper on the Apify Store and click Try for free or Start.
2. Enter Search Query: Type any keyword (e.g. Switch OLED, iPhone 15 Pro, RTX 4090, or Leica M6) into the Search Keyword field. You can also paste direct Goofish search or product URLs.
3. Configure Options:
   • Choose Detail Level: Select summary for fast, low-cost search or full for complete product specs and seller credit ratings.
   • Set Max Items: Enter how many items you need (e.g., 20, 100, or 1000).
   • Optional: Apply price boundaries (priceMin, priceMax) or sort by priceAsc, newest, or priceDrop.
4. Run and Export: Click Save & Start. Once finished, export your clean data in Excel, CSV, JSON, or connect directly via API / Webhooks.

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Use cases

1. Cross-Border E-Commerce Arbitrage (eBay, Mercari, Amazon, Shopee)

Source heavily discounted secondhand electronics, vintage cameras, designer apparel, and Japanese gaming hardware from Chinese private sellers on Goofish. Verify condition through uncompressed HD photo galleries and resell globally with 30%–100%+ profit margins.

2. Supplier Vetting & Counterfeit Protection

Inspect seller Zhima Credit ratings (信用极好), account age (registeredDays), transaction volume (totalSold), and positive review rates (goodReviewRate) before purchasing or placing orders with proxy buying agents (Superbuy, Pandabuy, CSSBuy).

3. Secondary Market Price Intelligence & Depreciation Curves

Track secondary market pricing, price drop percentages (priceDropPercent), and consumer buyer demand (wants count) across consumer electronics, camera lenses, and luxury goods to make data-driven buying decisions.

4. Collectibles & Limited-Edition Imports

Monitor rare anime figures, vintage film cameras, mechanical keyboards, trading cards, and discontinued gaming consoles before they appear on international marketplaces.

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Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
keyword	string	—	Search query in English or Chinese (e.g. iPhone 15, Switch OLED, RTX 4090, 手办). You can also paste a Goofish web link directly!
detailLevel	string	"full"	"full" (150+ enriched fields, complete specs, HD gallery, seller stats) or "summary" (ultra-fast, 13 core fields).
maxItems	integer	100	Maximum number of items to collect (supports long runs up to 3,000+ items).
sortBy	string	"newest"	Sort order: newest, priceAsc, priceDesc, priceDrop, credit, relevance.
priceMin	integer	—	Minimum price in Chinese Yuan (¥ CNY).
priceMax	integer	—	Maximum price in Chinese Yuan (¥ CNY).
quickFilters	array	[]	filterPersonal (private sellers only), filterFreePostage (free shipping), filterNew (brand new), filterAppraise (verified authentic).
regionIds	array	[]	Filter by Chinese province or city code (e.g. 440100 for Guangzhou, 310100 for Shanghai).
startUrls	array	[]	Direct Goofish item URLs or numeric product IDs to enrich. Automatically defaults to detailLevel: "full".
searchUrls	array	[]	Goofish search URLs (keywords and parameters extracted automatically; scrapes multiple search queries sequentially).
proxyConfiguration	object	Residential	Apify Proxy configuration (residential proxies recommended for large-scale runs).

Example 1: Fast Bargain Hunter Input (Summary Mode)

{
  "keyword": "Switch OLED",
  "detailLevel": "summary",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "sortBy": "priceAsc",
  "priceMax": 1500,
  "quickFilters": ["filterPersonal", "filterFreePostage"]
}

Example 2: Deep Spec & Seller Reputation Audit (Full Mode)

{
  "keyword": "Sony A7M4",
  "detailLevel": "full",
  "maxItems": 20,
  "sortBy": "newest",
  "quickFilters": ["filterPersonal"]
}

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Output data

The scraper produces clean, normalized dataset records. You can compare summary vs full detail fields below:

