# PriceCharting Scraper - Video Game & Card Prices (`lulzasaur/pricecharting-scraper`) Actor

Scrape video game, trading card, and comic prices from PriceCharting.com. Get loose, CIB, and new prices with market data. Supports games, Pokemon, MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh, and comics.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lulzasaur/pricecharting-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [lulz bot](https://apify.com/lulzasaur) (community)
- **Categories:** Other
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 20 total users, 3 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 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/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

## PriceCharting Scraper

Scrape video game, trading card, comic book, Funko Pop, LEGO, and coin prices from [PriceCharting.com](https://www.pricecharting.com). Get current market prices across multiple conditions plus full historical price chart data spanning years of price trends.

### Features

- **Multi-query search** across video games, trading cards (Pokemon, MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh), comics, Funko Pops, LEGO sets, and coins
- **Current prices** for all conditions: Loose, CIB (Complete in Box), New, Graded, Box Only, Manual Only
- **Historical price data** extracted from embedded VGPC chart data — track price trends over months and years
- **Product metadata** including genre, publisher, release date, ASIN, ePID codes
- **Category filtering** — narrow results to video games, trading cards, comics, toys, or coins
- **Two scraping modes**: fast search-only or detailed per-product scraping with full price history
- **Pay-per-event pricing** — you only pay for results you get

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `searchQueries` | String\[] | Search terms (e.g. "super mario bros", "charizard") |
| `maxListings` | Integer | Max products per query (1-100, default 100) |
| `scrapeDetails` | Boolean | Visit detail pages for price history + metadata (default: false) |
| `category` | Select | Filter: all, video-games, trading-cards, comics, toys, coins |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Object | Optional proxy settings |

### Output

#### Search-only mode (scrapeDetails: false)

Fast — extracts data from search results page only:

```json
{
    "title": "Super Mario Bros 3",
    "platform": "NES",
    "loosePrice": 17.84,
    "completePrice": 64.72,
    "newPrice": 651.37,
    "gradedPrice": null,
    "imageUrl": "https://storage.googleapis.com/images.pricecharting.com/.../240.jpg",
    "productUrl": "https://www.pricecharting.com/game/nes/super-mario-bros-3",
    "searchQuery": "super mario bros",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-25T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

#### Detail mode (scrapeDetails: true)

Richer data with price history from each product page:

```json
{
    "title": "Super Mario Bros",
    "platform": "NES",
    "category": "video-games",
    "productId": "9889",
    "asin": "B00004SVV7",
    "epid": "4444",
    "loosePrice": 16.57,
    "completePrice": 184.75,
    "newPrice": 3434.09,
    "gradedPrice": 21174.68,
    "boxOnlyPrice": 103.38,
    "manualOnlyPrice": 23.67,
    "priceHistory": {
        "loose": [
            { "date": "2007-10-01", "price": 4.99 },
            { "date": "2008-01-01", "price": 5.49 }
        ],
        "cib": [...],
        "new": [...],
        "graded": [...]
    },
    "productUrl": "https://www.pricecharting.com/game/nes/super-mario-bros",
    "searchQuery": "super mario bros",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-25T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### Use Cases

- **Price tracking** — monitor collectible values over time
- **Arbitrage** — compare PriceCharting prices against eBay, Mercari, etc.
- **Collection valuation** — calculate total collection worth across platforms
- **Market research** — analyze price trends for specific game consoles or card sets
- **Investment analysis** — identify appreciating collectibles using historical chart data
- **Inventory pricing** — auto-price game store or card shop inventory

### How It Works

1. Searches PriceCharting for each query (up to 100 results per search)
2. In search-only mode, extracts loose/CIB/new prices directly from search results
3. In detail mode, visits each product page to extract all 6 price conditions plus full historical VGPC chart data
4. Historical prices are parsed from the embedded `VGPC.chart_data` JavaScript object containing timestamped price arrays

### Notes

- PriceCharting returns up to 100 results per search query
- Historical prices are in USD. Zero-value entries are filtered out.
- Price history spans from ~2007 to present depending on the product
- Chart data prices are stored in cents and converted to dollars
- No proxies typically needed — PriceCharting has no anti-bot protection

# Actor input Schema

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

List of search terms to scrape (e.g. 'super mario bros', 'charizard', 'batman #1'). Each query returns up to 100 results from PriceCharting search.

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

Maximum number of product listings to scrape per search query. PriceCharting returns up to 100 results per search.

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

If enabled, visits each product's detail page to extract graded/box/manual prices, full historical price chart data, genre, publisher, release date, and ASIN/ePID. Slower but much richer data.

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

Filter results by category. Use 'all' for no filtering.

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

Proxy settings. PriceCharting is SSR with no anti-bot protection, so proxies are usually not needed.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "super mario bros"
  ],
  "maxListings": 100,
  "scrapeDetails": false,
  "category": "all",
  "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": [
        "super mario bros"
    ]
};

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

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

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lulzasaur/pricecharting-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/QckKo9Uq07ul2m1N1/builds/MqvmWhc1ZHHxEO6ba/openapi.json