Pop Kernels

Heisman Highlights
While Heisman winner Troy Smith of Ohio State may have been this year’s top college football player, last year’s winner – Reggie Bush of USC – actually put up bigger sales figures on eBay. Over the course of the season, 3,700 Bush-related items sold on eBay at $52 each, while Smith sold a respectable 3,300 items at about $39 per, and Bush had about 50 percent more sales volume around the time of the Heisman announcement in early December.

Bowling for Tickets
BCS Championship Game tickets are the hot item of the past two weeks, averaging about $3300 per listing (note, that’s per listing, not per ticket), according to eBay Marketplace Research. The average listing is starting at $2200 and getting about 10 bids, and one block of 10 tickets sold for $16,000. Over the last 14 days, nearly 600 listings have successfully closed for the Ohio State-Florida match-up on Jan. 8 in Arizona.

Catch a Lift
Skiing and snowboarding is a whole lotta fun, but it sure can be expensive. Looks like smart slopers are finding nicely-priced lift tickets on eBay. According to eBay Pop data, over 300 tickets have sold in the past two weeks – a 107 percent jump -- at an average price of $42. A quick visit to Squaw Valley site shows discounted tickets starting at over twice that amount.

Taylor vs. Katharine, Part Deux
The top two American Idols from season five – Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee – are releasing CDs within a month or two of each other. Hicks’ CD, creatively titled “Taylor Hicks,” is out this week, while McPhee’s has been delayed until late January. Hicks still has the selling power when it comes to items related to him selling on eBay. Nearly 1,400 have sold over the last three months, 30 percent of which have been in the last two weeks around album and touring buzz. McPhee, on the other hand, has been sporadic on eBay, with only 250 items related to her selling on the site since early September.