eBay Micro Niche Profit Stream... Vintage Telephone Books

Vintage telephone books or directories can be an eBay, sub-niche income stream, if you know which ones offer the most profit potential. For our purposes, we are going to break them down into three smaller eBay niches.

The first group includes telephone books from 1970 to date. For the most part, these have no real collector base, and have little or no value.

The second group are those telephone books from prior to 1950. These have had a collector following for several years and, because of this, it’s difficult to find them at a price that allows you to make a decent profit.

When you find them at flea markets it’s likely the dealer is knowledgeable enough to know what they are worth. At auction sales, there are likely at least one or two knowledgeable dealers present who will drive the final price up.

When one does show up at a garage sale it’s usually either quickly snapped up by one of the first people into the garage or it has a hefty price on it because it “looks old”.

The telephone books we are interested in are those that fall in-between these two groups…from the mid 1950s to the mid to late 1960s. More specifically, telephone books from this era with illustrated covers.

The market for these is fueled by a small, but growing, group of collectors either interested in telephone books specifically or are interested primarily in telephones but collect these as a related collectible and by a growing group of genealogists.

There are a couple things that seem to add value to this eBay niche.

• Illustrated covers with drawn illustrations usually bring higher prices than photographic covers.
• Have illustrations of children or women in the home.
• Ones from part of the Bell system, with Southern Bell seemingly the best.

This should be obvious, but DO NOT BUY examples that:

• Have stained covers
• Have covers people have doodled on
• Have torn covers or torn or missing pages

When you find them you can usually buy them for 50 cents or less each. I wouldn’t recommend that you pay more than $4 or $5 each unless you have good reason to think they will bring $40 or more.

I recommend the eBay category of collectibles>advertising>communication and utilities>telephones. This category generally seems to bring slightly higher prices.

Be sure you include the year, the name of the town, the word “Bell” and both telephone book & directory in your auction headline.

Most of these will sell in the $15 to $40 range with a few closing in on three figures. There will also be some that don’t sell, but as long as you don’t get carried away with what you pay for them the ones that sell will more than make
up for what you paid for the few that don’t.

You won’t find these very often but when you do you will likely have the opportunity to buy a bunch of them. This is because they are often offered by pack rats and they are probably getting rid of every telephone book they’ve ever owned.

Telephone books from this era are definitely worth picking up when you find them if the price is right.

One final note - Don’t entirely forget about the pre-1950 telephone books. If you have an opportunity to buy one for $5 or less, grab it. You should do quite nicely with it as well!

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eBay Micro Niche Profit Stream... NORTHERN SOUL

Have you ever heard this term before, “Northern Soul“?

If you have…WOW I’m truly impressed, but if you have not, then you are like the majority of the population just as I was a couple of years ago until a dear friend of mine opened my eyes.

Allow me to introduce you to an eBay micro niche, that when worked smartly, can become another consistent income stream that will make money on eBay over and over!! Remember, “Everyday items found everywhere”

Northern Soul is a genre of the 60’s & 70’s music business that currently has a huge worldwide following, but particularly in the United Kingdom where it all began.

A recent search for Northern Soul on Google returned plenty of interesting tid-bits including this rather loose definition of the term from” Wikipedia”…

…”a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound. The Northern soul movement, however, generally eschews Motown or Motown-influenced music that has met with significant mainstream success. The recordings most prized by genre enthusiasts are usually by lesser-known artists, and were initially released only in limited numbers, often by small regional United States labels such as Ric-Tic and Golden World (Detroit), Mirwood (Los Angeles) and Shout and Okeh (New York/Chicago)”….

A recent eBay closed auction search for the term Northern Soul found over 9000 listings with some very impressive prices! As with any antique & collectibles niche or a sub-niche there are some items that don’t do very well.

At first glance, Northern Soul doesn’t necessarily appear to be a sub-niche you will find things every day or week, but to me it enough potential to merit further research and become at least semi-knowledgeable.

I know there has got to be plenty of Northern Soul floating around most areas of our country. It’s just a matter of motivating yourself to gain enough knowledge, and committing to getting into the “hunt” so that when it presents itself you can buy it and benefit!!

