Now it is time to be serious about your choices. If you don’t really love what you are buying and selling, learning the necessary knowledge will be a chore rather than a joy. And if it is a chore, you won’t stick with it.
There are some “rules” or guide-lines to follow when choosing your niche…1) Start small - Begin with only one, or at most two, categories. Don’t deal in multiple categories until you know what you are doing.
2) Make sure you are truly fascinated - If you don’t feel passion for your subject it will frankly be a big drag. Learning about something you aren’t interested in is too much like school, isn’t it? Did you just memorize information to get a good grade? Information you forgot as soon as…
… you ran out of the test room?This listing clearly shows why you need to love your merchandise...
Is this bat worth $3,000? I have no idea. But I do know that studying baseball memorabilia is not appealing to me. However, many people are obviously fascinated with it.
You also won’t fool your buyers. They will know it you are doing it “just for the money.” Your lack of enthusiasm will show through in your listings and affect your sales. It may sound corny in our cynical age but this is really golden advice. Be passionate about what you do.
3) Don’t limit yourself -- Categories are very helpful but don’t limit yourself by focusing only on one field of interest. In my case, I spend time studying the auctions to see what is selling really well. Then if I have a good source for that particular product, I will begin selling it. If it is general merchandise, I may not need to know much about it.
For example, here is a profitable item of mine...
I have run this auction item again and again. I begin the price at $.99 and it continues to rise as the bidding becomes more frenzied. I run this same listing each time and have made thousands of dollars with it. The customer gets a very good value because the briefcase is attractive and all leather.
What do I know about leather goods? Not much. But this is a type of general, inexpensive merchandise that doesn’t require in-depth knowledge. The crucial strategy is to figure out what people want to buy and sell it to them!
A great tip -- whenever you list an item, you must declare a category for it. I spent hours searching eBay looking for appropriate categories until I accidentally discovered the “Category Overview” page. For some reason, it isn’t well known but it has saved me enormous amounts of time.
The url is http://listings.ebay.com/aw/listings/overview.htmlTo give you an idea of how valuable this knowledge is, look at an item that I have sold...
This is an eye massager that can improve vision, reduce wrinkles, etc. Where in the world does a product like this fit? Without the “Category Overview” page, too much of my time would have been spent seeking an appropriate spot. (By the way, I put it in Health and Beauty.)
