Quick, want to make a buck? Just sell dog masks to Eagles fans!

(This post originally appeared on The Washington Post)

Entrepreneurs, here’s an opportunity for you. Sell dog masks right now. There’s a huge demand for them. Here’s why.

Philadelphia Eagles players and fans are already gearing up to face the Vikings for a wild NFC championship game at the Linc this coming weekend. Will we be wearing our traditional green? Very likely. But many of us are desperate to wear a brand new badge of honor: a dog mask.

The dog mask represents the Eagles’ underdog status – a status not unfamiliar to us Philly fans. A creepy version of the mask was worn proudly by defensive end Chris Long immediately after the birds flew to victory over the Falcons on Saturday and the “underdog” symbol was embraced by the city – so much so that the dog masks instantly became a best seller on Amazon.

Now, once again the Eagles find themselves underdogs for this weekend’s Minnesota match. But we’ve been here before and the team’s management is rallying the fans and encouraging them to come to the game wearing dog masks, tweeting: “Doggone it “You better believe dog masks will be allowed @LFFStadium this weekend.”

You would think this would be great news for the seller of said masks, an Amazon merchant called CreepyParty, right? Unfortunately, not so. According to ESPN, the company sold more than 500 of the Chinese-made masks since Saturday and…ran out of stock, forcing it to buy a limited amount of additional inventory from local distributors at a higher cost, which pushed prices of the mask up from $16 to $39.99. Even at that inflated price the company expects the remaining masks to be immediately snapped up. Sadly, it’s an opportunity lost.

But others are quickly jumping in. TMZ reports many online merchants and costume shops in my hometown are scrambling to get their hands on dog masks – any dog masks – that they can sell to Eagles fans before Sunday.

And with close to 70,000 of them expected to attend the game – and tens of thousands more tailgating and hitting the bars that day in what is arguably the biggest game in Philly since 2008 – I think it’s a no-brainer that there’s money to be made.