Amazon Sports Collectibles & Memorabilia beta launches today, bringing sports fans 2 million+ unique collectibles from all types of sports. We’re talking NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and FIFA.

Collectors will be able to browse the selection of cards, gear, pictures, balls, and jerseys by sport, year, specific team, and price. All of the focus is on authentic, unique memorabilia, with a premium placed on autographed items and other quirks like game-worn items.

“Our customers have told us that when purchasing sports collectibles they highly value authenticity, which is why we have teamed with some of the top sports collectibles sellers in the world to provide unique items with easy to find authentication and condition information,” said Peter Faricy, vice president of Amazon Marketplace. “The emphasis on authenticated selection, combined with our A-to-z Guarantee protection on purchases, allows customers to shop the new store with confidence.”

Every item page in the store will include information about authentication as well as condition:

As I said before, the store is launching just in time for the Super Bowl, and Amazon has a category just for Super Bowl-themed collectibles. For instance, you can get a signed Eli Manning collectible mini-helmet for $289.95. If you’re a Pats fan, a signed Tom Brady mini-helmet is going to run you $569.99.

According to WPTV Kansas, that’s what happened to Sophia Stockton, a junior at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe.

Apparently, Stockton purchased the book through Amazon’s Warehouse Deals program, where shoppers can “get deep discounts on open-box, like-new, refurbished, or used products that are in good condition but do not meet Amazon.com’s rigorous standards as ‘new.’” When she opened it up and a baggie of white powder fell out, she initially thought it might be anthrax.

Ironically enough, the textbook that contained the cocaine was called “Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues.”

She notified the local police department, who ran an analysis on the substance:

Warehouse Deals was created by Amazon to easily move products that aren’t quite showroom quality. It functions like any other “Fulfilled by Amazon” merchant. Amazon specifically says that items that come through Warehouse Deals are inspected carefully:

Prior to offering an item for sale on Warehouse Deals, we verify physical and functional condition.

Amazon says that any product that customers find unsatisfactory can be returned within 30 days for a full refund. I doubt Miss Stockton is unsatisfied with her textbook once she found out it wasn’t full of a biological warfare agent.

She told GardnerEdge: “I have ordered many times from Amazon and this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this. I don’t think that Amazon is at fault in this case. They can’t check every book that goes through their warehouse. I’m guessing that it (the cocaine) was just left in there by the previous owner of the book.”

Or some inspector is really bummed out. I wonder, how many other college students would have called the police?

A new survey, Shopping Trends Among 18-25 Year-Olds, conducted by a group of LIM College students and in conjunction with the NRF Student Association, revealed that 68% of young people aged 18-25 years “prefer to shop in stores than online for apparel and shoes.” In announcing the release, Alexis Michaelides, student leader of the LIM College’s campus NRF Student Association, said, “We have read and observed what industry leaders had been saying about our use of technology for shopping and it did not match our own habits and preferences.”

The study also contains a bit of good news for all of those brick and mortar stores who feel like they’re living under the Amazon sword. Another member of the LIM College NRFSA team, Nicole Flasch-Mihalko, added, “Retail observers have been significantly overestimating our use of online and digital technology for shopping. We like shopping in stores and are not as engaged in shopping on the Internet as many have touted. I guess the demise of the brick and mortar format of retailing– at least for 18-25 year-olds– is grossly exaggerated.”

Some key take-aways from the study:

What’s funny is that the second bullet point up there is exactly the opposite of that oh-so treacherous Amazon Price Check app that infuriated everybody during the recent Christmas holiday. And since it only mentions apparel and shoes as items that young people shop for in brick and mortar stores, does that mean they are either purchasing media (e.g., movies, music) online? (I bet they’re just stealin’ that swag via their ultra-fast dorm room Internet connection.)

While this is a intriguing study, it’d be more telling and reliable if the results could be duplicated among a larger sample size and, perhaps, inclusive of a broader geography of youngsters since, I’m assuming, that the survey only included data from Manhattanites since LIM is located there. Have you been to brick and mortar stores in NYC? It’s considerably different than the weekend trips to Target or the local mall.

Nevertheless. Carry on, my wayward brick and mortar sons!

eBay has issued their 3rd-annual “Top Shopped” report, where they analyze all of their sales data to come up with what pop culture forces captivated the nation throughout the year. The data was pulled from various eBay categories and solidified into a top 10 list featuring the most popular things of the year (at least in terms of $$$).

