eBay reveals its Top Shopped trends from the past year

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Posted 20 December 2011 15:41pm by Vikki Chowney with 0 comments

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Not one to be left out, eBay has released its third annual Top Shopped report following Google's Zeitgeist for 2011, and YouTube's most watched videos earlier today.

eBay's list aims to rank the pop culture moments and trends of the year based on related items sold in the US on the eBay Marketplace.

The company analysed sales data of what people bought across all categories from January 1st to December 1st 2011.

With more than 200m daily listings and a community of nearly 100m users, eBay says this is a "unique trend barometer".

On its blog, chief blogger Richard Brewer-Hay said that there aren't many surprises though – but that the buying habits accurately reflected the biggest trends from the year. 

The top three most expensive cross-category purchases on eBay Mobile raise eyebrows however, with the top spot going to a Mercedes-Benz : S-Class at a whopping $212,685, then a Hermes Blue Sapphire Ostrich Birkin Bag for $19,975 and finally a 1933 Goudey – Babe Ruth #53 PSA Baseball Card taking the bronze medal for $19,500.

eBay.com Picks or America's "Top Shopped" and Pop Culture Moments of 2011.

eBay also outlined a series of trends that it has derived from the same sales data throughout the year:

• Here Come the Brides: eBay shoppers bought more than double the amount of Kate Middleton related items (12,583) than supermodel Kate Moss (5,913 related items), both of which got married this year - but on very different scales.
• Breaking Up Is(n't)Hard To Do: eBay says that the two celebrities with the most sales attached to their name both had very public divorces this year, but these figures are far more likely to have been influenced by the huge TV shows both of these women star in. Jennifer Lopez on American Idol with 16,133 related items sold, while Kim Kardashian's 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' pulled in 13,023. 
• Pop Princesses: Lady Gaga beat Katy Perry with 83,879 Gaga related items compared to 65,822.
• Titletown, USA: Not only were more Green Bay Packers related items sold (234,089) than any other professional football team, the NFL (1,837,834) was the #1 pop culture obsession on eBay – trumping the NBA, MLB and the NHL. 
• Basketball: Chicago Bulls scored 120,640 related items during 2011, more so than NBA Finals underdog champions Dallas Mavericks (29,917) who beat out the Miami Heat (50,033) for the league title. Heat star player Lebron James still managed to snag basketball fans' cash though – eBay shoppers bought 73,601 items with his name attached.
• Vampires, Wizards and Movies, Oh My: Twilight (297,330) landed near the top, but was beaten by 446,915 for Harry Potter.
• Retro Glamour: Mad Men (30,378) also scored big, while "Gleeks" bought 59,899 worth of Glee related items during 2011.
• iPlay Video Games: Call of Duty (272,821) was more coveted than the iPad (215,412), iPod Nano (144,238) and even the iPhone 4S (22,657).
• What's Old Is New Again: Sade beat Justin Bieber with 156,395 in comparison to 156,092 related items for the young star.
• Boys Club: eBay shoppers bought 22,480 items related to Charlie Sheen, a landslide when compared to just 2,260 for Ashton Kutcher.

Vikki is News Editor for Econsultancy. You can follow her on Twitter.