# ThriftBooks Scraper: Cheap Books, Condition Prices & Stock Data (`getascraper/thriftbooks-scraper`) Actor

Extract ThriftBooks.com catalog data with 20+ fields: price by condition (New to Acceptable), stock status, ISBN, publisher, and physical specs. Rotating residential proxies avoid blocks automatically. Exports to Excel, CSV, and Google Sheets. Lower rates on paid plan tiers.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/getascraper/thriftbooks-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [GetAScraper](https://apify.com/getascraper) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Automation
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

from $3.30 / 1,000 book records

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?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## 📚 ThriftBooks Scraper: Cheap Books, Condition Prices & Stock Data

<table width="100%" style="display:table;width:100%;border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0;margin-bottom:0">
<tr>
<td style="padding:24px 28px;background:#FBF5F0;border:1px solid #F0DEC7;border-top:4px solid #B45309;color:#1C1917;border-radius:10px 10px 0 0">
<span style="font-size:23px;font-weight:800;color:#1C1917;line-height:1.3">Get ThriftBooks prices for every condition tier, ready for your spreadsheet in minutes.</span><br>
<span style="font-size:15px;color:#57534E;line-height:1.6">Pulls live listings from ThriftBooks.com, the largest independent used-book marketplace, with pricing broken out by New, Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable condition on every title.</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" style="display:table;width:100%;border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0;margin-top:0">
<tr>
<td style="padding:14px 12px;width:25%;background:#FFFFFF;border:1px solid #F0DEC7;vertical-align:top;border-top:none;color:#1C1917;border-radius:0 0 0 10px">
<span style="font-size:15px;font-weight:800;color:#92400E">💲 Priced by condition</span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px;color:#57534E">Five separate prices per book, from New through Acceptable, not just one headline number.</span>
</td>
<td style="padding:14px 12px;width:25%;background:#FFFFFF;border:1px solid #F0DEC7;border-left:none;vertical-align:top;border-top:none;color:#1C1917">
<span style="font-size:15px;font-weight:800;color:#92400E">📖 Full book specs</span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px;color:#57534E">Publisher, page count, ISBN-10/13, weight, dimensions, and age or grade range.</span>
</td>
<td style="padding:14px 12px;width:25%;background:#FFFFFF;border:1px solid #F0DEC7;border-left:none;vertical-align:top;border-top:none;color:#1C1917">
<span style="font-size:15px;font-weight:800;color:#92400E">📤 Any export you need</span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px;color:#57534E">Download as CSV, Excel, or JSON, or send results straight to Google Sheets.</span>
</td>
<td style="padding:14px 12px;width:25%;background:#FFFFFF;border:1px solid #F0DEC7;border-left:none;vertical-align:top;border-top:none;color:#1C1917;border-radius:0 0 10px 0">
<span style="font-size:15px;font-weight:800;color:#92400E">🛡️ Built to avoid blocks</span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px;color:#57534E">Rotating residential connections keep runs completing instead of hitting block pages.</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

ThriftBooks is the largest independent used-book marketplace online, with millions of secondhand and new titles. This Actor turns its public listing and product pages into clean, structured records, so you can track pricing and inventory without copying anything by hand. Built for book dealers, collectors, price-comparison sites, resellers, and retail researchers.

### 🔍 What does ThriftBooks Scraper do?

This Actor turns ThriftBooks listing and search pages into clean, structured data you can analyze. It fetches each book's own detail page in addition to the listing page, so plan on roughly 15 to 20 books a minute depending on category traffic. Each run pulls:

- **Format & quality options**: Every paperback, hardcover, mass market, and board book variation.
- **Pricing & condition details**: All available condition tiers (New, Like New, Very Good, Good, Acceptable) with a separate price for each one.
- **Book specifications**: Original MSRP, publisher, publication year, page count, language, physical weight and dimensions, recommended age or grade range, star ratings, and ISBN-10/13 codes.

Export everything as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML and load it into any spreadsheet, dashboard, or workflow tool.

### 💡 Why use ThriftBooks Scraper?

Real inventory data is essential for competitive book dealing, pricing strategy, and catalog curation. ThriftBooks Scraper gives you the clean details automatically.

