How to make BIG money from early glass....ho ho!

Touchy subject these days, people trying to make money from their bottles, yet it seems everyone is trying to do it. The commonest question on forums and from people coming up to my stall is ultimately "what is it worth"? and "what will you offer"?.....rather than "where was this made"? and "why"? and how"?....depressing when it happens so continuously, but human nature I guess, and it's difficult for me to get on my soapbox and start shouting the odds against it when that is exactly what I do for a living, BUT....
There is I feel an inherent greed out there. Guys who are lucky enough to dig a major rare piece which costs them nothing but a little sweat, or with an extreme lucky break pick up an item for next to nothing in a boot fair or whatever, are then very quick to trawl the forums for opinions of the value, and then throw it at ebay at the very top of all those opinions. If the bottle is ultra rare then maybe it still goes, but so often the digger/finder is shall we say "over expectant" because the item really is unecessarily over priced and has been over hyped and the best time to sell has come and gone....and the really annoying bit is that the digger had no need to ask top whack in the first place and could have asked 3/4 of what he was trying for, and got that immediately, and everybody would have been happy, whilst commonly the bottle remains for sale for months, bores everyone silly appearing time after time and finally the digger gets offered half what he once asked and finally grudgingly accepts it...

There is an easier way. We can't all be lucky...or at least we are all lucky a few times in our life without trying, but you can't rely on that. We can however first make our own luck. A good friend of mine is often described rather enviously as "that lucky b**tard who gets all those really good items". Of course he is not "lucky". He spends many hours, many days, driving all over the country from auction to antique shop to collector, then on his phone, then the night hours trawling the internet and ebay and auction searches, and off it goes again....but even then that wouldn't help on it's own because you have to have a knowledge to take advantage of those things yo see on your travels, and knowledge takes a long time and is built up gradually. Add to those ingredients, a taste for risk, a little cunning, a willingness to trust ones own judgement, good timing, the ability to change with the times, a reputation that allows people trust you with their money, and a sense of honour and fairness that means sometimes you are prepared to lose money than go back on your word.
It's all obvious stuff, nothing magical, nothing easy though and perhaps in this modern society a little old fashioned. it's easiest if you know more about your subject than anyone else, so if you pick a special subject that isn't so difficult. Building up not only a reputation but also a core of regular buyers and sellers is something that makes it all gradually easier but only comes with time and experience. What IS a little magical though is the sixth sense that you develop for a bargain. I kid you not... you have a little faith and learn to rely on your sixth sense and you can even do without the specialist knowledge. But even this isn't that special. That magical sixth sense is nothing more spectacular than just a collection of highly tuned observations from experience of what people like, of how they think and what will sell at what price.
There is something called taste, good taste, and bad taste, and you can't rely on your own sense of taste as a guide, EXcept, that if you like something, so will someone else, but it doesn't always work the other way. I well remember walking past a horrid piece of china bricabrac at an antique fair and thinking "Jeez, who on earth could buy that and why on earth do they bother putting that on their stall", and at that very moment two old ladies in front of me actually looked at that same item and said to each other how nice it was.............!
Words failed me, they still do, but it tought me a lesson. Whatever sort of crap it is, someone will buy it and delight in it and pay way more than you ever thought feasable. 
I'm not going to give ALL my secrets away, but I will give a few hints and wrinkles soon...

For the moment, and just to remind you this is about early glass, here are some more pretty pics...just to show the variety of early glass.

A classic 1770+ case bottle
Dutch. many heights and sizes available. 

A super dark aqua octagonal utility,
freeblown but dip molded c1790+
Many, many forms are available to collect
and still relatively cheap though some suprisingly rare

A classic 1750 English mallet
one of the range of wine shapes popularly collected
in an evolutionary sequence.

A c1770 square phial with iridescence.
rare and delightful. many forms available
and still no real set prices for these.

Ok, a "biggy", or in this case a "small-y"
A rare half size English onion sealed and dated
Iconic in the hobby, but bread and butter to my trade
(ok honey as well in this case!), and I get more
of a buzz from the previous phial...!

Oooooh! now we really are showing off.
Half size, shaft and globe, 1660 English, 
and would make any collector wet their
pants if they came across it "lucky".
Both this and the previous bottle increasingly 
only available to guys with muchos pennies...
But we all can live in hope, and that is what is 
great about bottle digging.... 

Back to earth a bit, but typical of the more fascinating pharmacy
items. A LEECH bowl, c1800, this one with superb luminescence
many colours available and still all under £100, totall bargains!!!