Field	Summary Mode (summary)	Full Detail Mode (full)	Description
id	✅	✅	Goofish unique product listing ID
title	✅	✅	Listing title
price	✅	✅	Listed price in Chinese Yuan (¥ CNY)
currency	✅	✅	Currency code (CNY)
url	✅	✅	Direct Goofish product URL
pictureUrl	✅	✅	Primary listing photo
city	✅	✅	Seller location / shipping origin city
freeShipping	✅	✅	Free shipping flag
tags	✅	✅	Badges (e.g. 6小时前发布, 卖家信用极好, 验货宝)
wants	✅	✅	Number of interested buyers (想要)
seller.id	✅	✅	Seller profile ID
seller.name	✅	✅	Seller display username
postedAt	✅	✅	Listing publication timestamp
originalPrice	—	✅	Original retail price before discount (¥ CNY)
discountRate	—	✅	Percentage discount from original price
description	—	✅	Full product description
condition	✅	✅	Physical condition (e.g. 全新, 良好, 轻微划痕磨损)
imageUrls	✅	✅	Array of uncompressed HD photo gallery URLs
specs	—	✅	Key product attributes (Brand, Model, Version, Storage, etc.)
tradeGuarantee	—	✅	Alibaba Alipay trade guarantee escrow protection flag
seller.signature	—	✅	Seller bio / store signature
seller.lastActive	—	✅	Seller last seen online status
seller.averageReplyTime	—	✅	Average seller response time
seller.registrationDays	—	✅	Account age in days
seller.zhimaAuth	—	✅	Real-name & Alipay identity verification flag
seller.zhimaCredit	✅	✅	Zhima Credit tier (卖家信用极好, 卖家信用优秀, 卖家信用良好)
seller.totalSold	—	✅	Historical completed sales count
seller.goodReviewRate	✅	✅	Positive customer feedback percentage (e.g. 100%)
seller.replyRate24h	—	✅	24-hour message response rate
stats.views	—	✅	Number of page views
stats.wants	—	✅	Number of buyer inquiries
stats.favorites	—	✅	Number of buyer bookmarks

Sample Output Record (JSON)

{
  "id": "1082638287441",
  "title": "Switch OLED 喷射战士3限定港版",
  "price": 1340,
  "currency": "CNY",
  "url": "https://www.goofish.com/item?id=1082638287441",
  "pictureUrl": "https://img.alicdn.com/bao/uploaded/i2/2212259311853/O1CN01Dd3gwqAchoG3thAe_!!4611686018427384045-0-xy_item.jpg",
  "imageUrls": [
    "https://img.alicdn.com/bao/uploaded/i2/2212259311853/O1CN01Dd3gwqAchoG3thAe_!!4611686018427384045-0-xy_item.jpg"
  ],
  "city": "九江",
  "freeShipping": true,
  "tags": [
    "6小时前发布",
    "卖家信用极好",
    "freeShippingIcon"
  ],
  "postedAt": "2026-09-16T14:34:20+00:00",
  "description": "Switch OLED 喷射战士3限定港版\n原装配件齐全，箱说全，五码合一，机身有轻微使用痕迹，按键灵敏，屏幕已贴钢化膜，功能一切正常。\n支持顺丰包邮，支持验货宝验机！",
  "status": "onsale",
  "condition": "轻微划痕磨损",
  "specs": {
    "品牌": "Nintendo/任天堂",
    "型号": "Switch OLED",
    "成色": "轻微划痕磨损",
    "游戏机版本": "港版",
    "内存容量": "64GB",
    "包装": "有原包装盒"
  },
  "seller": {
    "id": "2212259311853",
    "name": "极客数码_0x",
    "url": "https://www.goofish.com/personal?userId=2212259311853",
    "city": "九江",
    "lastActive": "6小时前来过",
    "averageReplyTime": "2小时",
    "registrationDays": 1811,
    "zhimaAuth": true,
    "zhimaCredit": "卖家信用极好",
    "totalSold": 9,
    "goodReviewRate": "100%",
    "replyRate24h": "66%"
  },
  "tradeGuarantee": true,
  "stats": {
    "views": 41,
    "wants": 12,
    "favorites": 18
  },
  "detailLevel": "full"
}

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Pricing

This Actor operates under the transparent Pay-Per-Result (PPE) model with 100% Free Server Compute ($0.00 compute fee). You only pay for the exact items successfully scraped.

