Easy Rules Of Thumb To Understand Selling Collectibles On Ebay

Everyone wants a fresh, hot untapped eBay niche for their auctions

. What you may not know is that although fads and phases come long, some niches are simply never saturated and remain profitable regardless of the competition. What niche do I have in mind? Collectibles. Collectibles lie at the very soul of eBay. Although this is a huge niche, it is one that subdivides very easily into many sub-niches and also includes many idiosyncratic niches, such as ticket stubs, playing cards, and record covers. Although eBay has been trying to position itself away from the garage sale image, where it best succeeds is as the world's largest flea market. That is why collectibles sell well on eBay and why collectors love it, and it is why eBay is one of the best venues to profit with one-off items.

Who are collectors? These are the folks obsessed with scouring the auction site for their object of fascination, be it Nepalese military insignia, a commemorative dish, or a ticket stub from a Grateful Dead concert held at the original Fillmore West. Collectors will pay high prices for what may seem like junk to you. Best of all, you can often go shopping for collectibles in venues such as junk shops and yard sales and find top dollar items. Don't believe me? Here is a tip that is good now and will be good 20 years from now. Go to a yard or garage sale and pick up a few pieces of vintage clothing. I guarantee you that if you put that up on eBay with proper documentation and description, you will make your money back.

So, where and how do you find items others think worth collecting? Some of the classic venues well-known to veteran eBay sellers include yard sales, garage sales, police auctions, government auctions, and estate sales. Another source of one-off items that can often turn up collectibles is the liquidation auction of storage units. Naturally, if you are just starting out, you might not want to invest/gamble in a storage unit, but veteran sellers know that that they can easily turn a profit on eBay. As you new seller, you want to be sure you thoroughly understand how to quickly and efficiently set up and manage an auction before you make a large investment. Another source of auctionable goods is charity auctions and community flea markets.

You may not know it, but eBay itself and other group sites are also a source of collectible items. It is not unusual to purchase goods on eBay and then turn around and sell them at a profit. This normally works when you spot an item ignored in one category that you can target to some other niche buyer. For example, old records, movies, post cards, and photographs purchased on Craigslist or Yahoo Groups might sell very well on eBay if directed toward the right audience. If you buy items in bulk, you will want to list and sell them individually on eBay.

One more tip that is related to the above category is that when you sell your own collectible items, try listing some of them in the non-collectible categories. Not only will real collectors find your item because that's what they do--specialize in finding the hard to find, but some non-collectors will go wild over unique, one-off items. You can even do what we call a "split-test." That is, you sell some items in collectors' categories and others in conventional categories and see which sells the best.

A final tip that I want to leave you with is to always do your research. Unless you are a hobby seller, you will need to treat your eBay auctions as business. One aspect of that is to do the research necessary to provide detailed, complete descriptions of the items you are selling. If your items are collectibles, attention to detail is even more important as collectors will recognize and respect your the accuracy of your details. It is important that you provide even the tiniest of details as those often inform the collector of the item's true value. Be sure to take the time necessary to write your own item descriptions. You can look at other auction for examples, but never plagiarize! Not only will eBay ban you, but expert buyers will recognize the fraud. If you are honest in your description and representation of your items, you have nothing to worry about--your items will sell.

by: Strand Davis

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