Explosive Growth in 'Whitney Houston' Items Through eBay Sales (EBAY, AAPL)

Whitney Houston’s death on Saturday is being followed by many former fans.  What is interesting is that after a celebrity’s death it turns out that their albums, books, magazines with them on the covers, and all sorts of other memorabilia start to sell far faster (often at irrational prices) compared to if the star would have had another new hit again.  While the interest is far short of the aftermath of Michael Jackson’s death, the interest is exponentially higher in Whitney Houston items compared to a few days ago.

It has been widely reported that Whitney Houston songs have been climbing up the charts on iTunes of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).  Two of the top ten songs are now Whitney Houston songs, and that might even be higher had it not been for the Grammy Awards overlapping.  What has not been so covered is the explosive count of auctions and the “Buy It Now” items of Whitney Houston selling through eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY). 

Before Friday the number of items sold through eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was sporadic.  As of about 2:00 PM EST today, there were some 11,633 items for sale under the “Whitney Houston” search and many were under the 1-Day Auction format as sellers wanted to part ways with Whitney albums, signatures, and other items.

If you know much about going through the Completed Listings of eBay for price watching and popularity, there were literally 21 pages with 200 results per page going back to Saturday and most items were sold as long as they were on-topic.  Trying to tally up a real-time sales figure is not the point because it now appears to be thousands of items. 

This trend is starting to become routine out of death, particularly when it tragic and largely is unexpected.

JON C. OGG