- **I am a used-book reseller** tracking ThriftBooks condition prices against my own eBay or AbeBooks listings, so I always know if I am underpriced or leaving money on the table.
- **I am a book collector** watching a specific genre for first editions and signed copies, so I can catch new listings before other collectors do.
- **I am a price-comparison site owner** keeping my catalog's ThriftBooks prices in sync across formats and conditions, so my visitors always see current numbers.
- **I am a textbook reseller** comparing required course titles across editions, so my customers can find the cheapest acceptable copy that still works for the semester.

### 🚀 How to use ThriftBooks Scraper

Running a search takes three steps.

<table width="100%" style="display:table;width:100%;border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0">
<tr>
<td style="padding:16px 14px;width:33%;background:#FBF5F0;border:1px solid #F0DEC7;border-radius:10px 0 0 10px;vertical-align:top;color:#1C1917">
<span style="font-size:12px;font-weight:800;color:#B45309;letter-spacing:1px">STEP 1</span><br>
<span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:700;color:#1C1917">Pick your target</span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px;color:#57534E">Search a keyword, browse a genre, or paste a direct book link.</span>
</td>
<td style="padding:16px 14px;width:33%;background:#FBF5F0;border:1px solid #F0DEC7;border-left:none;vertical-align:top;color:#1C1917">
<span style="font-size:12px;font-weight:800;color:#B45309;letter-spacing:1px">STEP 2</span><br>
<span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:700;color:#1C1917">Set your limit</span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px;color:#57534E">Smaller test runs finish fastest and cost less while you check the data shape.</span>
</td>
<td style="padding:16px 14px;width:33%;background:#FBF5F0;border:1px solid #F0DEC7;border-left:none;border-radius:0 10px 10px 0;vertical-align:top;color:#1C1917">
<span style="font-size:12px;font-weight:800;color:#B45309;letter-spacing:1px">STEP 3</span><br>
<span style="font-size:14px;font-weight:700;color:#1C1917">Export your data</span><br>
<span style="font-size:12px;color:#57534E">Download as CSV, Excel, or JSON, or send it straight to Google Sheets.</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

### 📥 Input

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `mode` | enum | Yes | How to browse: search by keyword, browse a category, or retrieve a specific book details page. |
| `query` | string | No | Search keyword terms, title names, or authors (active in Search mode). |
| `category` | enum | No | The book genre or category to browse, covering all 27 ThriftBooks genres (active in Category mode). |
| `bookUrl` | string | No | Paste a direct ThriftBooks book page link (active in URL mode). |
| `maxItems` | integer | Yes | Maximum number of books to return. The Actor fetches each book's own detail page for full condition pricing, so larger values take proportionally longer. |
| `maxConcurrency` | integer | No | How many pages the Actor requests at once. The Actor also paces its own request rate to stay reliable on ThriftBooks, so raising this does not shorten runtime in a straight line. |
| `debugLogging` | boolean | No | Set to true to show detailed logging steps. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Yes | Proxy settings. Defaults to residential proxies for the most reliable access. |

***

### 📤 Output

Each row in the dataset represents a single book variant. Here is a real-world example:

```json
{
  "book_id": "249579",
  "url": "https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets-by-jk-rowling/249579/",
  "scraped_at": "2026-06-19T10:31:04.414Z",
  "title": "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets",
  "author": "J.K. Rowling",
  "publish_year": 1998,
  "publisher": "Scholastic",
  "page_count": 368,
  "language": "English",
  "format": "Paperback",
  "condition": "Good",
  "price": 4.39,
  "price_formatted": "$4.39",
  "lowest_price": 4.39,
  "price_new": 28.56,
  "price_likenew": 12.79,
  "price_verygood": 9.49,
  "price_good": 6.79,
  "price_acceptable": 4.39,
  "msrp": 17.99,
  "discount_percent": 76,
  "availability": "InStock",
  "isbn10": "0439064864",
  "isbn13": "9780439064866",
  "rating": 3.37,
  "review_count": 23,
  "image_url": "https://i.thriftbooks.com/api/imagehandler/m/81F48E44BF15719E1662C93AD9E71A644D9C1B2B.jpeg"
}
```

