Yesterday in Finding A Profitable Collectible/Antique eBay Niche - Part II we researched a potentially profitable eBay niche by looking at what was available in antique shops, antique malls and flea markets. We chose stereoview cards because they fit the criteria we’d set out in Finding A Profitable Collectible/Antiques eBay Niche - Part I.

Today, in Part III, we will head over to eBay and see how well stereoview cards fit the remaining five criteria for a profitable eBay niche. Lets get started.

We will begin our research at eBay’s Completed Listing page by typing “stereoview” into the search box at the top of the page, making sure you check the “search completed items” box, and then sorting our results by “price: highest first.”

Now lets see how well stereoviews fit our pre-established criteria for a profitable eBay niche.

1. There shouldn’t be a huge number of items listed each week but there should be a steady stream of auctions week after week. A regular 20 to 100 weekly is attractive.

Doing this today, the results show there have been 5874 auctions that have ended in approximately the last month. That’s an average of nearly 1500 a week. It’s obvious we’ve found an active eBay niche, that’s way more than the recommended 20 to 100.

Because of the large number of completed auctions there may be a tendency to abandon our research at this point, but for the sake of thoroughness lets check how stereoviews match up with our remaining four criteria.

2. You should see a consistent sell-through rate of at least 50 to 60 percent.

Again, because of the large number of completed sales, the sell-through rate will be more difficult to determine precisely. Looking at the first few pages of results, it’s obvious the sell-through rate on those pages is extremely high. However, that’s to be expected for any niche unless it’s one has no following at all.

Resort the list by “Prices: Lowest First” and the results don’t change tremendously. The sell-through rate still looks pretty good on the first one or two pages, but that’s probably attributable to low opening bids of $1.50 or less on most items. And, if we target this niche, we’re not going to make any money selling at those prices.

Right now there are 118 pages of completed auctions for stereoviews. If you look at pages in the mid-range (pages 55-65) most of the auctions have starting prices in the $7 to $9 starting bid range and the sell-through rate still looks pretty dismal.

3. Most of the items should have multiple bids. Obviously the more the better, but you should look for a minimum of five to ten bids on most items that sell.

Our results for this criteria are pretty much the same. Sort by “Price: highest first” and nearly every auction has at least five to ten bids or more but, again, that’s to be expected for high price items. Sort by “Price: lowest first” and even through the first 60 to 70 pages of results, the stereoviews that did sell often had only one, or at best, two bids. Stereoviews are looking more and more unattractive as we go along.

4. You want to see a small group of at least five to twenty bidders who regularly bid each and every week.

It would take a lot of time, but if you were to sort through the successful stereoview auctions, you would find that they do meet this criteria. There are considerably more than only five to twenty regular weekly bidders. So far this is the only bright spot of our eBay research.

5. Final selling prices for at least 50% of the successful auctions should be $25 or higher - preferably $50. You should also see several items each week selling in the three figure range or even higher.

Still using our “Price: lowest first” sort we need to go to page 100 or so before we start to find items selling in even the $15 to $20 range. Even without actually doing the math, it’s pretty obvious stereoviews don’t match up well with 50% of successful auctions selling for $25 to $50. However, one ray of hope we discover in this range is that the sell-through rate in the $15 to $20 price range has increased significantly.

Also, for what it’s worth at this point, there are several stereoviews that sell in the three figure range each week.

Stereoviews, which looked so attractive in the malls and shops, loose their luster as a profitable eBay niche when we research them on eBay. But, there’s a major lesson in niche research to be learned here.

Most people will never take the time to research a potential eBay niche to this extent. Those that do would nearly all abandon their research at this point and begin looking for a different niche.

But, research like this is about small sub-niches within sub-niches of of larger niches. When we were looking at stereoviews in shops and malls they appeared to have potential and I don’t think they are worth giving up on yet.

In Part IV of this series we will get out our heavy duty shovels and get down to some serious digging and see if we can’t discover one or two deep sub-niches within the stereoview niche that we can profit from.

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