Item Type / Event	Price per Item	Price per 1,000 Items	Server Compute Fee
Search Item (summary)	$0.002	$2.00 / 1k	$0.00 (Free)
Enriched Detail Item (full)	$0.003	$3.00 / 1k	$0.00 (Free)

📊 Cost Estimation Table

Number of Listings	Cost in Summary Mode (summary)	Cost in Full Mode (full)	Compute Costs
50 items	$0.10	$0.15	$0.00
200 items	$0.40	$0.60	$0.00
500 items	$1.00	$1.50	$0.00
1,000 items	$2.00	$3.00	$0.00
5,000 items	$10.00	$15.00	$0.00

[!TIP] Zero Compute Billing Advantage: Standard scrapers bill you for CPU and RAM consumption every second they run—meaning slow proxies, network lag, or large pages cost you extra money. With UnitBytes, your server compute fee is strictly $0.00, saving you 55%–80% in total platform costs.

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Real-Time API and MCP server

Need instant, sub-second responses for live dashboards, arbitrage bots, or AI agents? This Actor includes an always-warm Real-Time REST API at https://unitbytes--goofish-xianyu-search-scraper.apify.actor with zero cold starts, zero compute fees, and identical Pay-Per-Result pricing.

cURL Quickstart

# Real-time search query
curl -G "https://unitbytes--goofish-xianyu-search-scraper.apify.actor/v1/search" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "keyword=iPhone 15 Pro" \
  --data-urlencode "max_items=10" \
  --data-urlencode "price_min=1200" \
  --data-urlencode "sort_by=newest"

Python Quickstart

import requests

API_BASE = "https://unitbytes--goofish-xianyu-search-scraper.apify.actor"
HEADERS = {"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"}

resp = requests.get(
    f"{API_BASE}/v1/search",
    headers=HEADERS,
    params={"keyword": "Switch OLED", "max_items": 10, "price_min": 800, "detail_level": "summary"},
    timeout=30,
)
payload = resp.json()
print(f"Extracted {payload['meta']['count']} items in {payload['meta']['latencyMs']} ms")
for item in payload["data"]:
    print(item["id"], item["price"], item["title"], item["url"])

🔌 MCP Server Setup: Claude Code, Cursor & AI Agents

Connect this scraper directly to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible AI agent via the hosted Apify MCP server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,unitbytes/goofish-xianyu-search-scraper"
    }
  }
}

No manual API token required in configuration if your client supports Apify OAuth sign-in. Alternatively, pass your Apify API Token in the authorization header.

🤖 Ready-to-Use AI Agent Prompt

Copy and paste this prompt into Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, or your favorite AI assistant:

"Act as an e-commerce sourcing specialist. Using the Goofish Xianyu Search Scraper on Apify (unitbytes/goofish-xianyu-search-scraper), find secondhand electronics deals with high seller Zhima Credit ratings. Show me the optimal input configuration and Python code to extract listings."

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Integrations and export

Exporting data from Goofish Xianyu Search Scraper is completely flexible:

• Direct Export Formats: Download datasets directly from the Apify Console in Excel (.xlsx), CSV, JSON, or XML.
• Python Integration: Run batch jobs using the official apify-client library:

  from apify_client import ApifyClient
  
  client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
  run = client.actor("unitbytes/goofish-xianyu-search-scraper").call(
      run_input={"keyword": "Switch OLED", "maxItems": 50, "detailLevel": "summary"}
  )
  items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
  print(f"Extracted {len(items)} items")
  

• Node.js / TypeScript Integration:

  import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
  
  const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });
  const run = await client.actor("unitbytes/goofish-xianyu-search-scraper").call({
      keyword: 'iPhone 15',
      maxItems: 50,
      detailLevel: 'summary'
  });
  const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
  console.log(`Extracted ${items.length} items`);
  

• Automated Workflows: Trigger runs on a schedule or stream items to Google Sheets, Airtable, Webhooks, Make, Zapier, or n8n.