### 📊 Data table

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `book_id` | text | The product identification code. |
| `url` | link | Direct link to the book page. |
| `scraped_at` | date | The exact time this data was extracted. |
| `title` | text | Full book title. |
| `author` | text | Author or writer name. |
| `category` | text | Genre or book category name. |
| `description` | text | Full book summary copy. |
| `publish_year` | integer | The year of publication. |
| `publisher` | text | Publisher name. |
| `page_count` | integer | Total page count. |
| `language` | text | Book edition language. |
| `format` | text | Format of the book edition (Paperback, Hardcover, Board Book). |
| `condition` | text | Quality condition of this specific listing (New, Like New, Very Good, Good, Acceptable). |
| `price` | number | Current active price for this listing's condition, in USD. |
| `price_formatted` | text | Formatted price with the dollar sign. |
| `lowest_price` | number | The lowest available used price across all condition tiers. |
| `price_new` | number | Price for a New copy, when ThriftBooks offers one. |
| `price_likenew` | number | Price for a Like New copy, when available. |
| `price_verygood` | number | Price for a Very Good copy, when available. |
| `price_good` | number | Price for a Good copy, when available. |
| `price_acceptable` | number | Price for an Acceptable copy, when available. |
| `msrp` | number | Original retail list price. |
| `discount_percent` | number | Savings percentage off the original list price. |
| `availability` | text | Current stock status (InStock, OutOfStock). |
| `isbn10` | text | ISBN-10 identifier, when available. |
| `isbn13` | text | ISBN-13 identifier, when available. |
| `weight` | text | Physical shipping weight of the book, when listed. |
| `dimensions` | text | Physical size of the book, when listed. |
| `age_range` | text | Publisher-recommended reader age range, for children's and YA titles. |
| `grade_range` | text | Publisher-recommended school grade range, for education titles. |
| `rating` | number | Average star rating out of 5. |
| `review_count` | number | Total number of customer reviews. |
| `image_url` | image | Cover image link. |

### 💰 Pricing

This Actor runs on pay-per-result pricing. You pay only for book records that actually land in your dataset, so a search that returns nothing costs nothing.

Your per-record rate automatically drops as your Apify plan tier goes up (Bronze, Silver, Gold, and above), with no setup needed on your side. Check the Pricing tab on this page for your exact current rate.

> 💰 **Cost-saving tip**: This Actor uses lightweight HTML parsing instead of a full browser, so it runs fine on the lowest memory tier (512 MB). A 10 to 20 book test run is also the cheapest way to confirm the data shape before scaling up to a full catalog pull.

### ⭐ Enjoying ThriftBooks Scraper?

<table width="100%" style="display:table;width:100%;border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0">
<tr>
<td style="padding:20px 24px 14px;background:#FBF5F0;border:1px solid #F0DEC7;border-left:5px solid #B45309;border-radius:10px 10px 0 0;color:#1C1917">
<span style="font-size:20px;letter-spacing:4px">⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐</span><br>
<span style="font-size:17px;font-weight:800;color:#1C1917">If this Actor helped you land a cheap first edition or a matching-condition price, leave a quick review.</span><br>
<span style="font-size:14px;color:#57534E">A 5-star rating takes 10 seconds and helps other book dealers and collectors find it. Your feedback also tells us what to build next.</span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0;background:#B45309;border:1px solid #B45309;border-left:5px solid #B45309;border-top:none;border-radius:0 0 10px 10px;text-align:center;color:#FFFFFF">
<a href="https://apify.com/getascraper/thriftbooks-scraper/reviews" style="display:block;padding:13px 16px;color:#FFFFFF;text-decoration:none;font-weight:800;font-size:15px;letter-spacing:0.3px">★&nbsp;&nbsp;Rate this Actor on Apify</a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

### ✨ Tips

- **Start small**: Run a small query with 10 to 20 products first to verify the data shape matches your needs.
- **Combine filters**: Search for specific keywords across different categories. The scraper automatically combines them to locate all products.
- **Keep residential proxies on**: They cut down on access-block pages far more than datacenter proxies on large catalog scans.

