In the blog age, many writers build their readerships by communicating with readers on a regular basis and with a constant stream of content. Traditional publishing requires coordinating a number of layers of bureaucracy such as an agent, a publishing house, and then distribution to media outlets and retail stores. All this creates more separation between author and reader, an impractical alternative to simply discovering stuff you enjoy using only a computer and a couch. If Terapeak is any indication, and it is, maybe we’ll all be packing digital books sooner than we thought.

The “Score of the Day” is a pair of $100 “Seven for All Mankind” jeans for little girls purchased for $1 and sold for………

 
Yes, you read that correctly. Some little girls are actually running around in $100 jeans.
 
I went to a yard sale this weekend where I purchased a pair of Seven for All Mankind jeans in a girl’s size 6. I only paid a dollar. They were cute and had a few sparkles on the pockets. A few of the rhinestones had fallen off – barely noticeable. To be honest, they looked like any other pair of jeans.
 
I looked them up on Terapeak. Wow! Instantly I realized that Seven for All Mankind jeans for little girls are super popular! As I continued my research, I discovered that only 34 pairs in a size 6 had closed in the last 90 days, and almost all of them had sold.
 
Because the jeans I had purchased had missing rhinestones, I listed them for $20 –about $10 less than the going rate for a used pair. Perhaps I should have listed them for $30. They sold less than 24 hours after I listed them. Unbelievable!
 
Note: There is a difference between “Seven” and “Seven for All Mankind.” Seven jeans were sold by Mervyn’s before Mervyn’s went under. Seven for All Mankind jeans are much more expensive. When I purchased the jeans, I thought they cost about $50 new. I was wrong. These jeans sell for $50 –during a 1/2 off sale!!! Wow!
 
I’m not sure if I will ever find these types of jeans again because I am not sure how many parents purchase $100 jeans for their kiddos. (I so want to go there…..but…. I’m not going to.) However, I definitely learned something!
 
Looking for shoes in hard-to-find sizes at a big discount? Check out bluefrogshoes.com. For eBay selling tips and tricks, check out my blog on a regularbasis as I live ….The eBay Life!
 
Have a great night!
 
Blogger Bio:

Miriam is an eBay PowerSeller from Northern California who sells name brand women’s shoes in hard-to-find sizes (narrow, wide, small, large womens shoes) at bluefrogshoes.com. She’s also an eBay instructor who teaches classes at Oroville Adult School which is located between Chico and Sacramento. And, she’s a yard sale fanatic! Her blog is dedicated to the people she meets, the items she purchases, and the situations she encounters as she lives “The eBay Life.“

Terapeak is like the Billboard of eBay thanks to its Hot Media search feature. Above is this month’s Top 5 Music list which you may find either outrageous or validating. That’s the beauty of this list, it’s based entirely on pure, unbridled sales without dwelling for a moment on what some hipster might consider “good.”
 
Rounding out the number five spot is arguably the most talented individual ever to wear a lampshade for a hat, the one and only Lady Gaga. She probably should have gone on Dr. Phil long ago but she sure can belt out a tune. In fourth, Susan Boyle is the 49 year old contest winner who dreamed big and put on a jaw-dropping performance for British television. She sang her way to stardom without the typical sexuality angle played by most. Seriously, like none whatsoever.
 
Kidz Bop Kids sing their little hearts out in 3^rd, and if that surprises you keep in mind that child singers have had a firm place in our world since The Jackson 5. The boys from Sgt. Pepper’s are staying legendary in the number two spot and it should also be noted that they never drop below the top five. So if you ever swing by and don’t see The Beatles on our list you should look up – the sky might be falling.
 
Finally at number one is the incorrigible Eminem. You may find his subject matter to be in the absolute poorest of taste, but you can’t deny his success. Retail store sales are one thing, but eBay is the biggest, broadest online marketplace on the planet and Terapeak is the score keeper. Items that are in high demand here are truly selling above the rest.
 
