Can eBay Predict the NBA Champion?

Because of my interest in sales trends, I have a feeling I'm going to be referencing my original American Idol post fairly often (and I don’t even watch the show, except when my wife makes me…honest!) But after that success, I got to thinking how eBay would stack up trying to predict the winner of the NBA finals between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks, which kicks off tomorrow. I wanted it to be a relatively easy measure of fan interest, like in the Idol post, so I went with a simple formula: have more Shaquille O’Neal (the Heat’s star Center) items sold in the last couple weeks, or has Dirk Nowitzki (the Mavs superstar) been more popular?

Using eBay Marketplace Research, the answer was clear – although Dirk had a strong showing, he’s still about 25% behind Shaq in terms of items sold. Interestingly, Shaq’s biggest competition is from his own team – guard Dwyane Wade has been neck-and-neck with him over the last couple weeks. From these numbers, it’s pretty clear that the eBay Community favors the Heat (even with the unusual spelling of Dwyane).

To give the Mavs one last chance against the Shaq-Wade combo, I teamed Dirk with his favorite musician: David Hasselhoff. If you don't get that last reference, read this article. Alas, even Hasselhoff’s recent appearances on American Idol (there it is again) and the NBA broadcasts on TNT haven’t boosted interest enough to match the Miami giants. Victory, Miami Heat.