Why eBay results differ by buyer location
eBay runs country sites, and the same search can return different items depending on where the buyer is: shipping to your region is filtered, prices appear in local currency, and some sellers only ship domestically. If you research from one office IP, you see one market. Exits in the target country show what a local buyer sees, which matters when you set prices or judge demand for a product.
Pick the session mode for the task
Sold-item research and category sweeps run well on rotating sessions: each search page is a standalone request. Use a sticky session when you walk through numbered result pages, since the page order depends on one consistent location. Most research jobs fit a 5 to 10 minute session; you can hold a session from 1 minute to 24 hours.
Listing pages are light, but search result grids with images add up. Skip images in your collector. For broader context on the method, see the eBay scraper guide.
Targeting for cross-border comparisons
A common job is comparing the same product across eBay sites. Run one batch per country with the exit set to that country, for instance -country-gb for ebay.co.uk and -country-de for ebay.de, then compare totals including shipping. Our UK, German and US pages show coverage. Do not mix exits inside one batch, or the shipping and currency fields will be inconsistent.
Staying within eBay's rules
Limit collection to public listing and sold-item pages, respect eBay's User Agreement and robots directives, and keep request rates moderate. Do not use proxies to create multiple accounts, manipulate bids or feedback, or reach private data. Counterfeit spotting on public listings falls under brand protection; see also our acceptable use policy.
How to set up the proxies
Buy a package from 5 GB ($4.50, bandwidth never expires), open the proxy generator and copy the host, port, username and password into your tool. The gateway is gw.nefo.net:9000, and targeting lives in the username: -country-gb for the UK site, -session-run42 for a sticky session. Integration examples are in the docs, and prices are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Not for a few manual searches. For recurring research across countries, local IPs show the listings, shipping options and currency a buyer in that market sees, and spread requests so one address is not asked for everything.
Match the exit to the eBay site you study: the US for ebay.com, the UK for ebay.co.uk, Germany for ebay.de. Listings that do not ship to your region disappear from search, so location changes the result set.
Rotating for independent searches and listing pages. Sticky, 1 minute to 24 hours, when you page through results in order and want one consistent location.
No. Our acceptable use policy covers lawful work such as public data collection and price verification. Operating accounts in ways eBay's rules forbid is not supported.
Residential bandwidth is from $4.50 for 5 GB ($0.90/GB), down to $0.53/GB at 10 TB, with no expiry. Text-only collection of listing pages uses little data. See pricing.