Welcome back to the weekly search trends page. The trends page was on a hiatus, but we brought it back for 2012.
On this page we catch up with and diagnose the search trends on eBay from the previous week. We get our information by matching the top 20 items spiking daily in search trends from eBay itself with other topics currently being searched on outside the eBay walls.
Top Search Trends: Week ending Friday January 27, 2012
The top trend this week was for a T-shirt with a mouse on it. This was not just any mouse, of course, or it wouldn’t have topped our searches. The shirt features the likeness of Disney’s famous Mickey Mouse. We saw an increase in searches for Disney Joy Division, which led us to investigate a bit. What we found was a surprising likeness of the Disney mouse on a T-shirt, which you can see here:
It turns out the name of this T-shirt was a bit of a PR nightmare for Disney, once fans of the band noticed and complained, so the company pulled the shirt from the shelves and its online store. The reason for the controvery concerns the band Joy Division, which gets its name from a notorious historical reference, as well as the fact that the lead singer of the band committed suicide at a young age. The juxtaposition of the notoriety and the suicide with the Disney mouse is not what one usually wants associated with a brand, no matter how well-meaning the intention. Disney’s mistake has the makings of an instant collectible but, if you are interested in purchasing the rare shirt, make sure you get the real thing.
Another series of searches will come as no surprise to parents everywhere. We saw an increase in searches for Skylanders Ignitor, Skylanders Drill Sergeant, Skylanders Whirlwind, and so forth. We discovered that Skylanders is a cross-platform video game with a twist: aside from buying the video game starter pack (which is easy to find), players buy stand-alone characters to make the game even more enjoyable. Some of the stand-alone characters are very hard to find, while other characters have not even been released! This game was a sleeper hit last Christmas, and parents are now struggling to find the right characters for their kids to augment their starter kit. And eBay sellers have a hard time keeping up with the demand.
Skylander three-pack with Whirlwind, Double Trouble, and Drill Sergeant
We also saw a surge in searches for Joe Paterno memorial tickets, as people thought they could use the eBay platform to sell tickets to a free event. eBay does not permit this practice, as outlined in the eBay tickets resale policy, which states: “Members are not allowed to sell tickets to events where all tickets are free to the public.” The attempted sale of the tickets was not without controversy, a story nicely summarized here.
Finally and unsurprisingly, we saw a huge surge in searches for the two teams headed to the Super Bowl, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. If we had to guess, we would say most of these searches come from folks in the northeast region of the USA, as this looks to be an all New England states final. We also saw an increase in searches for jerseys, from ones worn by Patriot quarterback Tom Brady to Giants quarterback Eli Manning and everyone in between. (Editor’s note: we did see a lot of searches for San Francisco 49ers jerseys last Sunday; we guess most of them happened before the Niners’ overtime loss…. Next year!)
Selected high-value items listed or sold on the site this week:
Please note this a sample of high-value items on eBay. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it is a representative list.
2005 Chrysler 300 Series 300C (owned by President Barack Obama) – $1,000,000
2005 Beaver Patriot Thunder with 4 slides – $115,850
2010 Aston Martin DBS Volante – $190,100
Ancient three-eyed dZi bead with a special Motif – $26,000
2003 Sooner Aluminum 4 Horse Trailer with Living Quarters – $16,500
Believe me, Fans of Joy Division don’t want the Disney label associated with them either.
The graphic is from the Joy Division cover Unknown Pleasures, a poor selling album that, sadly, didn’t take off until Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” was released in 1980.
The graphic itself is from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy and the wave is black with a white background, it’s the successive pulses of the first pulsar (CP1919) discovered in 1967.
The graphic has been used everywhere and mostly worn by Hot Topic tweens who never heard a Joy Division song in their lives, hence the Disney themed shirt.
Whats the problem ? when I first saw the shirt it made me think of Deadmau5 , nobody lives in the real world any more, it seems like everybody wants to make something out of nothing. Michael M Las Vegas
Just curious as to the tremendous interest in gold and silver items being sold on eBay recently. I would think with today’s economy, these would definitely make the top selling trend list.
I agree with Micheal M. That shirt is ugly and plain! It’s honestly irritating to look at! I think if someone had that shirt on around me I would try to dismiss them quickly!..lol! Come around me with that shirt and you will get fired!!
P.S. Disgusting shirt!!
: )
Sort of like you made a big deal out of a simple comment. Great thing about the “real world” is that everybody has different opinions.
I found both the article and the comment to be extremely informative, I never knew Disney made a Joy Division type shirt and I probably never would of if it wasn’t for Ebay Stories. I’m starting to like this feature more and more.
Just out of curiosity, what world do YOU live in?
@toolzgirl: you are right, there is a lot of interest in gold and silver items, and I often see search spikes for gold and/or silver. I can’t list everything, though, that people are searching for, just a representative list. Next week I will put in some gold and/or silver items so you can see the kind of thing people are searching for…
Also, you may want to look at the eBay Bullion center. It aggregates all the gold and silver bullion sales in one place.
Wait, so you’re not gonna explain anything else about Joy Division other than that they got their name from the forced prostitution sections in German camps and that singer killed himself? You’re not gonna mention that they’re one of the most important forces in rock music from the last 30 years? The fact that they actually experimented with their music and tried new stuff?
I dunno, the way the post was written, it makes it sound like they were some sort of mean hardcore band when they were far closer to a pop band. Heck, after Ian Curtis hung himself, they reformed as New Order and I think we’re all pretty familiar with their big song.
@Ian – The intention was never to make the Joy Division sound like a mean hardcore band, so if it comes off that way, I apologize. Also, in the space that I have to talk about the items that make our Weekly Search pages, I cannot go into much detail, other than a cursory overview of what makes them interesting. But I am happy that you took the time to inform me and the readers about the band.