ebay

eBay (ebay.com)

eBay search pages are server-rendered HTML behind a one-time JS splash challenge (splashui/challenge, "Pardon Our Interruption"). With puppeteer.connect() to the user's real Chrome the challenge auto-redirects in under a second and the ul.srp-results list is fully populated. No captcha, no proxies.

Detection

Signal	Value
Server	ebay-proxy-server
Challenge	307 → /splashui/challenge?ap=1&appName=orch&ru=... (title: "Pardon Our Interruption...")
Framework	Marko-rendered SSR HTML + eBay RUM client JS
Anti-bot	Custom splash challenge (uzm* cookies, _crefId JOSE token) — clears on real Chrome automatically
Auth	Not required for search
robots.txt	/sch/ allowed for anonymous crawling

Architecture

• URL template: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=<query>
• First anonymous hit returns 307 → splash challenge HTML; the JS on that page sets __uzm* cookies, POSTs a token, and redirects back to the original URL.
• Once cookies are set (which happens instantly in a real Chrome profile) the SRP is plain SSR HTML. All items are present on load — no infinite scroll — but images/below-the-fold cards are lazy-loaded, so scroll before extracting.
• Listing cards are <li class="s-card"> inside ul.srp-results. Newer layout — the legacy .s-item selectors no longer exist on /sch/i.html (2026).

Strategy used

• Phase 0 (curl) — blocked by splash challenge (Pardon Our Interruption). Skipped Phase 1.
• Phase 2 (browser) — puppeteer.connect({ browserURL: "http://127.0.0.1:9222" }) cleared the challenge in one redirect. Extraction is pure DOM scraping; no API replay needed.

Stealth config that works

No stealth plugin needed when using the real Chrome profile. Minimal connect:

const browser = await puppeteer.connect({ browserURL: "http://127.0.0.1:9222" });
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.setViewport({ width: 1400, height: 900 });
await page.goto(url, { waitUntil: "domcontentloaded", timeout: 45000 });

// If first hit landed on the splash page, wait for the auto-redirect
if ((await page.title()).includes("Pardon")) {
  await page.waitForNavigation({ timeout: 30000 }).catch(() => {});
}
await page.waitForSelector("ul.srp-results > li.s-card", { timeout: 30000 });