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Tips and limitations

• Query Language: Global brand names and product model numbers work natively in English (e.g. iPhone 15 Pro, Switch OLED, RTX 4090, Leica). For domestic Chinese products, traditional goods, or anime figures, using Chinese terms (e.g. 手办, 胶片相机, 显卡) yields the largest selection.
• Filter Personal Sellers: Use filterPersonal in quickFilters to exclude commercial retailers and focus strictly on genuine secondhand deals from individual consumers.
• Proxy Recommendations: Alibaba strictly blocks datacenter IP ranges. This Actor automatically manages Apify Residential Proxies with smart in-flight rotation. If an IP encounters an Alibaba soft-block, the scraper automatically cycles to a clean residential IP exit node without aborting your run.
• Pagination Depth: Goofish caps search pagination at 50 pages per search query. For large-scale data collection (1,000+ items), split your queries across specific price bands (priceMin, priceMax) or regional codes (regionIds).

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a Chinese phone number (+86) or Goofish account?

No. The scraper operates entirely in Zero-Cookie Guest Mode using automated device emulation. You do not need a Chinese phone number, Alipay account, or session cookies.

Can I search using English keywords?

Yes. Global brand names, models, and numbers (e.g. iPhone 15, Switch OLED, RTX 4090, Sony A7M4, Leica) work natively. For specialized domestic Chinese goods, searching with Chinese terms returns the highest volume of listings.

What is the advantage of filterPersonal?

Goofish hosts both individual sellers and commercial vendors. Enabling filterPersonal filters out commercial dropshippers and shows only genuine individual users selling their personal secondhand items, which is where the best arbitrage deals are found.

What does Zhima Credit tell me about a seller?

Zhima Credit (芝麻信用) is Alibaba's official credit rating system. Sellers with 信用极好 (Excellent Credit) have verified government identities, linked banking credentials, and an exemplary transaction track record. Filtering by credit score helps you avoid unverified accounts and counterfeit goods.

What proxies should I use?

For best performance and uninterrupted pagination on large datasets, we recommend Apify Residential Proxies. The Actor automatically configures them for you.

Is scraping Goofish legal?

Yes. Scraping publicly available data on the open web is legal under international fair use precedents. The Actor only collects public product listings and seller reputations. For more details on legal frameworks and best practices, see Apify's guide on the legality of web scraping.

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Support and custom solutions

Need help configuring your run, requesting custom fields, or building an enterprise data pipeline?

• 💬 Apify Issues: Open an Issue in the Actor Issues Tab
• 📧 Direct Contact: contact@unitbytes.com
• 🌟 Publisher Profile: View all UnitBytes Actors on Apify

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⚖️ Compliance & Privacy

• The Legality of Web Scraping: Scraping public data is legal. For a comprehensive overview of global regulations, fair use principles, and ethical standards, read Apify's official guide on the legality of web scraping.
• Public Data Only: This Actor extracts only publicly accessible listings and seller store details available on the open web. It does not bypass login barriers, private dashboards, or access authenticated personal account data.
• Personal Data & Privacy: Users are responsible for ensuring that their data collection activities comply with applicable privacy regulations (including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL) and fair use principles.
• Independent Tool Disclaimer: This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Taobao, Goofish, or Xianyu (闲鱼). All trademarks, logos, and brand names are the property of their respective owners.

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Related Actors

⚡ UnitBytes · Chinese E-Commerce & B2B Sourcing Ecosystem
🌐 Alibaba Wholesale Global B2B & MOQ Verified Suppliers & Audits	🇨🇳 1688 Factory Direct Domestic Factory Prices SKU matrices & FBA specs	📕 Xiaohongshu Trends Social Commerce & KOL Viral Posts & Buyer Intent	🐟 Goofish Products 📍 You are here Zero-login search engine	⭐ Goofish Sellers Merchant Due Diligence Zhima credit & reviews