Spotting Niches

In the world of internet marketing, there is a thing called niche marketing.  Volumes have been written (and sold) regarding this topic.  Basically, you try to focus on a small area of interest that holds a market that's ready to buy.  An example might be "hunting."  This example is actually a rather large niche, so you might want to go a little more specific and target people who like "deer hunting" or even more specific by shooting for "Pennsylvania deer hunting", get it?

I mention this because the eBay market is filled with these tiny little "micro-niches" like "Pennsylvania deer hunting" and they can be a profitable place to sell things.  If you go to many estate sales, you know that there are people who focus on selling just one thing.  Some people will rush to the books, others will run past everything to find fishing equipment.  They are working niches.

What I usually try to do is look for things I believe will be wanted by people in oddball micro-niches.  This improves your chances of finding things at estate sales and these items will also usually be available to you for a more reasonable price.  An example I personally found was a collection of Beagle Club pins.  These pins were from regional Beagle Clubs (I didn't know these existed until I found the pins) and some dated back to the early 1950's.  There was no one else even looking at them and I was able to pick them up for about 75 cents each since I was willing to buy the lot of 18 all at once.  I searched around eBay a bit and found that there were other Beagle Club items selling.  They all sold and the lowest any of them went for was $9.99.  I was pretty happy with that.  I mention the pins because that is the type of stuff I look for when I go out.  I don't like dealing with the pushy people who will try to grab things right out of your hand at estate sales if they want it.  I prefer a more laid back approach.

The best way to get a feel for these tiny niches is to poke around eBay for a while.  Use the search tools to keep drilling down deeper until you have found some tight little niches.  If you don't think you'll remember what they were, make yourself a cheat sheet to take with you when you go out.

A quick word of warning.  Don't start buying every little thing you see.  I did something similar to that when I first started selling and I still have boxes of stuff I'm not sure what to do with!  Do a little research.  Good luck!