What can't you find on eBay these days? Signed sports memorabilia, designer handbags, a napkin once used by your favorite celebrity. This and so much more can be yours, for a price of course.
One of the things about this interesting nation that we live in is the diversity of the people in it, not only in their backgrounds or the geography of where they live in the U.S. but also in the kinds of products they buy. Each state has its own unique culture and flavor, which makes people need or want different products in their lives.
And now we now know what tickles the fancy of New Yorkers, Alaskans and Texans. The famous e-commerce website eBay has mined their data and found the categories of products that residents had the highest per capita spending on in each state. Let's just say, Americans are buying some pretty weird stuff when no one's looking.
So here are the highlights of the kooky findings. Alaskans like hats, which make sense because of the frigid temperatures in the state. OK. Not too weird so far. Coloradans love their hydroponic supplies, which are used for growing plants in water instead of soil. Hmm, given some recently passed laws, that's not too surprising. If you live in Connecticut, you probably love your batteries, although I don't know why that's such a big purchase on eBay. Aren't they easy enough to find in stores? Hawaiians are into vitamins, Pennsylvanians love to play video games and Tennesseans enjoy their dental products. Most alarmingly, New Yorkers buy a lot of firearms and supplies on eBay, and Oregonians are a stealth bunch, purchasing security and suveillance products the most.
Still, these products aren't as strange as many items found on eBay. In the past, people have auctioned off an entire town, a grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary on it and Britney Spears' already-been-chewed gum. So robotic vacuums, construction materials and men's cologne really have nothing on these eBay products.
And let's just hope the cost of these purchases wasn't anywhere near a recent noteworthy auction on eBay. A copy of "Action Comics No.1," the first comic to ever feature Superman, just sold in an auction on eBay for $3.2 million. That's a lot of PayPal credits, am I right? The comic, which is one of only 50 originals of "Action Comics No.1" to not have been restored, broke the record price for a comic book, which was previously set by a copy of the same comic that sold for $2.16 million in 2011. It belonged to Nicolas Cage, so it's a shock it wasn't worth more based on that fact alone.
Check out the full map below.
