Flip Breakdowns
Women's NFL Jersey Resale Value: A $5 Nike Vikings Jersey That Sold for $34.99
Womens NFL jersey resale value from a real eBay flip. A $5 Nike Vikings Game jersey sold for $34.99 and cleared $25.27 after fees.
Fee estimated at 13.5 percent; eBay had not yet returned the exact figure.
Walk the women's section of any thrift store in a football state and you will pass jerseys. Most resellers walk right past them too, because the women's rack has a reputation for being where the cheap fan gear goes to die.
That reputation is half right. A lot of women's team apparel is glitter-print junk from a mall kiosk. But the actual on-field-licensed jersey gets cut for women too, it hangs on the same rack as the junk, and it sells for the same money the men's version does.
This one was five dollars.
Nike sells three NFL jerseys and they are not close in value
Nike has held the NFL on-field license since 2012, and the retail line has three tiers. Learning them is the whole skill here, because all three carry the same team, the same colors, and the same number.
Game is the entry tier. The wordmark, the name, and the numbers are screen printed straight onto the fabric. Lightest body, cheapest to make, and by far the most common one you will find secondhand.
Limited sits in the middle. The numbers are stitched twill instead of printed, so you can run a thumb over a digit and feel a raised edge and a real seam.
Elite is the on-field cut. Tailored body, extra stretch panels, stitched everything, and it retails for several times what a Game jersey does.
Everything above is checkable in about four seconds. Put your thumb on a number. Flat and slightly rubbery means printed, which means Game. Raised with stitching around the edge means Limited or better, and you should be looking harder at that one.
What this one actually was
Home purple, Vikings wordmark in gold, number 19 on the chest and both sleeves, gold and white stripes on the sleeves, NFL shield at the collar. Women's cut, size M, with the shaped waist and the curved vented hem that the men's version does not have. The NFL Players On Field jock tag was still sewn at the front hem. Made in Guatemala.
Screen printed numbers, so this was a Game jersey, the cheapest of the three tiers. It still cleared twenty-five dollars, and that is the point worth sitting with. The bottom tier of a licensed jersey is still worth several times what a five dollar thrift tag costs.
Condition was clean. No holes, no stains, no repairs, and none of the cracking or peeling that kills a screen printed jersey. That last check matters more on Game jerseys than on any other tier, because printed graphics are the part that fails first. Fold a sleeve number in half. If the print crazes into little fracture lines, put it back.
The comps before the listing
Five comparable jerseys had sold in the previous ninety days. Here is the spread they came in at.
| Comp | Amount |
|---|---|
| Lowest sold | $18.27 |
| Median sold | $30.74 |
| Average sold | $31.73 |
| Highest sold | $47.97 |
| Listed at | $34.99 |
That is a wide band for one item type, and a wide band is a decision, not a problem. Pricing at the low end gets a fast sale and gives away fourteen dollars. Pricing at the high end means waiting for the one buyer who wanted that exact number on that exact cut. Listing at $34.99, a little above the average, with Best Offer switched on, keeps both doors open. The offer button does the negotiating on your behalf while you sleep.
The numbers
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Bought | $5.00 |
| Sold | $34.99 |
| eBay fee, estimated at 13.5 percent | $4.72 |
| Profit | $25.27 |
One line in that table is math rather than a receipt. eBay never posted the exact commission back on this order, so the fee is run at the 13.5 percent rate and labeled that way instead of passed off as confirmed. Shipping went out free and was baked into the ask. The other three lines are straight off the order.
It listed on August 23 and sold on September 18. Twenty-six days, no offer negotiated, full asking price.
Why the women's rack keeps paying
There are two reasons this category stays open.
The first is that most resellers sort by department out of habit. They work men's because men's is where the big-ticket outerwear and the golf polos live, and the women's aisle gets a glance. Anything a crowd skips stays cheap.
The second is that women's jerseys get made in smaller runs than men's. A Game jersey for a specific player in a women's size M was never printed in the volume the men's XL was, so when a fan wants that combination she is not walking into a store to get it. She is typing it into eBay.
So the list is short. Find the on-field jock tag, feel the numbers to place the tier, flex the print for cracking, then list it with the department, the size, and the player name in the title. That is the whole check, and it works the same on the NFL rack, the NHL rack, and the college rack next to it.
The channel has the buy runs where these get pulled, cracked prints and all.
