Sales of Michael Jackson albums have hit the stratosphere since his untimely death

Sales of Michael Jackson albums have hit the stratosphere since his sudden death on Thursday.

At online retail store Amazon.com, the top 15 selling albums were all by Jackson including two made with his brothers as the "Jackson 5." Nine of the top 10 selling albums at Apple's iTunes music store were from the "King of Pop" with "The Essential Michael Jackson" leading the way.

Seven of the top 10 songs being downloaded on iTunes were by the singer, with "Man in the Mirror" currently the most popular.

Jackson also topped the British album chart on Sunday with his greatest hits album "Number Ones." Several more of his albums were back in the Top 75, according to the Official Charts Company.

Here in the U.S., Billboard said Saturday that many of his albums are poised to take over next week's Billboard charts with incredible sales increases.

The albums receiving the biggest boosts -- at least on the physical side – appear to be his greatest hits packages "Number Ones" and "The Essential Michael Jackson," along with the expanded reissue of "Thriller." The sets, released between 2003 and 2008, were the three Jackson albums that perhaps had the most stock available in stores.

The three aforementioned albums, along with Jackson's classic studio sets "Off the Wall," "Bad" and "Dangerous," all will likely zoom into the upper region of Billboard's Top Pop Catalog Albums chart next week.

Initial reports of Jackson's album sales from June 25 alone indicate that one of his albums -- possibly "Number Ones" -- will easily fly to No. 1 on the chart next week. Last week, the set, which also was his top-selling album of the week, was at No. 20 on the Catalog chart with 4,000 sold.

To compare, last week's No. 1 on the Catalog chart was TobyMac's "Portable Sounds" with 9,000 copies sold. Sources say that at least one of Jackson's albums sold more than double that amount just on June 25.

Industry sources report that the demand for Jackson's albums were so high, many brick and mortar retailers quickly ran out of whatever Jackson material they had on hand on the night of his passing.

As for Michael Jackson memorabilia, more than 15,500 MiJac-related items were being offered for sale at press time Sunday at online auction house eBay.com, ranging from Web domain names at prices of one million dollars or more to copies of US newspapers featuring front-page news of his death for as little as 99 cents.

EBay's home page displays a special "Remembering the King of Pop" category offering "Memorabilia, Music, Autographs, Records." The collectibles for direct sale or auction include Michael Jackson posters, dolls, ticket stubs, concert programs, newspapers, magazines, tote bags, pins, badges, stickers, T-shirts and other clothing.

Thousands of items of Michael Jackson memorabilia are also being offered for sale on online classifieds site Craigslist.