Here’s an eBay sub-niche for the garage sale addicts.

Remember all those cutesy Kleenex box covers everyone seemed to have 15 or 20 years ago? Well, many of the people who made those are still merrily weaving yarn through hundreds of little holes in pieces of plastic and there’s money to be made in this eBay sub-niche if you go about it right. Here’s some ideas about how to tap into this eBay sub-niche.

What am I 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 doesn’t appear to be an attractive eBay sub-niche, but done properly, this can be a profitable little niche.

First I want to say that there are very few items in this sub-niche that will bring $35 or more on their own. However, by packaging selected items into lots it’s not all that hard to get into the $35 to $50 range and some times higher.

The secret to profiting from this niche on eBay is to keep you inventory acquisition costs as low as possible, to cherry-pick the better items to sell individually, and then to sell everything else in lots of 50 to 100 booklets or magazines. Fortunately there is a way to do this.

Where can you buy them?

• Start looking for them and you’ll be surprised how many are available at garage sales. And when you find them at garage sales, you’ll usually find a 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 of the ones I see in this area 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’ll be surprised how often you’ll buy them.
• You will find that thrift store prices probably vary from store to store if your part of the country is like mine. Two thrift stores that sell them here price them anywhere from $.50 to $1 each and that’s way too much. However, one prices them all at $.10 each and I pick up everything I see there.

How do you sell them?

• In general you should save them until you have enough and sell them as lots of 50 or 100. With a few exceptions, lots smaller than 50 don’t seem to do that well and huge lots will usually bring more money if broken into sizes close to 100.
• They usually do best when sold in the crafts>needlepoint>plastic canvas>xxxxxx category
• As a minimum, give some idea of what the patterns are for in your item description
• If you are willing to take the time to list the name of each pattern in your item description you will find that the final selling price will be higher
• There are some types of patterns that can be sold in smaller lots of 10 or 15 booklets successfully if they are grouped by theme. Some of these themes include:
  • Doll house furniture
  • Holiday themes such as Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc
  • Looking at closed sales on eBay will give you some other ideas for themes that often do well in smaller lots

There are also some items in this sub-niche that will when listed by themselves. Some of these are:

• The hardcover book “Fashion Doll Dream Castle” will usually bring somewhere between $35 and $60 by itself
• The hardcover book “Fashion Doll Dream House” will usually bring between $30 and $45 by itself
• Patterns with unusual designs - art deco, comic book or TV series related, cartoon character, etc.
• Some doll house furniture booklets, although these usually sell better in small lots
• Patterns specifically related to Barbie dolls
• If you do a closed sale search within the $20 to $30 range you will find others

One final note - occasionally when you find these at a garage sale you will also find a good sized batch of plastic canvas and yarn. If you can buy these cheaply, don’t pass them up. They will sell on eBay also.

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