SO fiddle

Test Fiddle mainly for SO Questions

by Nick Craver

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.4/themes/overcast/jquery-ui.css">
<ul class="album">
    <li id='li-1'></li>
    <li id='li-8'></li>
    <li id='li-9'></li>
    <li class='drop-placeholder'>drag your favorites here</li>
</ul>

JavaScript

alert($(".album li").eq(-2).attr("id"));