In just about any field of collectible, you will find items within some categories that have no useful pricing information. This is true of several established collectibles as well as things that are just beginning to develop a collector following.

You realize that something is happening in these categories but feel as though you’re way behind the collectors who know about the styles, model numbers, and values along with what sells and what doesn’t within the niche.

To get ahead of the game, what you need to do is start building your own niche eBay price guide.

Creating a price guide for an individual niche on eBay for your personal use is easy and doesn’t take a lot of time. All you need is your computer, photo editing software that allows you to resize images (if you don’t already have one, I recommend Paint.Net which is free), Microsoft Word or a similar program, and an hour or two free time every two weeks.

Simply go to eBay, do completed item search for the generic keyword(s) for the niche you are interested in, i.e. ‘aspirin tin’, ‘typewriter ribbon tin’, ‘cherished teddy’, etc. I suggest you sort the results ‘highest price’ first.

Start at the top of the list, and using only items that sold, download the picture of the item to your computer. Next, make a note of the what the item is including as much identification data as needed (name, manufacturer, brand name, size, colors, etc), the price it sold for, and what condition it is in.

When you have that, continue on to the next item and do the same thing. When you are done with the actual research, use your image editing software to resize each image to a standard size that works for you.

Next, in Word or similar software, create a document and insert the first image. Next to the image add the identifying and price information. Do the same thing with each photo you downloaded.

By beginning with the highest price items and continuing with the lower priced items as you have time, over time you will have created your own personal price guide.

Print the guide out and put it in a three-ring binder and you can carry it with you whenever you are out looking for inventory.

Photograph by Desi Zavatta Musolino.

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