I also remember reading Bill Myers' post about this (from waaaay back)....

The main idea is to look at the "hot" auctions (the auctions with lots of bids) as a measure of what kind of products are in demand on these auction web sites....

It *looks* like ebay may have removed their "hot auctions" listing, but Amazon auctions gives an alternative....

With Amazon, go to www.amazon.com then click on "Auctions"....

Then you can use their "Advanced Search" function to search for a keyword, and sort by "Hot Items" (which will put items with the most bids at the top).... Search by "title & description" to get the most results. To get a general listing of items, use a very broad search term. Any suggestions of good terms to use?

Another approach is to go to a particular category, then sort listings by "Hot Items," which will show the items with the most bids at the top....

Any other suggestions? There may be other auction sites with other helpful functions too....

Amazon auctions isn't as widely used as ebay I think, but it can still give you some idea of what kind of items are popular. :)

- Dien