Quarter Price Auction Scraper API

A simple, focused JSON API that scrapes every item from every auction across all pages on quarterpriceauction.com.

Structure

├── backend/
│   ├── index.ts                    # Main HTTP endpoint
│   └── scrapers/
│       ├── mainScraper.ts          # Main orchestration logic
│       ├── auctionDiscovery.ts     # Finds all auction URLs
│       ├── auctionScraper.ts       # Scrapes individual auctions
│       ├── paginationDetector.ts   # Detects page count per auction
│       └── itemExtractor.ts        # Extracts item data from HTML/REDUX
├── shared/
│   └── types.ts                    # TypeScript interfaces
└── index.ts                        # Entry point

Usage

Main Endpoint

GET / - Returns ALL items from ALL auctions (comprehensive scraping)

Other Endpoints

GET /health - Health check endpoint
GET /info - API information and available endpoints

Response Format

Returns all items from all auctions:

{
  "timestamp": "2025-08-16T18:25:00.000Z",
  "totalItems": 450,
  "totalAuctions": 6,
  "items": [
    {
      "title": "Google Pixel 9a with Gemini - Unlocked Android Smartphone...",
      "auctionTitle": "August 22 Auction - Quarter Price",
      "auctionUrl": "https://www.quarterpriceauction.com/auctions/30135-august-22-auction",
      "itemUrl": "https://www.quarterpriceauction.com/auctions/30135/lot/291744-google-pixel...",
      "imageUrl": "https://d3j17a2r8lnfte.cloudfront.net/qrt/2025/8/medium/DG6mWsSZbO4GZPZh7Trv5Fza.jpeg",
      "lotNumber": "291744",
      "currentBid": "$45.00",
      "startingBid": "$1.00",
      "bidCount": 12,
      "timeLeft": "2d 4h 15m",
      "category": "Electronics"
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "reduxDataFound": true,
    "auctionUrlsFound": 6,
    "scrapedAuctions": 6,
    "totalPagesScraped": 45,
    "processingTimeMs": 180000
  }
}

Features

🔍 Comprehensive Scraping: Extracts every item from every auction
📄 Multi-Page Support: Automatically detects and handles pagination
🎯 Detailed Item Data: Titles, lot numbers, prices, images, categories
🧠 Intelligent Parsing: Uses REDUX data extraction + HTML fallbacks
⚡ Performance Optimized: Rate limiting and binary search pagination detection
🛡️ Error Resilient: Graceful error handling with detailed metadata
📊 Rich Metadata: Processing statistics and data source information

Technical Implementation

Multi-Level Scraping Strategy

Auction Discovery: Finds all auction URLs from main page
Pagination Detection: Uses binary search to find max pages per auction
Item Extraction: Tries REDUX data first, falls back to HTML parsing
Data Enhancement: Extracts lot numbers, prices, bid counts from containers

Performance Features

Rate Limiting: 300-500ms delays between requests
Caching: 10-minute cache for comprehensive scraping
Binary Search: Efficient pagination detection
Memory Management: Processes auctions sequentially

Item Data Fields

title - Full item name/description
auctionTitle - Which auction the item belongs to
auctionUrl - Link to the auction page
itemUrl - Direct link to the individual item/lot
imageUrl - Product image from CDN
lotNumber - Auction lot number
currentBid - Current highest bid amount
startingBid - Starting bid amount
bidCount - Number of bids placed
timeLeft - Time remaining in auction
category - Item category

Performance Notes

Comprehensive scraping takes 3-5 minutes and returns 200-500+ items
Results are cached to improve subsequent request performance
Processing time and page count included in metadata for transparency

✅ MISSION

Goal: Simple JSON list of every item across all auctions with metadata.

Status: ✅ Accomplished - Clean, organized, focused implementation.

wolf

QPAScrape