Tera-Speak: We want to know your Top 5 artists, leave a comment with your list!

Android has finally conquered the smartphone market in the United States. Smartphones running Google’s Android operating system accounted for one-third of all smartphones purchased in the April-June period. Terapeak Market Research confirms this and drills deeper into the smartphone market.
 
The average eBay sale price for an Android phone is $305 dollars and the rate of successful sales is 70%. Compare this to the average price of a Blackberry device, $103 dollars with a successful sales rate of only 33.5%, and it’s easy to see how Android has edged its way to the top. The graph below compares the sales trends of the two brands over a 90 day period.
 
Terapeak can also provide insight into consumer interest. By examining the top searches on eBay we find that the iPhone is the third most-popular search overall. Despite this high ranking, Apple still lags behind Android and Blackberry in phone sales. But with eBay and every brick and mortar electronics retailer selling premium-priced iPhone accessories by the truckload, and the booming app store, it’s clear that Apple is interested in more than just selling phones.

The highest-paid professional athletes of today earn more than the GDPs of some countries, but what is their resale value? Certainly in these high-profile lines of work one’s salary should reflect their value both on and off the field of play – that’s where Terapeak can show a lot.
 
The best way to judge a player’s marketability is to look at the amount of merchandise they’re selling. We’ve taken the ten highest-paid athletes and compared their massive salaries to the total value of their swag that has sold on eBay over the last year using Terapeak’s 365 days of data search function. You might be quite shocked at who isn’t earning their keep.

At least we can say the top dog is worth his salt. Tiger Woods is both the best paid and best-selling athlete in the world. Not bad considering he did a belly flop into a PR nightmare a year ago. Even more surprising are the lackluster sales from boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. Despite being the acclaimed king of pay per views, the welterweight moves very little merchandise. But what can you expect when you have to compete without a jersey and wearing impractical shoes.

After an incredibly successful 7 year career with the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James announced he would be changing teams. On July 1^st James effectively became unemployed and held millions of basketball fans in suspense while he deliberated over which team – of the handful that were courting him – he would move to. On July 8^th people finally got their answer, James will join the Miami Heat for the 2010-11 season.

 
For us, the effect of the decision is just as interesting as the decision itself. So how has the team change affected merchandise sales? Above is a trend of all the Lebron James eBay listings over the last 30 days – taken from Terapeak Marketplace Research. All seems normal until the day the news breaks and listings more than double in the aftermath.
 
It’s fascinating to watch the market after a major event – and as the NBA raked in about $4 billion dollars this year – it’s safe to say this is big. In less than a decade LeBron has become one of the most prominent players of his time – and he is certainly among the biggest player franchises.
 
According to Terapeak, eBay has sold nearly $5 million dollars worth of LeBron James merchandise over the last year. That’s a whole lot of jerseys, hats, and action figures. A trading card from 2003, James’ rookie year, sold one week ago for $30,000 dollars. Not bad for a little piece of cardboard.

Terapeak is the reigning king of averages, and we love to scour eBay for quirky items. A million-dollar lunch isn’t the craziest listing ever – that prestigious honor is saved for things like a UFO detector or a ghost in a jar – but it’s definitely ridiculous.

The meal includes more than just a free appetizer; billionaire investor Warren Buffet will dine with the winner – who wishes to remain anonymous. The proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Glide Foundation – which provides social services to the homeless in San Francisco.

Robert Chatwani – director of global citizenship for eBay – confirmed this as the largest single auction for charity that’s been held on eBay.

It’s not difficult to imagine why people are dying to get face time with Buffet – he’s the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and one of the world’s most successful investors. Previous lunch dates with the mogul have gone for $1.68 and $2.11 million dollars.

One has to wonder about the etiquette for tipping on a lunch tab like this. Even staying conservative at 10% means you’re looking at the value of a small house – we doubt the waiter will be donating that kind of gratuity.

