diff --git a/webscraper/api/EbayAPI.py b/webscraper/api/EbayAPI.py
index 715913b..a7417bb 100644
--- a/webscraper/api/EbayAPI.py
+++ b/webscraper/api/EbayAPI.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 from dotenv import load_dotenv
 import os
 import logging
-from webscraper.api.interface import EbayABC
+from webscraper.api.interface import ScraperAPIInterface
 
 # Load environment variables and configure logging
 load_dotenv()
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ def __init__(self, name, price, currency, url, date, user_id=None):
         self.date = date
         self.user_id = user_id
 
-class EbayAPI(EbayABC):
+class EbayAPI(ScraperAPIInterface):
     client_secret_key = os.getenv("clientsecret")
     client_id_key = os.getenv("clientid")
     get_user_key = HTTPBasicAuth(client_id_key, client_secret_key)
@@ -86,10 +86,10 @@ def retrieve_access_token() -> str:
             raise
 
     @staticmethod
-    def retrieve_ebay_response(httprequest: str, query: str) -> dict:
+    def retrieve_ebay_response(httprequest: str, query: str, category_id: int = 0) -> dict:
         """Perform GET request to eBay API."""
         auth = EbayAPI.retrieve_access_token()
-        logger.info(f"Making GET request to eBay API: {httprequest} with query: {query}")
+        logger.info(f"Making GET request to eBay API: {httprequest} with query: {query} and category_id: {category_id}")
         try:
             response = requests.get(
                 httprequest,
@@ -97,7 +97,10 @@ def retrieve_ebay_response(httprequest: str, query: str) -> dict:
                     "Authorization": f"Bearer {auth}",
                     "Content-Type": "application/json"
                 },
-                params={"q": query, "category_tree_id": 0}
+                params={
+                    "q": query,
+                    "category_ids": category_id if category_id else None  # send only if nonzero
+                }
             )
             if response.status_code == 429:
                 logger.warning("Rate limit exceeded.")
@@ -107,4 +110,4 @@ def retrieve_ebay_response(httprequest: str, query: str) -> dict:
             return response.json()
         except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
             logger.exception("Error retrieving eBay response.")
-            raise Exception(f"Error retrieving eBay response: {str(e)}") from e
\ No newline at end of file
+            raise Exception(f"Error retrieving eBay response: {str(e)}") from e
diff --git a/webscraper/api/interface.py b/webscraper/api/interface.py
index 72f0cf0..e52a7e0 100644
--- a/webscraper/api/interface.py
+++ b/webscraper/api/interface.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 from accounts.models import Product
 
 
-class EbayABC(ABC):
+class ScraperAPIInterface(ABC):
 
     @abstractmethod
     def get_scraped_data(self, paths: list[str]) -> Product:
diff --git a/webscraper/api/routes.py b/webscraper/api/routes.py
index e74a287..072a394 100644
--- a/webscraper/api/routes.py
+++ b/webscraper/api/routes.py
@@ -1,9 +1,38 @@
 import sys
 import os
 sys.path.append(os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '..', '..')))
+import django
+os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'cheaper.settings')
+django.setup()
 
 from flask import Flask, jsonify, request
 from webscraper.src.Cheaper_Scraper import CheaperScraper
+from flask import Blueprint, request, jsonify
+from webscraper.api.EbayAPI import EbayAPI
+
+ebay_bp = Blueprint("ebay", __name__, url_prefix="/api/ebay")
+
+@ebay_bp.route("/category", methods=["GET"])
+def get_items_by_category():
+    query = request.args.get("q")
+    category_id = request.args.get("category_id", default=0, type=int)
+
+    if not query:
+        return jsonify({"error": "Missing required query parameter 'q'"}), 400
+
+    try:
+        results = EbayAPI.retrieve_ebay_response(
+            "https://api.sandbox.ebay.com/buy/browse/v1/item_summary/search",
+            query,
+            category_id
+        )
+        return jsonify(results)
+    except Exception as e:
+        return jsonify({"error": str(e)}), 500
+
+app = Flask(__name__)
+app.register_blueprint(ebay_bp)
+
 
 app = Flask(__name__)
 scraper = CheaperScraper(base_url="https://books.toscrape.com")
diff --git a/webscraper/src/Cheaper_Scraper.py b/webscraper/src/Cheaper_Scraper.py
index ce83e2f..eef7508 100644
--- a/webscraper/src/Cheaper_Scraper.py
+++ b/webscraper/src/Cheaper_Scraper.py
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@
 from webscraper.src.fetch_utils import cached_get
 from functools import lru_cache
 from webscraper.api.EbayAPI import EbayItem
+import os
+import django
+os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'cheaper.settings')  # adjust if needed
+django.setup()
+from accounts.models import Product
+
 
 
 
@@ -108,3 +114,6 @@ def scrape(self, paths: List[str]) -> Dict[str, List[str]]:
     def get_scraped_data(self, paths: List[str]) -> Dict[str, List[str]]:
         return self.scrape(paths)
     
+    def search_item(self, query: str) -> Product:
+        raise NotImplementedError("search_item not implemented yet")
+