To add to the point above: man, I totally feel your pain on those scripts breaking! eBay has been aggressively rolling out Akamai bot protection and changing their JSON structures in the Browse API so frequently it is basically a full-time job just to keep a scraper alive. I was in the middle of hunting a pristine 105mm f/2.5 AI-s when my stack just imploded last month. Total disaster! But honestly? I found a much more robust way to handle this without losing my mind. Instead of raw scraping, I moved my logic to handle the official eBay feeds and specific third-party aggregators that have actual partner access. It is amazing how much faster the data comes through when you arent fighting a 403 error or dealing with TLS fingerprinting every five minutes!

• You gotta look into FatFingers specifically for those rare lenses. People misspell Nikkor or Nikon all the time and those listings sit there with zero bids until the price drops or the auction ends low. It is a technical goldmine.
• Check out BayPrices for the raw volatility data. It helps you see the actual floor price so you know when a drop is actually a deal or just a fake discount based on historical sales.
• Seriously, look for any tool that uses the eBay Buy API instead of the Finding API. The Buy API is way more modern and actually returns clean JSON that doesnt require a degree in archaeology to parse. I love the thrill of the hunt but life is too short to debug CSS selectors while a bargain gets snatched up by someone else!

Just found this thread and honestly, this brings back some bad memories. I remember a buddy of mine who tried to build his own scraper for those exact Nikon lenses a couple years ago. He was so convinced he could beat the system, but he ended up in this constant loop of fixing broken code every time the site updated. It was a massive time sink and he never actually got the glass he wanted.

• he missed a 300 dollar price drop while he was at work
• his proxy provider ended up being a total scam
• he basically gave up on the hobby for six months out of frustration I have seen people mention this eBay tracker lately, but I am always a bit cautious about how these things handle data and personal security. Honestly, my friend spent so much time on the technical side that he forgot to actually buy the lenses. It was just a complete ordeal that didn't end well for his collection tho.

I totally get where you're coming from. I spent way too many nights debugging my own python scripts every time eBay decided to change their CSS classes or block my home IP. It is a losing battle honestly. About six months ago I just got fed up and decided to move to a cloud-based tool instead of fighting the site myself. I have been really happy with the results since then, especially for snagging those 24-hour flash sales people do when they are desperate to move inventory. It saves a ton of time and I dont have to worry about the scraper breaking while I am asleep. It makes hunting for those specific F-mount lenses way less stressful than it used to be. btw I use PriceDropCatch for this and it works great because you don't even need to make an account.