The dear friend who asked me if I’d ever heard about it did so after they had bought about twenty white-label promo 45s at a thrift shop once purely on a hunch for $0.10 cents each.

It turned out that six of them fell into the Northern Soul genre and those six sold on eBay for a little over $3000.

In these days of, down sizing, shutdowns, job loss and a slow economy If that isn’t motivation enough, to spend some spare time looking into Northern Soul music, I’d get checked for signs of life!!

I personally have made several hundreds of dollars in the past few years from "Northern Soul", so I know it works!! It is just another eBay micro niche that can become a consistent cash generating income stream that will make money on eBay over and over again…Guaranteed!!

For More eBay Niche & Micro Niche Information CLICK HERE

eBay Micro Niche Profit Stream... 1 Quart Pyro-Glaze Milk BottlesIn

Over the years milk has been packaged in a wide variety of different types of milk bottles. While nearly all of them are collected to some extent, there is one specific sub-niche that attracts the most collector interest and that sub-niche is 1 quart Pyro-Glaze milk bottles with diary, town, and state names on them.

Pyro-Glaze (also called, "Pyro" or "Painted) refers to the method by which colored graphics were applied to the bottles. Pyro-Glaze bottles are found with various graphics & colors, mostly in red, green, blue, orange, and black. They were made in several sizes and shapes but our focus here will be on a very narrow sub-niche of these bottles.

These bottles were used by thousands of dairies across the country making it nearly impossible to catalog all the varieties that exist. Because of this, the value of individual bottles can range from only $10 to $500 and even higher.

Additionally, due of the vast variety of bottles produced, it has been impossible for anyone to really do the research to determine values for them all.

Due to this factor, if you're interested in this sub-niche it's necessary that you be willing to take somewhat of a shotgun approach that involves some risk and this should be considered before making a final decision

The only ones you should initially consider will have ALL the following characteristics, If even one of these six requirements is not there, don't even consider the bottle unless you are very knowledgeable about collectible milk bottles.

• They must be 1 quart in size
• They must have a round body
• They must be at least 8? tall
• They must have both a town and state name on them
• They must have a dairy, creamery, or farm name on them
• These town, state, and dairy names must be in colored (Pyro) graphics

Here is how I have been buying them for the past several years.

I buy any milk bottle that meets the previously mentioned six requirements if I can buy it for $20 or less. Over the years I’ve found that, on average, for every (10) of these bottles I purchase I’ll get the following results:

• Three of them will sell for hefty prices that allow me a profit of $100 to $150 or more each
• Five of them will sell for prices that allow me a profit of $20 to $100 each
• Two of them will sell for prices at which I either break even or loose $10 to $20 each

As you can see, there are times when I loose a small amount of money on some of the bottles I purchase. However, I’m willing to take those losses due to the much larger profits I make on some of the others. In the end, I make money overall.

It’s important to understand that if you are going to take some small losses on some of the bottles you buy if you choose to get involved in this eBay micro niche. You can reduce your risk by initially setting a limit of $10 rather than $20, but if you aren’t comfortable with a little risk and taking a small loss of some of the bottles you buy, then this is a micro niche you should avoid.

Here are some general hints & tips to remember when purchasing these bottles…

Never buy a bottle that has any chips or cracks no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.

The condition of the Pyro-Glaze design is extremely important - avoid any bottles that have chipped, faded or scratched Pyro-Glaze as well.

These bottles were to be used and then returned to the dairy where they were cleaned and reused. After extended use and cleaning some developed numerous small scratches to the glass. You should avoid bottles that exhibit severe scratching.

Don’t let the fact that a bottle is from a state that is known as a diary state dissuade you from buying it. Many of the bottles from these states are rare and command high prices.

Bottles with more than one color will usually bring higher prices.

Bottles with attractive graphics on their reverse side will often bring higher prices, things such as babies; war related themes, patriotic themes, and herds of cows are just a few things to be on the lookout for.

A word of caution, In the last several years reproductions of some milk bottles have begun to appear more and more. Fortunately, the vast majority of reproductions are of other types of milk bottles, but there are reproductions of 1 quart Pyro-Glaze milk bottle as well.

