Sales

Need for Speed, Electronic Arts Inc.'s racing franchise, has raced past the 100-million copies mark, making it one of the top five bestselling video game properties of all time. (The other four franchises in the elite 100-million club are the Sims, Mario, Pokemon and Grand Theft Auto.) Developed in 1994, Need for Speed has evolved from a game made by a dozen developers to roughly 100 designers, programmers and perfectionists who obsess over cars. EA has cranked out 15 Need for Speed titles, but it wasn't until Need for Speed Underground came out in 2003 that sales got turbocharged.

Sales of existing homes surged in September as buyers raced to take advantage of the tax credit for first-time home buyers before it expires next month. Nationwide, sales of previously owned homes jumped 9.4% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.6 million from a downwardly revised 5.1 million in August, the National Assn. of Realtors reported Friday. It was the fifth increase in the last sixth months, and sales activity is at its highest level since July 2007, the association said.

A year ago, it looked as if fuel-sipping motorcycles might be the option for motorists facing increasing gas prices. This year, little seems to be working for bike makers. Sales of motorcycles plummeted 37.3% in the third quarter from the same period a year earlier, with the biggest drops coming in cruisers and sport bikes, two of the industry's biggest product lines, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council. Sales of scooters, which were gaining a year ago, also have fallen sharply.

It's the month that Condé Nast folded Gourmet and a couple of other big-name magazines, the week that newspapers reported tanking circulation, again, and the day that hundreds of micro-bloggers gathered in Los Angeles to celebrate a world of tiny messages on glowing screens. So here I am at the Farmers Market in Los Angeles, in the midst of a bunch of folks who didn't seem to get the message: Ink on paper is dead. There's actor Mario Roccuzzo, camping with a newspaper at his usual spot in front of the lottery screen.

The Glazer family that owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers said Thursday that their team is not for sale and called a radio report to that effect "100% false." If the Buccaneers were to hit the sales block, however, one of the most successful owners in NFL history said he was interested. "If a situation came about with something as close as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I would be a moron not to at least look into it and be somewhat interested," said Eddie DeBartolo, contacted by The Times before the Buccaneers denied the swirling rumors of a sale.

Forget the swap meets, fried food and farm animals. For now the biggest to-do at the Orange County Fairgrounds is the controversy over who will buy the property from the state and for what purpose. In an attempt to raise funds, the state of California last month put the 150-acre Costa Mesa site up for auction to the highest bidder. But as local governments and a nonprofit foundation scramble to ready plans to purchase the property and preserve it as a fairgrounds, locals have pleaded with lawmakers to put the brakes on the auction, at least until they have more answers.

Rope lines, numbered tickets and walkie-talkies for store employees could help control frenzied bargain-hunters, police said in a report issued after a Wal-Mart worker was killed in a predawn stampede the day after Thanksgiving. Nassau County police released recommendations Wednesday, two weeks after they met with 75 Long Island retailers about how to stage major sales safely. Retailers and police had debated who should take the lead in securing discount-hungry crowds after a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death.

Teen country sweetheart Taylor Swift and rapper Lil Wayne finished at the top of a still-shrinking record industry heap during 2008, Swift getting the crown as the year's top-selling artist and Lil Wayne claiming the biggest-selling album in Nielsen SoundScan's year-end U.S. music sales report. Swift, 19, sold slightly more than 4 million albums from Dec. 31, 2007 through Dec. 28 between her new "Fearless" CD and continued popularity of her 2006 debut "Taylor Swift." "Tha Carter III" logged sales of almost 2.9 million copies during the same period, followed in the Top 5 by Coldplay's "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" (2.14 million)

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. said profit fell for the fifth straight quarter and lowered its annual forecast as customers flocked to liquidation sales at rival Linens 'n Things Inc. Bed Bath & Beyond, based in Union, N.J., projected earnings of $1.50 to $1.56 a share for the year, compared with $2.10 a year earlier. In September, the company said annual profit would decline in the low double digits to mid-teens on a percentage basis from 2007. Net income fell 37% to $87.7 million, or 34 cents a share, in the third quarter, which ended Nov. 29, the company said.

Best Buy Co. has started selling refurbished Apple Inc. iPhones for $50 less than the new model price. The previously owned phones began selling in 350 U.S. Best Buy stores Tuesday, with 8-gigabyte iPhones going for $149 and 16-gigabyte versions going for $249. All 1,000 stores will be participating by the end of the month, according to Scott Moore, marketing vice president for the company's mobile division. The purchase requires a two-year service contract with AT&T Inc., the phone's sole wireless service provider in the U.S. Competition to sell the iPhone is increasing as the device becomes more prevalent in stores.