LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Teen star Miley Cyrus, pop diva Madonna, "The Dark Knight," hi-tech gadgets and Barack Obama were among America's top pop culture obsessions that turned into possessions in 2008, according to online market place eBay.
"When someone or something excites the American public, you
immediately see a surge of related listings pop up on eBay," said Karen
Bard, eBay's pop culture expert.
Cyrus, the 16-year-old star of Disney's "Hannah Montana" TV show,
beat teen rivals like the Jonas Brothers and the cast of "High School
Musical" hands down in terms of items sold on eBay, the Web site said
in a survey of hot items in 2008.
Some 223,139 "Hannah Montana" related-items, ranging from buttons,
to clothes and posters, exchanged hands on the Web site during the year.
Britney Spears, emerging from another year of personal woes, proved popular with eBay buyers with 32,966 items sold.
But Spears was overshadowed by "Material Girl" Madonna, who turned
50 this year and also divorced second husband Guy Ritchie after months
of rumors. Madonna memorabilia, albums and posters saw sales of 96,511
items.
In a historic presidential election year, Barack Obama
was the clear front-runner on eBay as well as with U.S. voters, winning
the November election and to become the first U.S. black president.
The Web site saw an active trade in Obama posters, coins, action
figures and even the odd lunchbox that led to sales of 111,546
Obama-related items.
Months of Obama-fever outstripped sales of Sarah Palin
items (20,712) after the Alaska governor was named Republican
vice-presidential candidate in September, sparking a rush in buyers for
look-alike wigs, Palin's trademark glasses, autographed photos and even
thong underwear.
Fans went batty for "The Dark Knight," the latest Batman movie, with
60,484 related items sold -- 18 times more than those of "Indiana Jones
and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
Olympic gold medal swimming champion Michael Phelps broke records in
the pool and sparked a buying fever online that saw 13,350
Phelps-related items sold on eBay, the world's largest online
marketplace.
But the hottest of all the pop culture trends was the Nintendo Wii,
which saw a whopping 2.05 million related items including accessories
and games sold on eBay, outstripping the Microsoft Xbox 360 (1.29
million items), Apple's new iPod Touch (281,361) and the iPhone 3G
(212,837).
The data was based on eBay listings that included key words in the listing title across all categories from Jan 1-Oct 15, 2008.
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