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EBay was the online winner this "Black Friday," data published on Saturday showed, but overall Internet traffic growth was well below last year's even as bargain hunters tracked down sought-after toys and electronics on the web before "Cyber Monday." Overall traffic to the Nielsen/Net Ratings Holiday eShopping Index, which tracks more than 120 online retailers, rose 12% on the Friday after Thankgiving over the same day last year, according to the online audience measurement firm. That was significantly below the 29% growth in overall traffic to the index from 2004 to 2005 and was more in line with 11% growth seen from 2003 to 2004. EBay Inc had the most web traffic on "Black Friday," one of retail's busiest days, with 7.5 million unique visitors, according to the data. Amazon.com was in second place, with 3.4 million unique visitors, followed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc, with 3.2 million. There was no way to determine what percentage of Internet users were actually making web purchases. The search for Mattel's TMX Elmo, this season's most popular and hard-to-find toy, drove much of the online traffic in advance of "Cyber Monday," the unofficial start of the online holiday shopping season. EBay reported that 2,537 TMX Elmos were sold on Friday for an average price of $70.10. The toy retails at Wal-Mart for $39.97 and can be found on Shopping.com for as much as $150. Other popular items on eBay included Sony's PlayStation 3, 14,675 have been sold on eBay for an average price of $1,186.39 from November 17 to November 24, and the Nintendo Wii. Since that product debuted on November 19, 26,708 have been sold for an average price of $412.53. Shopping.com and PriceGrabber.com, which allow consumers to compare deals from a variety of retailers, saw year-over-year jumps of 40% and 45%, respectively, in the volume of traffic on their sites.
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