You can find some good information regarding how to identify reproductions along with some pictures of known reproductions from various online sources. If you are interested in learning more about these bottles there are two books currently available that provide some excellent information about how they were made and used along with some basic pricing information.

They are “Udderly Beautiful” and “Udderly Splendid” by John Tutton. Both give some rarity and pricing information, but because of the large number of bottles produced they don’t cover even a small fraction of the bottles produced. Both can be found for sale on either eBay, Amazon, or in some antique shops.

Other sources of information are The National Association Of Milk Bottle Collectors and the individual web sites many of their members maintain. If you are going to buy and sell these bottles even semi-seriously the price of annual dues for the Association is well worth the money.

For More eBay Niche & Micro Niche Information CLICK HERE

eBay Micro Niche Profit Stream... Plastic Canvas Patterns

Here is an eBay niche for the garage sale addicts that can be developed into another cash money income stream that will continue to pay out for years to come.

Do you remember those cutesy Kleenex box covers that seemed so popular 15 or 20 years ago? Well, many folks are still merrily weaving yarn through hundreds of little holes, and there is a steady eBay money making income stream from this eBay sub-niche.

Some ideas about how to tap into this eBay micro niche

Allow me to explain what I am talking about. The thousands of plastic canvas pattern booklets and magazines that are floating around out there. If you look on eBay, at first glance, this does not appear to be an attractive eBay sub-niche, but done properly, this can be a profitable little niche.

First let me say that there are very few items in this sub-niche that will bring $35 or more on their own. However, by grouping selected items into larger lots it is not that hard to reach the $35-$50 range and some times even higher.

The ONLY WAY of profiting from this sub- niche on eBay, you must keep your inventory costs as low as possible, sell the best ones individually, and then to sell everything else in lots of 50-100 booklets or magazines.

Where can you buy them?

You will be surprised how many are available at garage & yard sales when you start looking for them. And when you find them at sales, you will usually find a whole bunch at one time.

Another possible source is thrift shops. Some thrift shops don't bother with craft items, but if they do there will be plastic canvas pattern books mixed in with everything else.

What should you pay for them?

Try not to pay more then 10 cents per booklet or magazine. Most are individually priced anywhere from 5 or 10 cents on up to 50 to 75 cents each, however, since you usually find them in bunches, count them out, multiply by 10 cents each, and off the seller that much or even a little less for all of them they have.

You will be surprised how often you will buy them. You will also find that thrift store prices will vary from store to store but usually prices range anywhere from $.50 to $1 each and that's way too much. DO NOT PAY MORE THAN 10 CENTS!!

There are a couple things that seem to add value to this eBay niche.

• Illustrated covers with drawn illustrations usually bring higher prices than photographic covers.
• Have illustrations of children or women in the home.
• Ones from part of the Bell system, with Southern Bell seemingly the best.

This should be obvious, but DO NOT BUY examples that:

• Have stained covers
• Have covers people have doodled on
• Have torn covers or torn or missing pages

When you find them you can usually buy them for 50 cents or less each. I wouldn't recommend that you pay more than $4 or $5 each unless you have good reason to think they will bring $40 or more.

I recommend the eBay category of collectibles>advertising>communication and utilities>telephones. This category generally seems to bring slightly higher prices.

Be sure you include the year, the name of the town, the word "Bell" and both telephone book & directory in your auction headline.

Most of these will sell in the $15 to $40 range with a few closing in on three figures. There will also be some that don't sell, but as long as you don't get carried away with what you pay for them the ones that sell will more than make up for what you paid for the few that don't.

You won't find these very often but when you do you will likely have the opportunity to buy a bunch of them. This is because they are often offered by pack rats and they are probably getting rid of every telephone book they've ever owned.

Telephone books from this era are definitely worth picking up when you find them if the price is right.

One final note - Don't entirely forget about the pre-1950 telephone books. If you have an opportunity to buy one for $5 or less, grab it. You should do quite nicely with it as well!

For More eBay Niche & Micro Niche Information CLICK HERE