The confounding success of the famous Super Bowl economic indicator, where the winning team’s conference seems to correlate with the coming year’s economy, is spilling over into other areas of voodoo economics. This time it’s reversed as eBayers are predicting the outcome of America’s time-honored obsession based upon the going price of each team’s merchandise.

This smells of a publicity stunt. Using the eBay Market Data Program, eBay developer Mpire has a running tally of the average price of Seattle Seahawks merchandise versus the average price of Pittsburgh Steelers merchandise. According to Mpire’s data, Seattle is ahead of Pittsburgh $154.45 to $105.86, no doubt influenced by the $10,000 NFC championship hotdog for sale.

EBay Director of Developers Program, Greg Isaacs, writes on his weblog that the data could be “one (loose) predictor of who may win the Super Bowl.”

Of course, Steelers fans know that the only way Seattle is going to win is if some karmic event like “The Immaculate Reception” comes full circle-and they’re praying it won’t.

Traditionally, the Super Bowl has been used as an economic predictor of the year ahead. Leveraging the sheer weirdness that 39 years of anomalous synchronicities (that’s a fancy term I use for “coincidence” to sound extra intelligent) have correctly predicted bull or bear markets some 80% of the time.

The formula, popularized in the 1970’s by Bob Stovall, says that if a team from the old National Football League (i.e., before the NFL AFL merger in 1970) wins the Super Bowl, then Wall Street can expect a strong year. If the Steelers win this year, according to the formula, we can expect a bull market. So we should all pray for Steelers success.

Personally, I think it’ll be “bull” either way.

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