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12.09

11:29

Toys, Toys, Toys: Santas worldwide are buying on eBay

This isn’t exactly the hardest time of year for us to find visually-dramatic sales trends — in fact, it’s almost certainly the easiest. A majority of all two-year Terapeak trends will show peaks and valleys in correlation with the holidays, and there’s no better category for that than eBay’s Toys & Games.

We’ve seen time and time again how certain toys will blow up for one season (Furby, Tickle-Me-Elmo, Cabbage Patch), while others will continue to sell year after year. Today, we’ll look at a few examples from 2009 — though of course there are hundreds more.

First is Leapster, an educational handheld game console that teaches kids the alphabet, phonics and basic math (among other things). First released in 2003, there’s been a recent spike in demand for Leapster 2, released last year. Here’s a 60-day total sales trend for “Leapster”:

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Next is a classic: Lego. Dating back to the 1930s, the little building blocks are a big-time seller all year round… but rarely to the scale that the holidays provide. Here’s a 60-day sales trend for “Lego” (which, last Sunday, totalled more than $1.5 million in eBay.com sales!):

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And finally, here’s this year’s phenomenon: Zhu Zhu Pets. You may have read about them already — robotic hamsters! — but if you’ve yet to believe the hype, check out this 60-day trend for “zhu zhu pet”:

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It’s a prosperous venture, this toy racket. Here’s to guessing what next year’s craze will be!

Posted by Author Name in Hot Products/Trends/ eBay/ecommerce News / 1 Comment

11.09

4:49

Sweet November: Black Friday a red letter day for thousands of eBay sellers

So, Black Friday was last week, and if you spent any part of the weekend near a shopping mall or TV or newspaper or the Internet, you’re probably sick of hearing about it.

But whoa, what a day.

If you happened to be one of the thousands of business owners who capitalized on the big day, you were probably (and understandably) less bothered by all the hoopla. You may even have soaked it in like leftover gravy on a turkey bun.

Just look at some of these Terapeak total sales trends, and the range of products covered. They’re all 30-day graphs, with the final date shown representing last Friday, or Black Friday.

Here’s one for “wii”:

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And here’s one for “zhu zhu pet”:

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And finally, here’s “toaster”:

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… Toaster! Seriously!

Consider, too, that many (if not most) Black Friday sales extended through the weekend, and that today is “Cyber Monday”, when millions more sales are likely to happen…

We’ll be tracking all of these trends as Terapeak rolls out new data, and we’ll be curious to see how they provide insight into which products are hot this holiday season.

(Might this finally be the Year of the Toaster? Stay tuned to find out!)

Posted by Author Name in Hot Products/Trends/ eBay/ecommerce News / No Comments.

11.09

1:04

Pretty Sales Machine: Nine Inch Nails auctioning “hundreds of items” on eBay

Last August, after hearing that Miley Cyrus had put some of her own clothing and schwag up for charity auction, we wondered aloud whether sellers of other Miley/Hannah-related goods would benefit — and according to Terapeak trend reports, they did.

This week, and over the next couple months, we’ll be tracking a similar series of auctions…

Or, relatively similar anyway.

According to Nine Inch Nails’ official website, the industrial rock band, which in September announced it had played its final show, has begun auctioning off “a large selection of gear and equipment”, including “guitars, keyboards, amplifiers, drums, staging, anvil cases, cables, rack/outboard gear, guitar effects, and pedal boards.”

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You can view NIN’s seller page here to see the various items currently up for auction, all of which have already seen a considerable number of bids. And with nearly a week to go in each of these auctions (plus more to come in the next “several weeks”), it’ll be interesting to see the final prices these items fetch.

(Hey, we might even see a NIN-shaped dent in the Terapeak Guitar Index!)

As for your own sales, now might be a good time to see if your old copy of Downward Spiral is still lying around. Or to invest in mottled, paint-spattered, gross-looking sleeveless shirts…

Posted by Author Name in Hot Products/Trends/ eBay/ecommerce News / No Comments.

11.09

3:05

New Moon, Same Result: “Twilight” still selling like crazy on eBay

Twilight is popular. We’ve known this for a while.

