eBay's Top Shopped, 2009

As the year draws to a close, it's a good time to reflect on the most memorable moments in pop culture from the past 365 days. What better way to capture the pulse of what truly captivated Americans than than to take a look at how they shopped? For it's recently-released "Top Shopped of 2009" list, eBay analyzed data on sales and searches across all categories to produce a portrait of which themes in pop culture captured the American spirit. eBay's perspective is interesting—and unique: Unlike a search engine, which can only reveal what people looked up, eBay can reveal what they actually spent their money on. And unlike retails pushing certain products, eBay can watch the supply and demand unfold across 200,000 listings from the independent sellers on the site.

So what are people shopping for? Our top shopped list is as follows:

1) The Yankees (551,230 related items sold): The 2009 World Series Champions topped the list, with more than double the number of listings of the Philadelphia Phillies (number 8 on our list and the team the Yankees beat out).

2) "Twilight" (523,429 related items sold): Vampires dominated our shopping (and our screens and shelves) this year. Twi-hards brought in 523,429 related items sold for "Twilight" (books and Barbies, included!) while “True Blood” dragged behind with 41,964 related items sold. With "Eclipse," the next movie in the Twilight series, set to be released this summer, we have no doubt that 2010 will be a big year for bloodsuckers too.

3) Michael Jackson (448,885 related items sold): The passing of a pop icon generated some serious sales, 162,670 of which were "Music Memorabilia."  

4) Ed Hardy (411,256 related items sold): Did sailor tattoo t-shirt loving John Gosselin contribute to the trend? Or was he just another Hardy-obsessed American who happened to be in the public eye this year? 

5) Barack Obama (312,980 related items sold) Tripling his sales from last year (111,546 related items in 2008), our commander-in-chief topped the charts with all sorts of memorabilia, from the serious to the silly. 

6) Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana (203,216 related items sold): My personal pop culture obsession? Thanks to catchy tunes, scandalous outfits, and a heavy radio rotation, my year belonged to a Miss Stefani Germonatta, a.k.a., Lady Gaga. She totally trumped everyone on the charts and in the style department—no pants anyone?  My opinion of Gaga shifted over the year. I went from thinking she was jive talkin’ to thinking she is pretty genius.  I almost paid $150 for a ticket to her show in San Franciso. Then I remembered it was a “school night” and I would have had to get seriously decked for the occasion…I was not feeling papa, papa-razzzi ready. However, on eBay she still lagged behind her predecessor, Madonna. There were over 77,000 Madonna-related items that sold on eBay while there were a little under 12,700 Gaga items pocketed. Britney, Gwen, and Beyonce all ranked high, but no one could touch Miley “Hannah Montana” Cyrus. The youngest of the pop stars we researched, Miley related items topped them all at 203,000.

7) Zhu Zhu Pet Hamsters (186,720 related items sold): One would only have to take a look at eBay's Zhu Zhu pet heat map, which shows the shopping activity level for these electronic hamsters around the country, to see why they made our top ten.

8) The Phillies (182,840 related items sold): Baseball's second place team finished eighth on our list. Second baseman Chase Utley brought in a respectable 8,802 related items sold.

9) The Beatles (128,461 related items sold): No doubt the insane popularity of XBox's Beatles Rock Band game helped push the classic band to our top 10.

10) Brett Favre (122,408 related items sold): Beloved Brett Favre scores as most popular quarterback this year, beating out Peyton Manning, with 53,295 related items sold, and Eli Manning, with 24,877 related items sold, by several touchdowns.