World Music: Arbitraging a few of the world’s top-selling artists
It’s been a few weeks since we launched our new international search tool, and we’ve already had lots of fun arbitraging goods across the different eBay sites.
Today, we’re going to focus on pop music albums (many of which ship for cheap, or even free) and how it’s not always so simple to predict who’s selling where. The examples we’re using here are among the better-selling acts across the world, but it’s also highly common for new bands to break out in countries other than their own.
To begin, let’s take a look at a couple massive British rock bands. First up, a 90-day search for “U2 CD”:
… and below, beach-walkers-turned-arena-rockers (okay that was bad) Coldplay:
These are exclusively CD sales figures (so no concert tickets or merchandise), and while we’ve noticed that discs generally sell for less in the UK, in both cases you can see significant hikes in the US average price. Additionally, you can see the discrepancy in sell-through from site-to-site — where, interestingly, Australia leads both tables.
On the flip side, we did similar searches for a pair of top-selling American females. First, Beyonce:
… and second, p-p-p-Lady Gaga:
Again you see the UK with a much lower average price… but look at those interesting Successful Listings totals! How many could have guessed that Beyonce would be selling so many more albums in the UK? Or Lady Gaga in Germany? And to think we thought we heard enough “Single Ladies” and “Poker Face” in the shopping malls here!
Finally, just for kicks, we couldn’t help searching one of our fave bands, Animal Collective, who earlier this year released a sensational album of their own…
… So, okay. Not a real barn-burner. But look at that average price in Canada! You can maybe thank Terapeak staff for that…
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