Let's have a look at how to collect this information and how to interpret it to give you the advantage you need to be a top seller.

eBay Resources - Free

eBay Pulse

eBay pulse is a daily snapshot of current trends and hot picks. Select a category and drill down to find the hottest daily picks. For example I chose Books and came up with these hot picks

1. harry potter

2. stephen king

3. easton press

4. james patterson

5. bible

Well no surprises there then! Seller Central - What's Hot

"The eBay merchandising team combs trade magazines, gathers predictions from respected industry experts, and looks at eBay sales data to determine what's in demand. Here's the scoop on which hot products will be promoted on the home page, emails, and buyer catalog this season."

Lists are categorised under the following headings Art, Antiques & Collectibles, Home, Fashion, Motors, Sports and Technology. Check out the hottest selling items in the different categories.

Here's the first few items from the Technology category to illustrate.

Bushnell Digital Binoculars

Canon PowerShot SD1000

Blackberry Pearl Unlocked

Nokia N95 Cell Phone Unlocked

Motorola H700 Bluetooth Headset

Motorola RAZR2 V8 Unlocked.....

eBay Want it Now

Browse by category or search to see what people have tagged and how much response they're getting from sellers. You can then target in-demand items that have few sellers meeting those needs. Rather unwieldy for research!

ebay Research Labs

List 'Most in Demand' and 'Top Gainers' Daily. Another way to find hot products.

Use the Advanced Search to Find Best Sellers

On any eBay page click on Advanced Search, enter your chosen product, scroll down to 'Number of Bids' and enter 2. Choose 'Ending Soonest' from the drop down menu and perform the search. From the results you'll see the most sought after items in the category. If there aren't many items with multiple bids for your product it won't be a good seller.

eBay Resources - Cost

Marketplace Research

"Marketplace Research enables buyers and sellers to gather critical intelligence on buying and selling trends in the eBay marketplace. View and analyze top searches, average start prices, average sold prices and much more".

There is a fee for using this service from $2.99 for 2 days with 10 saved searches to $29.99 a month for the Pro membership.

Other On-Line Resources

Terapeak Well known for its excellent array of resources for finding out statistics on eBay. Tools to find hot products, price your products and research keywords. Supports eBay UK, Australia, Canada, Germany & France.Priced at $24.95 a month

Computer Programs Auction Inspector

Auction Inspector analyses posts on the eBay "WANT IT NOW" section and identifies which products are in demand. It then analyzes responses from sellers, so you can see the areas where sellers are already in abundance and where there are fewer sellers, leaving the field clear for you! Takes the hassle out of the research and saves the time it would take to do the research manually. One time cost $39.95. Well worth the money!