As holiday shopping shifts into high gear, Microsoft's newest gaming console, the Xbox 360, continues to sell out of stores across the nation. Buyers are turning to eBay in an effort to get their hands on the latest craze in the video gaming market. In the first week after its launch (November 22 - 28, 2005) Xboxs were selling at a rate of 1 every 13 seconds during peak times. Based on Terapeak analysis of eBay data, over $23 million worth of Microsoft Xbox 360s were sold in the first week.

Terapeak licenses eBay market data and sells it on a subscription basis to its customers, who can do category and keyword research to spot trends on eBay. The company used its service to take a look at the demand for Xbox 360 systems, found below, even noting which optional eBay features sellers chose to bring attention to their listings.

The following research was completed using Terapeak's web-based research tool to set price filters on completed transactions of Xbox 360 systems priced greater than $250 and less than $1500. The demand for Xbox was well above the standard with a staggering average of 19 bids per successful listing. In fact, over 586,035 bids were placed on 39,562 systems. The success rate for Xbox 360 systems listed on eBay.com was 78.2 percent. The average selling price for units sold was $718 per unit.

It is interesting to note that the majority of listings took place primarily between 8AM-12PM PST and in the evening between 2PM-7PM PST. Ninety-two percent of the listings were auctions and approximately 65 percent of those transactions were 1-day duration listings. eBay Picture Services and Bold features were the most used selling tactics by eBay sellers.

Since the first week demand has dropped to an average of 15 bids per successful listing. The success rate and average price of Xbox 360 auctions have also come down. They are now 75.4 percent and $702, respectively.

Terapeak's data and analytics tools look at data from eBay going back as far back as January 1, 2004.

http://www.terapeak.com