Knew the Heat Would Win? The eBay Community Did

Ok, I admit I had some major doubts after the Dallas Mavericks went up 2 games to none over the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. But once again the eBay Community proved their prognosticating abilites. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out my previous blog post about the Finals. In a nutshell, when American Idol was still showing, you could have predicted that Taylor Hicks would win based on the number of items sold on the site compared to his competition. So I took that idea and did the same thing for the NBA Finals, using eBay Marketplace Research. Were more items selling of Miami star Shaquille O'Neal, or of Dallas's best player, Dirk Nowitzki? Fortunately for me, I also included Dwyane Wade in the comparison, which was a good decision considering he dominated the last few games and ended up being named the Finals' Most Valuable Player.

After the Mavericks took the first two games relatively easily, I thought the experiment might be going up in smoke. But then Wade took over, Dallas let Game 3 slip away, and Miami charged to 4 victories in a row. Not coincidentally, the number of Dwyane Wade items sold yesterday (the last game of the series) jumped over 50% from the levels of the previous few days. Interestingly, Shaq sales stayed relatively flat despite him picking up his 4th championship ring.

And for you hockey fans (of which I am certainly one), you might have noticed that the Stanley Cup playoffs ended Monday. The Carolina Hurricanes edged out the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 in Game 7, in what was a fantastic game. The Canes' 22-year-old rookie goalie Cam Ward was named as the Conn Smythe winner (the NHL's playoff MVP), and also saw the number of his items sold jump by 50% that night. Guess it pays off to play your best on the biggest stage.

So what's the bottom line here? Don't underestimate how the Community can predict winners. Vegas should be scared, very scared.....