This must be a question for all budding sellers on eBay. Do you try to stock a wide range of goods, or do you narrow down the market so that you only sell a narrow range. The latter often works well if you can find a niche market, but obviously the former may attract more people to your shop.

The problems with having a wide range are these. You have to know a lot about an awful lot of things. You will probably have to source them from different suppliers making life more complicated. You may wind up doing a little bit of everything without mastering any of them - and you can't realistically have a complete range of every line, and this can be a turn-off for buyers.

Probably the biggest issue with the wide range approach is that you will have to have an awful lot of stock on your shelves, most of it gathering dust, and you will have a lot of money tied up in stock that you may not be able to shift easily.

Specializing can be a way to reduce stock levels, though if you follow this route I would advise having as complete a range as possible of each particular line. This way you can become a well-known seller of these lines. The other advantage of this approach is that you can specialize your knowledge - you can be an expert on those lines you sell. This is not possible with a shop full of different items.

The other big advantage of limited range is the reduction in the tedious process of listing. If every item is different then every entry is a new listing - really boring. However with a line of a particular thing, it is much easier to leave many of the details the same and just make the few necessary alterations for the next item. Much more efficient.

In my case, I have had a shop in a shopping centre for 20 years. We sell all manner of things from jewellery, myth and magic dragons and Betty Boop memorabilia. It all sells well. I thought I could translate this experience to my ebay shop and stocked it with a wide range of goods. Unfortunately only certain items sold well, and I think this was for the reasons above.

Accordingly I took stock, and decided to specialize only in those areas we were particularly good at. They are also ranges where the manufacturers will sell only to certain people (like me!) and where the items can be difficult to get hold of. We sell them on at well below high street prices, and below the RRP.

My real shop continues to sell the wide range it always has, but my eBay shop now stocks only the following:

Robert Harrop figures, specifically the Thunderbirds series and the Doggie People series. These are incredibly popular with people buying only one item for a particular reason, or collecting the whole sets. They are often bought for Christmas and birthday presents or other occasions. We have a good relationship with the manufacturer and can get items to order if we don't have it in stock. However we aim to stock all the available series in the near future.

I say available - the Thunderbirds figures come off licence in December and Robert Harrop will not be renewing it. No-one else seems willing to take it on, so it looks like the end of Thunderbirds for the forseeable future. This will make them a rarity for the future, and already the manufacturer has sold out of several items that will not be replaced.

We also sell the Witches of Pendle series. These are copyrighted, hand-made with great care and attention, and are very striking. They all have porcelain heads and some have porcelain hands and feet also There are many collectors out there, but a full collection would take up a lot of space as there are nearly a hundred in total! They range from £10 to £70, and can be hanging, standing or sitting. The variety of sizes and designs is truly mind-boggling.

None of the above are available from the manufacturer direct or via the internet.

Our last special area is vintage Bentley and Rolls Royce table mats! These are taken from Peter Miller's original oil paintings.This is kind of an exclusive thing, but great if you like these classic cars. Or, a in one case recently we were found by a buyer whose car was featured on our range!The mats are beautiful, and make a great talking point.

So we have cut our range down to be much more manageable, and are now specialists in the areas above. Our aim is to have the full range of all these items in due course - but until then, if anyone wants an item we don't have in stock, we can nearly always order it for them.

I have no doubt we will expand our range further in due course, but for the time-being we are concentrating on a few main lines.

Peter