Anthony, Terapeak’s Executive Vice President of Business Development, and Andrew, Chief Technology Officer, are representing the Canadian Youth Business Foundation as Entrepreneur Delegates, and will both be on hand to discuss the birth and growth of AERS/Terapeak — from becoming eBay’s first official data licensor all the way back in 2004, to taking over eBay’s own retired Marketplace Research tool last fall.

On behalf of everyone at the Terapeak offices (even those of us who’d rather be in Italy ourselves!), it is an honor to be recruited for an event as big as this, on a stage as international as any in the world.

In related “speaking” news, Anthony was also a featured speaker at the 2009 eBay Developers Conference in San Jose, California two weeks ago, where he delivered a speech on the benefits of Data-Powered Selling Manager Applications. The DevCon is widely attended and regarded within the industry as a hotbed for up-and-coming developers, entrepreneurs, and anyone else interested in the future of eBay and online commerce.

Here’s a shot of Anthony doing his thing on the DevCon stage:

If we’re using the word “excited” a lot, please forgive us; we just couldn’t be more thrilled about Terapeak’s continued involvement in not only the mainstream eBay community, but with regards to online business worldwide!

Thanks!

The partners gathered for three days of intensive, productive meetings to discuss new and better ways of providing eBay marketplace research, as well as fine-tuning and streamlining the relationships between all Terapeak brands. Here at the company, we’ve always understood the need for a global perspective, and we feel particularly enlightened having shared all kinds of world views with our friends and business partners. As you can probably imagine, the markets in China and Germany, for example, are quite a bit different from our own in North America!

Of course, we wouldn’t have been good hosts if we hadn’t left time for some fun and team-building, and so a lot of great food was consumed, the lush west coast terrain explored — and hey, we even saw a few whales! (Actually closer to 50 if you can believe it.)

We’re excited now to move forward with this better understanding, to further refine these partnerships, and to provide you with the best Terapeak possible!

We’ll also try to post some pictures from the conference as soon as we find that camera…

Next Monday, we’ll be welcoming some of our international partners to Terapeak.com headquarters, and sitting down to discuss all kinds of ways to improve both the product and company. As you may or may not know, Terapeak has partner sites in China, France, and Germany, and in the same way it applies to many things in life (including selling on eBay, as we’ve told you about recently), we believe in striving for a truly global perspective. Hosting our international partners is a momentous occasion for us, and something we couldn’t be more excited about.

We hope to take a lot from these meetings, and to eventually share it with you! Of course, as always, we think it’s absolutely vital to also keep an open discussion with our client base, so feel free to share any comments or questions you may have yourself.

Cheers, all!

(Terapeak.de team in Germany: Karsten, Julia, Denise)

Fast forward to a week ago yesterday, when Apple dropped the price of its entry-level iPhone to $99 USD, and many began wondering how in-store price cuts would affect eBay sales. Well, as you can see below, the immediate reaction has been anything but slow:

The above image, of course, was captured using the Terapeak iPhone index, which we’ll surely be following in the coming weeks, and shows an incredible spike in both 3G and Locked iPhone total sales. You can also track iPhone (and Blackberry) sales using the index’s companion widget, as seen below:

And one last point of interest, as mentioned in the previously-linked-to Metro article: Apple has also unveiled its 3GS iPhone — a supposedly faster, more expensive model that records video — and will begin selling those later this month.

Suffice to say, Apple and the iPhone folks aren’t dropping off the eBay radar anytime soon!

It’s officially wedding season here in the northern hemisphere, and, as with every year, that means millions of dollars pouring through a plethora of wedding-related industries: everything from formal wear to fancy cakes, manicures to mannequins, dancing shoes to Dom Perignon, and obviously so much more.

But what about 2009 in particular? What about in – dun-dun-dun! — today’s economy?

Browsing some of the wedding-related categories on Terapeak, we were somewhat surprised by the patterns we found — namely the fact that many of these categories appear to be trending up. Of course, it’s not as if we expected engaged parties to suddenly close the checkbook on perhaps the most important day of their lives… but why is it that these folks are turning to eBay for their big-day needs? Could it be that, in fact, they are saving a few bucks by doing their shopping and prep-work online? In any case, sellers tied to any of the following categories can’t be complaining…

Check out this two-year Total Sales trend for Wedding Invitations:

And this two-year Total Sales trend for Bridal Accessories:

And one more, this two-year Total Sold Listings trend for Engagement/Wedding Ring Sets:

As for the wedding industry as a whole, we can’t stress enough how truly expansive it is. Try doing a Terapeak category search for “wedding” and see how many relevant results come up. Believe us, there’s a ton — and those are only the obvious ones! If you can get creative and tailor other categories to suit wedding needs, you’ll be reaping the rewards all summer long.

