eBay

Overview

The eBay Buy APIs provide product search, item details, and catalog data — plus selling and fulfillment APIs. Auth is OAuth 2.0 (an unauthenticated request returns 403 — verified).

Quick Start

Item search (replace YOUR_TOKEN):

curl "https://api.ebay.com/buy/browse/v1/item_summary/search?q=iphone&limit=3" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

{
  "itemSummaries": [
    {
      "itemId": "v1|395123456789|0",
      "title": "Apple iPhone 15 128GB Black",
      "price": { "value": "799.00", "currency": "USD" },
      "itemWebUrl": "https://www.ebay.com/itm/395123456789",
      "thumbnailImages": [{ "imageUrl": "https://..." }]
    }
  ]
}

Authentication

• Register at developer.ebay.com → create an app → get Client ID + Client Secret.
• OAuth 2.0 client-credentials flow for public data:

curl -X POST "https://api.ebay.com/identity/v1/oauth2/token" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  -u "CLIENT_ID:CLIENT_SECRET" \
  -d "grant_type=client_credentials&scope=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.ebay.com%2Foauth%2Fapi_scope%2Fsell.inventory.readonly"

• Requests without a token return 403 (verified).

Rate Limits & Notes

• Free developer account: modest rate limits (hundreds of calls/day per API — check the docs); paid tiers scale.
• The Buy Browse API (/buy/browse/v1) is the main read API: item_summary search, item details, and catalog.
• Sandbox: api.sandbox.ebay.com with test keys for development.
• OAuth tokens are short-lived — refresh via the same token endpoint.

FAQ

Is eBay API free? Free developer account with rate limits; some APIs have fees.

How do I get a token? OAuth 2.0 client-credentials with your app’s Client ID/Secret.

Why 403? Public Buy APIs require a Bearer token (verified).