Strangely enough, the Top Shopped list does seem to reflect what was popular in 2011. People really do “vote” with their dollars:

1. NFL
2. Harry Potter
3. Twilight
4. Call of Duty
5. Green Bay Packers
6. iPad
7. Sade
8. Justin bieber
9. Glee
10. Charlie Sheen

eBay also dives deeper into the pop culture data with some more facts about the year-end sales figures. eBay shoppers bought 83,879 Lady Gaga-related items, as opposed to only 65,822 Katy Perry items. The Green Bay Packers had more related items sold that any other sport figure (234,089), but QB Aaron Rodgers couldn’t compete with Derek Jeter, who sold an athlete-most 131,250 related items.

“eBay sales are a direct indicator of what Americans are most fascinated by and uniquely reflects the cultural zeitgeist,” said Karen Bard Sayah, eBay Spokesperson. “From the latest video games and tech devices, to royal wedding memorabilia and ‘Winning’ t-shirts, shoppers know that whatever it is they’re coveting, they can find it on eBay.”

$18.7 billion has already been spent online during the holiday season to date – a 15% increase compared to last year. There were three days last week that surpassed $1 billion in spending. Cyber Monday, of course, was the largest at $1.25 billion.

Tuesday hit $1.12 billion. Wednesday hit $1.03 billion. These three days were three of the four heaviest online spending days in history, comScore says. The other one was Cyber Monday last year.

“Cyber Monday kicked the week off with a bang as consumers opened their wallets to the tune of $1.25 billion, but it was only the beginning of a very strong week of online holiday spending,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Tuesday and Wednesday followed with billion dollar spending days, helping Cyber Week reach a record weekly total of nearly $6 billion in spending. As the deals from this week expire, it will be important to see the degree to which consumers return to the same retailers to continue their holiday shopping, thereby helping improve retailers’ profit margins, or if we experience a pullback in consumer spending – which has occurred in previous years – before promotional offers and spending intensity pick back up in earnest around mid-December.”

Here’s a year-to-year comparison:

Free shipping has clearly played a big role in all of this. Here’s another look at the growth of this:

Here’s a chart showing how important this is to people:

“Free shipping is one of the most important incentives that online retailers must provide during the holiday season to ensure that shoppers will convert into buyers,” added Mr. Fulgoni. “Consumers have come to expect free shipping during the holiday promotion periods, and retailers, in turn, have realized that they must offer this incentive if they want to maximize their share of consumer spending – especially at the outset of the shopping season. In fact, more than three-quarters of consumers say that free shipping is important to them when making an online purchase, and nearly half say they will abandon their shopping cart at checkout if they find free shipping is not being offered.”

As the holidays get closer and closer, I’m guessing speedy delivery will continue to rise in importance to consumers. This is probably one reason that Google is looking at getting more involved in this area (to compete with Amazon).

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is on the way to start a service that matches online shopping with fast (one-day) delivery – for a small fee. Basically, Amazon Prime for the rest of the internet retailers.

And the comparison to Amazon’s Prime service is not only valid because the new initiative so closely resembles the service. According to the people familiar with the matter, the idea was directly motivated by the huge success of Amazon’s service.

Apparently, Google realizes that people are finding goods by searching on Amazon directly, taking Google out of the equation. Retailers have also noticed this, realizing that they sometimes cannot compete with Amazon’s merchandise availability and quick shipping times.

The sources say that Macy’s, Gap, and OfficeMax are some of the first retailers to be interested in partnering up with Google.

It looks like the service may utilize Google Shopper:

Under the initiative, Google plans to meld an existing product-search feature that directs shoppers to retail websites with a new quick-shipping service that the Internet giant will oversee. The quick-shipping service will be based on a Google behind-the-scenes system that allows shoppers to figure out whether stores have a product in stock and that allows them to find out whether they can get that product shipped to them within a day.

When shoppers place an order on those retailers’ websites, Google’s system could kick in to offer them an option for same-day or possibly next-day delivery, said a person familiar with the matter.

So Google won’t actually be selling anything, or shipping anything for that matter. Possible delivery partnerships include UPS and other local companies. Google reportedly plans to test the initiative in San Francisco and work its way up to a full launch in 2012.

Do you think Amazon should be worried? Let us know what you think in the comments.

In the years since its inception, Cyber Monday has grown to rival Black Friday as one of the biggest shopping days of the year, with some speculating that, at least in terms of year-to-year growth, it may even surpass its older cousin in coming years. Black Friday sales grew far more than expected this year, suggesting that Cyber Monday figures can expect to see a similar jump, if not larger.

How much of your shopping will you be doing on Cyber Monday? Let us know in the Comments.