### ❓ FAQ, disclaimers, and support

##### Does ThriftBooks Scraper get blocked?

Rarely. The Actor routes requests through rotating residential connections by default, which cuts down on the access-block pages that hit plain datacenter requests. If a page still comes back blocked, the Actor retries automatically.

##### Does it access private account or order information?

No. The Actor only reads public catalog and book pages, the same pages search engines can see. It never logs into ThriftBooks and never touches order history, saved payment details, or any page behind a sign-in wall.

##### How fresh is the data?

Every run fetches live pages at request time. Nothing is cached or reused from a previous run, so prices, stock status, and ratings reflect what ThriftBooks shows right now.

##### Are all book categories supported?

Yes. All 27 categories in the ThriftBooks browse menu are available, from Literature & Fiction and Mystery, Thriller & Suspense through Education & Reference and Large Print, plus the ThriftBooks Deals clearance section.

##### Is scraping ThriftBooks legal?

This Actor reads publicly visible product information that is open to the public and to search engines. You are responsible for checking that your use case complies with local regulations and ThriftBooks' own terms.

##### What is the difference between price, msrp, and discount_percent?

`price` is the current price for that listing's specific condition. `msrp` is the original list price before any discount. `discount_percent` is how much that price saves versus the original list price.

##### What if some fields come back empty?

Not every book has a list price, reviews, or full physical specs on ThriftBooks. When a field is not available, it is left blank rather than filled with a placeholder, so your spreadsheet stays accurate.

##### Can I get a custom solution?

Open an issue in the Actor's Issues tab in Apify Console for feature requests, custom fields, or integration help.

### 🔗 Other actors

- [Woot Scraper](https://apify.com/getascraper/woot-scraper) ↗ - extracts flash-sale deal listings from Woot by Amazon.
- [ShopGoodwill Scraper](https://apify.com/getascraper/shopgoodwill-scraper) ↗ - pulls active and sold charity auction listings.
- [AuctionNinja Scraper](https://apify.com/getascraper/auctionninja-scraper) ↗ - collects estate sale and online auction listings.
- [HiBid Scraper](https://apify.com/getascraper/hibid-scraper) ↗ - extracts real-time auction listings across categories.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Choose how to browse books: search by keyword, browse a category, or retrieve a specific book details page.

## `query` (type: `string`):

Enter book titles, keyword terms, or author names (active in Search mode).

## `category` (type: `string`):

Select the book genre to scrape (active in Category mode).

## `bookUrl` (type: `string`):

Paste a direct ThriftBooks work/detail page link (active in URL mode).

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

Maximum number of books to save before stopping. Lower numbers complete runs faster and cheaper.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many pages the scraper visits simultaneously. Default of 3 is optimal and safe.

## `debugLogging` (type: `boolean`):

Show system trace logs during scraper execution.

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

Proxies protect your scrapes from being blocked. Residential proxy is recommended.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "searchBooks",
  "query": "harry potter",
  "category": "literature-and-fiction",
  "bookUrl": "https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone_j-k-rowling/245835/",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "maxConcurrency": 3,
  "debugLogging": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (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 = {
    "mode": "searchBooks",
    "query": "harry potter",
    "category": "literature-and-fiction",
    "bookUrl": "https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone_j-k-rowling/245835/",
    "maxItems": 50,
    "maxConcurrency": 3,
    "debugLogging": false,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("getascraper/thriftbooks-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 = {
    "mode": "searchBooks",
    "query": "harry potter",
    "category": "literature-and-fiction",
    "bookUrl": "https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone_j-k-rowling/245835/",
    "maxItems": 50,
    "maxConcurrency": 3,
    "debugLogging": False,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("getascraper/thriftbooks-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 '{
  "mode": "searchBooks",
  "query": "harry potter",
  "category": "literature-and-fiction",
  "bookUrl": "https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone_j-k-rowling/245835/",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "maxConcurrency": 3,
  "debugLogging": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call getascraper/thriftbooks-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,getascraper/thriftbooks-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/EkG37M7An4Zz5DDlI/builds/f3zSMjbFWYxdQApUk/openapi.json