So obviously, if you’re in the popular DVD biz, these titles are among your bread-winners. But what about other merchandising opportunities? This blog will take a look at memorabilia and paraphernelia related to these films, and examples of ways to make the most of Terapeak’s Hot Research.

As you can see — and it’s no surprise, really — first on our list is Twilight, the initial film adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling vampire series (which we blogged about fairly recently). A 30-day All Sites search for “Twilight” uncovers more than 78,000 results, and with such an obsessed worldwide following, you can bet anything Twilight-related has a good chance of sparking interest. Beyond DVDs, here are its next five most popular Level-2 categories:

1. Movie Memorabilia (15,501) — Dolls, Posters, Blankets
2. Fiction Books (7,440) — Individual novels, Collected novels, Autographed novels
3. Fashion Jewelry (5,337) — Pendants, Rings, Bracelets
4. Desktop & Laptop Accessories (4,198) — Laptop skins, Laptop cases, XBox skins
5. Watches (3,146) — Watches, Faceplates, Wall clocks

Next is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher’s adaptation of a 1922 F. Scott Fitzgerald story. The film, starring Brad Pitt, led the 2009 Academy Awards with 13 nominations, but that hasn’t exactly translated into merchandising opportunities. (Perhaps viewers who sat through its 165 minutes felt they’d had enough?)

A 30-day All Sites search for “Benjamin Button” results in 2,832 listings, with the most popular related Level-2 categories being the following:

1. Movie Memorabilia (119) — Props, Posters, Postcards
2. CDs (26) — Original soundtrack
3. Fiction Books (25) — Short story collections, Graphic novels
4. Nonfiction Books (24) — Short story collections (bizarre?)
5. Autographs-Original (15) — Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, David Fincher autographs

Placing third is Paul Blart: Mall Cop, a Kevin James comedy that reached #1 in North American box offices. We weren’t sure what to expect in terms of non-DVD merchandise… and a 30-day search for “Paul Blart” turned up barely 2,000 listings. In fact, here are all the non-DVD Level-2 categories that turned up 10+ results:

1. Movie Memorabilia (47) — Posters, Photos, Football jerseys

Seriously, that’s it.

Finally, rounding out the top five are two classic Disney films, remastered and re-released: Beauty and the Beast and Lion King. These old faves require no introduction, and both (like most things Disney-related) have been merchandising gold mines for many, many years. Here are the top non-DVD categories for both, beginning with a 30-day All Sites search for “Beauty and the Beast”:

1. Disneyana (620) — Figurines, Toys, Snow globes
2. VHS (380) — Original editions, Remastered editions, Sequels
3. Children’s Books (250) — Picture books, Braille books, Read-a-loud books
4. Comics (125) — Grimm Tales, Graphic novels
5. Dolls (122) — Barbies, Barbie clothes, Stuffed toys

And “Lion King”:

1. Disneyana (1,355) — Figurines, Artwork, Snow globes
2. TV, Movie & Character Toys — Broadway tickets, Other tickets, Figurines
3. Games (Video Games) (778) –NES, Game Boy, Sega Genesis games
4. VHS (450) – Original editions, Remastered editions, Sequels
5. Children’s Books (443) — Picture books, Bath books, Read-a-loud books

If you’re a Hot Research subscriber, check out some of the other top titles… The examples shown above are barely the opening credits!

This morning, a quick look at the index (its companion widget can be seen below) shows some pretty interesting stats: namely, that the Total Sold Listings leaders in the Eastern and Western Conferences are, respectively, Pittsburgh and Detroit.

Of course we’ve been championing both clubs as top-sellers all season, but it’s funny to see after eight gruelling months and 100+ games played for each side, that the hottest eBay seller in each conference is represented in the Cup Finals as well. (An obvious contributing factor is the success and talent on both squads, plus the fact that both are still playing hockey well into June…)

As for how the rest of the finals will play out, here at Terapeak we’d like to see a good, long series… Because then that’s it for hockey until — gasp — October!

So get shopping!

As for eBay implications, just as we told you in the days preceding Mother’s Day: they exist. Check out a couple quick trend lines we found — these graphs show the Father’s Day surge in total sold listings over the past two years:

Category #15680: Men’s Shirts

Category #18924: Golf Balls

For some reason, Father’s Day doesn’t seem to get the same kind of love as its month-earlier counterpart, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate the dads of the world as well!