If you’d asked us just one month ago whether we thought the series could get any more popular, we probably would shrugged and said we’d stopped trying to guess. And it’s true: despite the fact that no new books have been written since 2005, the brand’s popularity has continued to grow at a confounding rate.

So what, then, do we make of this?

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Oh, who knows.

The above, of course, is a 30-day total sales trend for “Twilight” across all eBay sites. At the graph’s lowest point, October 30th, the keyword still sold close to $45,000 in goods. But compare that with the highest point — nearly $150,000 — and you realize this thing is a full-fledged phenomenon.

So how are eBay sellers capitalizing on the craze? Well, the obvious products are books and DVDs, but there’s a huge merchandising aspect to the series as well. From licensed to non-licensed items, it’s not hard to find posters, dolls, apparel, stationery, trading cards, watches, and a million other collector’s items.

So how much more popular can Twilight really get? We’ll only fathom one guess: that it continues through the holidays.

Posted by Author Name in Hot Products/Trends/ eBay/ecommerce News / No Comments.

11.09

5:31

Market Warfare, Too: Record-breaking video game excels on eBay as well

Since 2003, the Call of Duty video game series has been providing PC, PlayStation and XBox users with some of the most popular first-person shooters on any platform.

Never before, however, has a release left this kind of mark.

On November 10th, Activision released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the sixth installment in the much-heralded series. Not only has the new release received much critical acclaim (scoring 94% on Metacritic on both consoles), it’s also broken many of Grand Theft Auto IV’s sales records — including fastest-selling game of all-time.

Not at all surprisingly, then, the keywords “Call of Duty” are doing pretty well on eBay…

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The above is a 30-day total sales trend for anything that pertains to “Call of Duty” — and that spike you see represents the day after Modern Warfare 2’s release. In the seven days following release, in fact, those keywords totalled more than $1.5 million in sales across the six eBay sites Terapeak covers, with close to 20,000 listings.

Stepping away from the actual game’s sales, it’s interesting to see where eBay sellers are capitalizing on the release’s success. Other items that have sold include action figures, keychains, and — no joke — night vision goggles.

Sales will undoubtedly continue on as the holidays approach, so if you’ve got any ideas yourself of how to take advantage, use them!

Posted by Author Name in Hot Products/Trends/ eBay/ecommerce News / No Comments.

11.09

3:18

Holiday Appreciation: Even Thanksgiving provides unique eBay selling opportunities

When we talk of “holiday selling opportunities”, you may not think of Thanksgiving first, second, or even at all. But as we constantly stress, virtually any major or minor calendar event will create some kind of market… and Thanksgiving season is no different.

Just because eBayers aren’t bidding on turkeys and spaghetti squash doesn’t mean there aren’t Thanksgiving-themed products to sell. A quick Terapeak category search for “Thanksgiving” turns up several relevant results, including the following (365-day Total Sales trends shown below each):

#912: Collectibles > Holiday & Seasonal > Thanksgiving > Current (1991-Now)

Example products: Festive toys, decorations, knick-knacks

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#29478: Collectibles > Postcards > Holidays > Thanksgiving

Example products: Collectible postcards, vintage artwork

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#34010: Crafts > Scrapbooking & Paper Crafts > Embellishments > Stickers > Holidays & Occasions

Example products: Stickers, gift tags, scrapbook materials

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As you can see by the one-year trends pictured, each of these three categories gets quite hot in November, selling multiple thousands of dollars worth of goods every day. And by searching any category using Terapeak, you can click the “Top Titles” tab to get a clearer idea of what types of items these categories entail.

With still 10 days before turkey time, there’s likely to be further growth in all of the above categories, plus many others on eBay. So keep an eye out, and never forget: the holidays on eBay should not be taken lightly!

Posted by Author Name in Hot Products/Trends/ Terapeak Tips & Tutorials/ eBay Selling Tips / No Comments.

10.09

3:42

Terapeak launches free keyword tool on Selling Manager Applications

Some more exciting news out of Terapeak-land this week!

On Monday, we launched Terapeak Keywords, a free application available exclusively on the eBay Selling Manager platform. It works much like a simplified version of our Title Builder tool, which Terapeak subscribers should already be familiar with. We’re hoping it’s a way for new sellers and Terapeak beginners to get a feel for eBay research, before committing to the full-scale product.