Social networking sites like Twitter are awash with buzz about Cyber Monday. While most tweets are from retailers advertising their deals, or from price aggregators promising to help find the best prices, others range in topic from the humorous…

To the cautionary…

Nearly every retailer, from the smallest to the largest, has at least some sort of Cyber Monday special going, offering sometimes enormous discounts on a wide array of products. Some of the best deals are to be found in electronics. For example, Amazon has reduced the price of its Kindle DX reader by $150, and is offering massive discounts on a variety of gadgets, video games, and movies. Data obtained from PriceGrabber.com shows that these categories are some of the areas showing the most significant sales growth this year are already.

Here’s an interesting infographic, courtesy of Daily Infographic:



But they did begin a helpful initiative that should coax hesitant buyers into snatching up smaller items via the online store.

Starting today, Apple is offering free shipping on everything – no matter how inexpensive. Usually, you have to hit $50 before Apple’s free shipping kicks in. This could boost online sales of smaller items like cases, chargers and other accessories.

Although Apple is not participating in the Cyber Monday deals, they did have a sale on Black Friday both online and in-store. That one-day-only sale saw discounts as small at $10 to discounts totaling $100 on larger items like MacBooks. From the initial reports, it looks like that one-day sale was a success. Apple sources have reported that the day was the biggest day in terms of retail sales in company’s history.

It’s a running joke that Apple rarely gives anyone a discount on anything – and there is some merit to it. Their Black Friday deals weren’t as ambitious as some other retailers. And they aren’t participating in any deals today, on the biggest online shopping day of the season.

But free shipping on everything is helpful and it might make it easier for people to order smaller items without feeling like they are wasting money.

The free shipping period ends December 22nd.

Those sales dwarfed 2010′s Black Friday online sales – a jump of 26% year-over-year. Over 50 million Americans participated in online shopping last Friday.

And at the top of the list of retailers that benefited from the online shopping push is Amazon. The comScore report indicates that Amazon beat out Walmart and Best Buy to be the top online retailer on Friday. Amazon has just released some information on that day’s sales – and the Kindle reigned supreme.

According to the release, Black Friday 2011 was the best ever for the Kindle. Kindle sales apparently increased fourfold year-over-year.

“Even before the busy holiday shopping weekend, we’d already sold millions of the new Kindle family and Kindle Fire was the bestselling product across all of Amazon.com. Black Friday was the best ever for the Kindle family – customers purchased 4X as many Kindle devices as they did last Black Friday – and last year was a great year,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “In addition, we’re seeing a lot of customers buying multiple Kindles – one for themselves and others as gifts – we expect this trend to continue on Cyber Monday and through the holiday shopping season.”

They also said that the new Kindle Fire tablet remained the top selling item on the site, a title it has held since it was introduced back in September.

Amazon wasn’t the only online retailer selling tablets on Black Friday – Apple, as you probably know, had a big Black Friday sale this year. Naturally, a “big sale” for Apple is different than a “big sale” for other retailers. But Apple’s offerings included $100 off certain MacBooks and a few dozen dollars off the iPad 2 and iPod Touch.

But apparently, it was enough to get people shopping – both online and in stores. According to a source inside Apple, the company had it’s best retail sales day ever. From 9to5Mac –

Apple Retail was forecast and broke Retail sales records all over the country today, this is from [redacted] today, the forecast today is more than 4 times what we normally do. We broke the forecast by 7pm.

Reports suggest that Cyber Monday (the newer shopping holiday devoted to online shopping, taking place today), could see over 1 billion dollars in online purchasing. There’s no doubt that both Amazon and Apple will be huge parts in that total.

Are you participating in this giant shopping week? Let us know in the comments.

Just to put it in perspective for you, last year’s online Black Friday sales only increased 9 percent from the previous year.

comScore data showed that fifty million Americans shopped online on Black Friday, an increase of 35 percent from 2010.

comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni stated:

“With brick-and-mortar retail also reporting strong gains on Black Friday, it’s clear that the heavy promotional activity had a positive impact on both channels.”

The top five retail websites on Black Friday were Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple.

“Amazon.com once again led the pack, with 50 percent more visitors than any other retailer, while also showing the highest growth rate versus last year,” said Fulgoni.

With Cyber Monday looming, Fulgoni predicted another record setting day, which is saying something. Sales from Cyber Monday last year topped $1 billion, which made it the largest online spending day ever, according to comScore.

What’s your prediction for Cyber Monday? Leave us a comment below with your guesstimate.