When and Where Do People Buy What They Buy on eBay?

People buy a lot of different things on eBay, making it a good source for studying consumer trends. Recently, the research team at eBay decided to map where and when people were buying different specific items, using a total of over 6.5 million transactions that took place over the course of one year.

Obvious results included hot spots of activity in most major cities — and any city with an NBA team when measuring basketball jersey sales. As well as a jump in winter coat purchases during the colder months.

A flurry of activity in December indicates certain items make popular gifts — not just coffee machines and vinyl records but dog and cat clothes, too. Want proof? This is what sales of dog and cat clothes looked like in mid-May:

And here it is just a week before Christmas:

Meanwhile, a typically dark map measuring PlayStation sales lights up just after November 14, the release date for the new PS4.

Play around with the graphic below or on the site here.

The Afternoon Map is a semi-regular feature in which we post maps and infographics. In the afternoon. Semi-regularly.