**Mercari.com Search Prompt**

What does Mercari Search Prompt do?

Mercari Search Prompt lets you scrape Mercari listings from a plain-English prompt — no URL building required. Describe what you're looking for (for example, "iPhone 13 Pro unlocked under 500 USD"), and the Actor uses AI to turn your prompt into multiple targeted Mercari search URLs, scrapes the matching listings, and stores them as a structured dataset.

Under the hood, it chains two Actors together:

1. AI Scraper Input Generator converts your prompt into Mercari search URLs.
2. Mercari.com Scraper crawls those URLs and extracts the listings.

Because it runs on the Apify platform, you get API access, scheduling, monitoring, and integrations (Make, Zapier, webhooks, Google Drive, and more) out of the box.

Why use Mercari Search Prompt?

• No manual URL construction — describe your intent in natural language, and the AI handles Mercari's search URL format, filters, and query variations.
• Better coverage — one prompt becomes several targeted search URL variations, surfacing listings a single query would miss.
• Deal hunting and price monitoring made simple — schedule a daily run of "used iPhone 13 Pro under $500" and feed the results into a spreadsheet or alerting workflow.
• Reseller and market research — track what's listed, at what price, and from which sellers across an entire product category on the secondhand market.
• Automation-ready — predictable JSON output that plugs straight into data pipelines and integrations.

How to use Mercari Search Prompt

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. In the Input tab, enter your search prompt in plain English.
3. Optionally adjust Max items to limit how many listings are scraped.
4. Set the Actor's memory to 128 MB or less in the run options (the Actor enforces this limit, since the heavy lifting happens in the chained Actors).
5. Click Start and wait for the run to finish.
6. Open the Output tab or the dataset API URL to view and export your results.

Input

Set the input in the Actor's Input tab. Only the prompt is required.

{
    "prompt": "iPhone 13 Pro unlocked under 500 USD",
    "maxItems": 50
}

Field	Type	Required	Description
prompt	string	Yes	Plain-English description of what to search for on Mercari. Be specific — brand, condition, budget, and category all improve results.
maxItems	integer	No	Maximum number of listings to scrape (default 10).

Output

Each scraped Mercari listing is stored as one item in the default dataset. You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

Example dataset item:

{
    "url": "https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m1234567890/",
    "name": "iPhone 13 Pro 256GB Unlocked",
    "image": "https://static.mercdn.net/item/detail/orig/photos/m1234567890_1.jpg",
    "priceShow": "$479",
    "price": "479",
    "originalPrice": "599",
    "location": "California",
    "description": ["Excellent condition, unlocked, includes original box and charger."],
    "sellerName": "gadgetdeals",
    "brandName": "Apple",
    "inStock": true,
    "listUrl": "https://www.mercari.com/search/?keyword=iphone%2013%20pro"
}

Data table

Field	Type	Description
url	string	Direct link to the Mercari listing
name	string	Listing title
price	string	Current listing price
priceShow	string	Formatted price as displayed on Mercari
originalPrice	string	Original price before discount, if any
brandName	string	Brand of the item
location	string	Item location
description	array	Listing description paragraphs
sellerName	string	Seller username
image	string	Main listing image URL
inStock	boolean	Whether the item is still available
listUrl	string	The generated search URL the listing was found on

Exact fields may vary slightly by listing, since not all Mercari listings expose the same attributes.

How much does it cost to scrape Mercari with a prompt?

A run consists of three parts: this orchestrator Actor (very light — it runs at 128 MB and mostly waits), one short AI Scraper Input Generator run, and the Mercari.com Scraper run whose cost scales with Max items (it is priced per Actor start plus a small fee per result). For small runs (tens of items) the total cost is typically a few cents. Use Max items to cap the scraping cost of each run. If you are on the Apify free tier, start with a small maxItems value to see actual consumption before scaling up.

Tips

• Be specific in your prompt. "Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones, used, under $200" produces much better search URLs than "headphones".
• Mention condition and budget. Mercari is a secondhand marketplace — prompts like "like-new Nintendo Switch OLED under $250" map naturally to its listings.
• US marketplace only. The scraper targets the US version of Mercari (www.mercari.com); Mercari Japan is not supported.
• Schedule it. Add the Actor to a Schedule to monitor prices or new listings daily, and connect a webhook or integration to act on the results.
• Keep memory at 128 MB. The Actor intentionally refuses to run with more, because the chained Actors do the actual work — extra memory would only add cost.

FAQ, disclaimers, and support

Is it legal to scrape Mercari? This Actor extracts publicly available listing data. You are responsible for reviewing and complying with Mercari's Terms of Service and applicable laws (including data protection regulations) before using the results, especially in automated or commercial workflows.

Why did my run fail with a memory error? This Actor requires memory of 128 MB or less. Lower the memory setting in the run options and start it again.

Why are there no results? If the AI could not generate valid search URLs from your prompt, the run fails with a clear error — rephrase the prompt with more specific product terms and try again.

Found a bug or need a custom feature? Open an issue in the Actor's Issues tab — custom solutions and tailored versions are available on request.