Flip Breakdowns
Do Small Sizes Sell on eBay? A $5 Size S Golf Windshirt That Sold for $19.99
Do small sizes sell on eBay? A real flip answers it. A $5 size S FootJoy windshirt sold for $19.99 and cleared $12.29, but it took 51 days to get there.
Fee estimated at 13.5 percent; eBay had not yet returned the exact figure.
Most people learn one sizing rule early and never test it. Big sells, small sits. So the hand reaches past the size S rack without the brain getting involved.
That rule is half right, and the half that is wrong costs you inventory. Here is a size S that went for four times the buy cost, along with the part of the story that makes small sizes genuinely harder.
What the item was
A FootJoy half zip golf windshirt, men's size S. Neon green body, black colorblock shoulders, stand collar, two zip hand pockets, elastic tab cuffs with the FJ logo. Pre-owned and clean other than a faint scuff on the right shoulder that is visible in the photos above.
Five dollars off a rack. Listed at $24.99 and sold at $19.99.
The numbers
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Buy cost | $5.00 |
| Listed at | $24.99 |
| Sold for | $19.99 |
| eBay fee, estimated at 13.5 percent | $2.70 |
| Profit | $12.29 |
| Days from listing to sale | 51 |
The fee is the estimate, not a reported figure. eBay had not returned the exact number on this order, so the math uses 13.5 percent, which is where the final value fee on apparel lands for most sellers. Everything else in that table is real.
Why a small size sold at all
The size is not what the buyer searched for. The brand was.
Someone who plays golf and wants a FootJoy windshirt types FootJoy into the box, then filters to their size. That buyer already decided on the brand before they ever saw this listing. The small is not a flaw in that search, it is just the filter they checked.
Compare that to a plain size S fleece with no brand anybody recognizes. Nobody searches for it, so the only way it gets found is by browsing, and browsing is where small sizes die. A recognized brand replaces browsing with a search, and search does not care how common your size is.
That is the whole mechanism. Brand creates intent. Intent survives a narrow size.
What the small size actually cost
Fifty one days on the shelf.
That is the honest part of this flip. Listed on July 28, sold on September 17. A comparable XL in the same category tends to move in a week or two because the buyer pool is simply bigger. The small did not sell for less money. It sold at the same kind of price, much later.
So the real penalty on a small size is not price, it is time. If your money is tied up in inventory and you need it back to buy more, 51 days is a genuine cost even when the profit line looks fine. If you have the shelf space and you are not cash-starved, 51 days is nothing.
How to decide on the rack
Three questions, in this order.
Does somebody search for this brand by name? FootJoy, Peter Millar, Patagonia, Barbour, a team, a school. If yes, size matters a lot less, because the buyer arrives already looking. If no, put it back regardless of size.
Is the item itself size-forgiving? Outerwear, pullovers, windshirts, and jackets get bought a size down on purpose for layering and fit. A fitted dress shirt in a small is a much narrower target than a small pullover.
Can you wait? Be honest about your own cash. A small at five dollars is a cheap bet on patience. A small at twenty dollars is a bet you probably should not make yet.
The lesson
Small sizes are not unsellable. They are slow. Those are two different problems with two different answers.
The sellers who refuse to touch anything under a large are leaving brand-name items on the rack because of a rule they inherited instead of tested. The sellers who buy every small they see end up with a shelf full of money they cannot reach. The move is in the middle. Buy the small when the brand does the searching for you, keep the buy cost low, and expect to wait.
Every flip on this site runs through the same check before the money leaves my hand. The ones worth watching get filmed.