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Each free Terapeak Keywords search gives you:

20 suggested keywords, related to your search
Average, maximum and minimum prices for each suggested keyword
A self-refreshing suggestions list as you select additional keywords
The ability to build your title until you’ve exhausted all 55 characters
All data based on 100 recently-closed eBay listings

… because as all experienced eBay sellers (and Terapeak users!) should know, the first step to creating a great listing is coming up with a great title. And that means making all 55 characters count.

To add Terapeak Keywords to your Selling Manager Applications, visit the Selling applications directory. Remember, you must also be a Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro user.

Posted by Author Name in Hot Products/Trends / 3 Comments

10.09

10:54

“Wild Things”: Film adaptation gives new sales life to classic kid’s book

In 1963, Maurice Sendak published a little book called Where the Wild Things Are, about the wild adventures of a boy named Max who is sent to bed without dinner. Max dons a wolf costume and becomes leader of some weird creatures, and the entire story is told with just ten brief sentences.

Many of us still treasure it.

Tonight, as you may know, marks the book’s long-awaited film release. Adapted by a pair of Terapeak faves, director Spike Jonze and author Dave Eggers, the film may well have been geared toward adults as much as (or more than) children… Though of course we’re not complaining. And neither, according to this 30-day total sales trend, are eBay buyers:

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Perusing some of the closed listings, many are original copies of Sendak’s book, with first editions routinely fetching several hundred dollars (a hard cover sold for $1,175 USD!). But Wild Things is also one of those gold mines for merchandisers; we’ll bet everything we’ve got that Max and monster costumes will be popular this Halloween, as will Wild Things toys and stuffed animals come holiday time.

We’re also pretty pumped for Eggers’ novel adaptation — released last week in both hardcover and fur-covered formats!

As for the movie itself, we’re not quite sure what to expect. We like that the monsters are in costumes, and not CGI. We like that Karen O. from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is doing the music. We like the idea of watching something new and feeling young again… And we like that the wait for this thing is finally, finally over.

Posted by Author Name in Hot Products/Trends/ eBay/ecommerce News / No Comments.

10.09

11:45

Hallow’s eBay: Trick-or-treaters go online for hot costume ideas

Oof! Look what time of year it is again!

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Yes, yes, tis officially the season to be thinking about the December holidays — but check out that 90-day total listings trend for “Halloween.” It’s a season unto itself, where clearly there is money to be made. Last year it seemed everyone and their cat dressed as the Joker from The Dark Knight… so what does this year have in store?

Based on the recent success of True Blood and Twilight, we’re gonna go out on a limb (yeah right) and suggest vampires might be one common theme this year… But who else? Michael Jackson? Kanye West? John and Kate Gosselin? Whoever it is, they’ll be a big part of these ridiculous two-year total sales trends for “Costumes & Reenactment Attire > Costumes” and “Holiday & Seasonal > Halloween”:

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This TP-blogger, meanwhile, is set to go as Michael J. Fox’s Teen Wolf — so if anyone knows where to acquire mass amounts of body hair…

Posted by Author Name in Hot Products/Trends / 1 Comment

10.09

1:46

Hockey Hoopla: Terapeak’s NHL on eBay index gears up for new season

It was only a few weeks ago that football came back into our lives, and already, for sports fans, the season is getting even sweeter…

Tonight, the puck drops on the 2009-10 NHL season!

As many of you know, Terapeak is a Canadian company, so it’s no surprise that many of us in the office are pretty pumped for the season ahead. Our local boys, the Canucks, look primed for a big year, and a long, eventful offseason have made us eager for the games to begin.

This season also marks the second for Terapeak’s NHL on eBay index, which tracks the total sales, total listings and average price of all 30 NHL squads, and allows users to view by division and conference. It also comes with this companion widget, which you can easily embed into your website or blog:

As for who’s looking primed for a breakout eBay selling season, the defending champion Penguins are high atop the league’s total sales rankings, while Cup runners-up Detroit sit in first place in the West. The remaining five “Original 6″ teams, plus Washington, make up the next-best-selling squads.

We’ll be sure to check in with updates as the season progresses, but for now, good luck to you and your team!

Posted by Author Name in Hot Products/Trends/ eBay/ecommerce News / 1 Comment

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