A Terapeak interview with Trevor Ginn of Hello Baby (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/hellobabydirect)

How long have you been selling on eBay?

I’ve been selling on eBay as Hellobabydirect for about 18 months.  Before that I was working for Auctioning4u who were the UK’s largest eBay trading assistants.  All in all I’ve been selling on eBay as a business for about 4 years.

What got you started there?

At Auctioning4u I provided consulting services to businesses to help them use eBay as a sales channel.  With online sales experiencing strong growth most of my clients were doing pretty well, much better than me it seemed.  I was itching to give it a go as I was sure I could build a successful online retailing business.  I choose baby products as my research showed that the industry had healthy margins and was not as competitive as areas like electronics.  I also wanted to be in an industry which I knew something about (my first daughter had just been born), was largely non seasonable and mostly recession proof.

What sort of things do you like to sell?

We sell a wide range of baby and nursery items. Items range from small toys nursery and baby safety items like safety catches to larger, more expensive items like prams and cots.  We sell a lot of our items internationally, especially to Europe as the strong Euro makes our products good value for our friends in the Eurozone.  We sell on eBay, Amazon and our own website www.hellobabydirect.co.uk

How do you use Terapeak to help build your business?

We use Terapeak to research products and also to investigate the tactics and best selling product of our competitors.  eBay data, provided by Terapeak, is the only source I know of actual sales data about online sales.  Other, very expensive, reports from companies like Mintel make broad statements about market sectors, but this is not much use when a merchant is looking to make purchasing decision at the brand or product level.

When we are analyzing new products we will use a product search on that particular brand to establish what items are selling well and then drill down to individual products to establish average selling prices.  We then put the sales data into a spreadsheet which allows us to calculate the profit we can make from selling the item by taking into account cost like sales tax, PayPal and eBay fees.  This process saves us from buying product for which the market is very competitive and there are poor margins.

We also make extensive use of the seller report.  This allows us to see the products which our competitors are selling successfully and how their business is performing.

Terapeak Tips from Matt – What else Hello Baby can do to build their business using research?

Trevor mentioned that a good portion of his business is targeted at international marketplaces.  A lack of availability for products in certain regions can create excellent opportunities to sell your goods for a higher price.  Terapeak’s International Report compares statistics for 6 eBay marketplaces around the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and Australia.  The International report provides charts detailing buyer and seller location and helps identify which eBay site represents the highest potential margin.    I would recommend Trevor try using the International report for some of his products and see if he can expand his offerings into more eBay sites around the world.

If you’d like to be featured in a “How do they do it?” please contact us at pr@terapeak.com.

When we reported on the index at the beginning of the season, Pittsburgh and Detroit (last year’s Cup finalists) were leading their respective conferences in total eBay sales. A few months into the season, however, both have been overtaken: in the East, Boston has jumped out to number one, while in the West, Chicago is dominating ($320K to second-place Detroit’s $176K).

So what’s triggered the movement? Well, in Chicago’s case, you’ve got a first-place team in a first-rate hockey market, with a host of young superstars… That’s a pretty good recipe for eBay success.

Boston, meanwhile, hasn’t had the same kind of hot start on the ice, but hosting the 2010 Winter Classic was great for merchandise sales. The game’s other participant, the Philadelphia Flyers, have also seen a big jump in total sales — all the way up to fourth in the NHL!

Pittsburgh continues to sell well (if only every franchise had a Sidney Crosby!), and the Sabres have been surprisingly profitable as well. Poor on-ice performances from a pair of Original 6 teams, the Maple Leafs and Canadiens, have led to disappointing merchandise sales, and subsequent drops in the Terapeak NHL Index standings.

With the league set to break for a few weeks when next month’s Winter Olympics begin, it’ll be interesting to see how the Games affect NHL sales. For many of the league’s superstars, the Olympics in Vancouver will be the biggest stage they’ve ever played on. And where legends are born… jerseys are bought!