Yahoo! Auctions Category Tree — IDs for Every Category Level
Pass a parent category ID and this source returns its direct sub-categories: ID, Japanese name, URL and parent ID. Pass 0, or leave it out, to get the top-level categories.
{
"session_id": "11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111",
"kind": "yahoo_auctions_categories",
"category": 0,
"max_items": 2,
"start_page": 1,
"human": "# Yahoo! Auctions categories\n\n- **category:** 0\n- **max_items:** 2\n- **start_page:** 1\n- **Categories returned:** 2\n- **Proxy traffic:** 118.8 KB",
"machine": {
"total_items": 2,
"category_found": true,
"items": [
{
"id": "23336",
"name": "コンピュータ",
"url": "https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/category/list/23336/",
"parent_id": "0"
},
{
"id": "23632",
"name": "家電、AV、カメラ",
"url": "https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/category/list/23632/",
"parent_id": "0"
}
],
"proxy_traffic_bytes": 121660
},
"total_points": 5
}- You send
- A parent category ID (0 or omitted for the top level)
- You get back
- Direct sub-categories with ID, Japanese name, URL and parent ID
- Coverage
- The public category tree of Yahoo! Auctions Japan.
- Price
- 5 points per returned category, up to 500 per request — $5 per 1,000
- Billed per category actually returned, capped by max_items. A parent with no sub-categories costs nothing.
Ways to get this data
Three approaches teams use today, and where each one runs into trouble.
| Approach | What it takes | Cost | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clicking through the category pages | Open each level and note the IDs from the URLs | Free, and slow | Workable once, tedious to keep current |
| Building a scraper | Write it, host it, and repair it when Yahoo! changes the page | Engineering time | A maintenance commitment for something that isn't your product |
| NeuralVerge | One request per level of the tree | $5 per 1,000, misses not billed | One level per request; the full tree takes several calls |
What you get back
Every field in the response shown above.
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
total_items | number | How many categories were returned in this batch (capped by max_items). |
category_found | boolean | Whether the parent category ID exists. |
items | array | The returned sub-categories. |
id | string | Category ID, usable as the category filter in the search sources. |
name | string | Category name, in Japanese. |
url | string | Link to the category's listing page. |
parent_id | string | ID of the parent category; 0 for top-level categories. |
How to run it
The same lookup works from the app, the API, or as a tool an agent can call mid-task.
Priced per returned category, so set max_items to keep a level cheap. category defaults to 0 (top level); max_items accepts up to 500.
curl -X POST https://api.neuralverge.ai/functions/v1/run-yahoo-auctions-categories \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "max_items": 2 }'What teams use it for
Where this field shows up in an actual workflow.
Fetch the IDs once and use them in search queries.
Walk a branch of the tree to see how Yahoo! splits a product area.
Re-run a level periodically and compare it with what you stored.
Coverage, freshness and limits
What this source covers, how fresh it is, and where it stops.
The public category tree of Yahoo! Auctions Japan.
Read at request time.
This source returns the publicly visible category structure, stamped with the parent ID it was read for and a session id you can trace.
- —Each request returns one level only; the full tree needs one call per parent.
- —Category names are in Japanese.
- —Yahoo! can reorganise categories, so stored IDs are worth re-checking.
Questions, answered
Pass 0 as the category, or leave it out.
Related sources
Search live listings by keyword or category.
See what comparable items actually sold for.
The seller's live listings.
Amazon, eBay, Walmart, AliExpress, Alibaba and Yahoo! Auctions product, seller and review data.
Try yahoo! auctions categories on your own data
One request format across every source in the catalog.