Summer arrives and we enter the season of the blockbuster. In anticipation of the main events, sales of movie memorabilia are on the rise. In this week's issue of Data Bytes, we look at sales related to the first few summer blockbusters, along with the movie memorabilia category as a whole, so you'll know what to expect for your movie memorabilia sales during the coming months.

The first blockbuster of the summer was "Spider-Man 3," which came out on May 4th. During the month of May, more than 40,000 Spider-Man items sold, at an average price of $28.61. The most expensive item during the month was Spider-Man comic #43020 from 1963, in which Spider-Man meets the Fantastic Four. It sold for $26,000 on eBay Live Auctions! (http://tinyurl.com/2pohc2). Total listings and total sales spiked on April 28 in anticipation of the movie, and have remained high ever since.

Next up was "28 Weeks Later," which debuted on May 11. While not quite as popular as Spider Man, a search for related items (28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, zombies) shows us that about 4,600 related items have sold, at an average price of about $16 since the week before the debut. "Zombies" sales started to go up around April 28th as well.

"Shrek the Third" came out on May 18, and sales of Shrek memorabilia have been increasing steadily since March. At last check, 21,800 Shrek items had sold in the past month. The most expensive item to date, a Ninja Jump Shrek Inflatable House Jumper, looks like a fun way to start the summer (http://tinyurl.com/2mpylb).

Next up was "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," released on May 25th. During the entire month of May, sales of the movie pirate-related products trended upward each day. 31,352 items have sold in the past month, including a Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine, which sold for $4,299 (http://tinyurl.com/3x32ax).

The movie memorabilia category itself tends to see an increase in sales during late summer and around the holidays.

If you've got summer blockbuster-related goods to sell over the coming months, listing your items a week or two ahead of the movie launch probably wouldn't hurt. There are some great collectibles out there associated with this summer's predicted hits (hint: Transformer sales have been trending upward since the announcement of the movie in December, when the first big trailer was released).

Here's the summer schedule:

June 8 - Ocean's Thirteen
June 17 - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
June 27 - Live Free or Die Hard
July 4 - Transformers
July 13 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
August 3 - The Bourne Ultimatum
August 10 - Rush Hour 3

Enjoy the summer!

Please send questions, feedback or article suggestions to databytes@auctionbytes.com.
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