Men’s Clothing Brands Resell on Ebay to Make Money
Reference list of men’s clothing brands I look out for to resell on Ebay.
I have sold hundreds of pieces of used clothing I purchased at thrift stores, estate sales and yard sales. However over time you learn that some brands sell better than others and some should be avoided. This list is basically for me to review while thrifting and shopping just as a quick reference of brands and tags.
Please know that brands go in and out of favor and some are have strong seasonality especially if the are outdoor winter weather brands. Again please know that this is for my benefit and just some of my notes for me.
Clothing – Colorful Polos, T-Shirts
Selling Point: Above Average
How Hard to Find: Not Common, but out there – Many sell $30 and above, but 1/5 sell below $20.
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 1,700 / 745, Turnover Score 43.8
Clothing – Button Down, Polos, T-Shirts
Selling Point: Above Average
How Hard to Find: Not Common
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 760 / 360, Turnover Score 47.6
Clothing – Golf Shirts – Wold Logo
Unique Patterns, Ohoopee Match Club (Onion Logo on Chest), Malbon (Cat w/ Club on Chest), Different Clubs worth more.
Selling Point: Average $20 – 40
How Hard to Find: Out there but not to common
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 5,100 / 1,600, Turnover Score 30.8
Kiton – Exclusive Label – Does Cashmere Shirts
Rare with Above Average Selling Point
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 241 / 108, Turnover Score 30.8
Clothing – Button Down, (Best have embroidery), Long better than short, unique design better than plain or plaid, t-shirt (pass unless unique), Hoodie (could be good), shorts…
Selling Point: Button Embroidery, Unique – Above Average, Basic and T-Shirts under $15-20 (pass)
How Hard to Find: Not Common
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 3800 / 2300, Turnover Score 60.5
Clothing – Golf Shirts, Jackets – Made Korea
Unique Patterns, Ohoopee Match Club (Onion Logo on Chest), Tour Logos, Tree Farm Logo, San Fran, Wizard Logo, tricky as some golf course shirt sell under $20. . Vest and jackets can do well
Selling Point: Some Above Average – Must research before purchase
How Hard to Find: Out there but not to common
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 2,200 / 1,200, Turnover Score 54.5
Berckmans Place – Makes “Masters 1934” Label
Extremely Low Volume, Rare
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 60 / 65, Turnover Score 108.
Peter Millar – Golf Shirts, Peter Millar Summer Comfort, Augusta Master Logo – US & Golf Flag,
Scotty Cameron – Shirt Logo can be different – look for sleeve SC patch, also collar logo (Circle w/ line T in it.)
General Peter Millar – many cases $25 or under, specialize Summer Comfort crowded but unique can get $30 and up (sometimes more)
Summer Comfort Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 350 / 50, Turnover Score 14.3
(Yikes over a year’s supply! – Must be special, unique)
Macade Golf Shirts
Extremely Low Volume, Rare
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 45 / 31, Turnover Score 68.8
Zilli Polo
Extremely Low Volume, Rare
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 11 / 10, Turnover Score 90
Clothing – Button Down, (Chambray, Flannel), Long better than short, jackets
Selling Point: Above Average, Basic SS and T-Shirts under $15-20
How Hard to Find: Not Common in Florida, Likely in cooler climates
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 5,300 / 2,900, Turnover Score 54.7
Pladra – Flannel Shirts
Selling Point: Above Average
How Hard to Find: Rare
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 30 / 30, Turnover Score 100
Clothing – L/S S/S T-Shirts, Thermals – Crosses, Angel Wings, Skulls
Selling Point: Range $15-40
How Hard to Find: Out there but not to common
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 1,500 / 500, Turnover Score 33.3
Not all sales were MMA Elite (used name to get exposure)
Affliction
T-Shirt – Want Red label, Sig Series, Band graphics like Korn, Ozzy,
Do Want Affliction Fighter, Boring Design, Built for Speed
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 15,000 / 4,500, Turnover Score 30
Clothing – Dress Shirts
Selling Point: Above Average
How Hard to Find: Out there but not to common, rare
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 500 / 430, Turnover Score 86
Clothing – Polo Shirts
Selling Point: Above Average – Patterns and Designs, Some boring designs 1/20th sell under $20
How Hard to Find: Out there but not to common, rare
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 740 / 1,900, Turnover Score 256
Hawaiian Shirts – Stop Buying Hawaiian Shirt!!! Except a Select Few Brands, Disney (Iconic Businesses – Worth Checking)
Used Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 320,000 / 42,000, Turnover Score 13 (Almost 2 year supply)
New with Tags – Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 868,000 / 57,000, Turnover Score 6.6 (Over 4 year supply)
– Note – Super Rare but worth knowing must research before purchase (Keep reviewing)
Other older Hawaiian Brands – Ui-Maikai, Pali Hawaiian Style, Pilgrim
Pants / Shorts
Lululemon
Inventory to Sales Ratio March, 2025: 20,000 / 15,000, Turnover Score 75
Thrifting Basics
1. Old Does Not Always Mean Valuable
It is always exciting when you are going through a rack and find a polyester, Hawaiian or disco shirt from the 1960s or 70s. While some of these shirts sell for $40, $50 and over $60, many of the older shirts (that are now 40 – 50 years old) have condition issues or are rather basic sell for $14-25.
To improve your chances of a successful purchase, look for bold and unique designs, fabric textures, and brands like Sears Kings Road, JCPenney, and Campus.
2. Rare Clothing Brands Do Not Always Mean Valuable
There are thousands of clothing labels. Some are from small boutiques, department store private labels, brands that were trends, and others are name brands that have been around for decades like ralph Lauren. Plus sometimes garments have no labels because they were home sewn.
Finding a little known brand shirt or dress doesn’t mean you’ve hit the lottery, it means that you need to research the brand, see if there are other listings and see if the brand sells. Unless a brand had a pop culture moment, was iconic in its day, or was associated with an event or trend (i.e. – 70s disco shirts) that people remember fondly, there is often little demand for a rare brands as hundreds come and go every decade.
3. Know & Understand the Clothing Resale term “Vintage”
Vintage has several meanings including “Old” and “Dating from the past.” While the term can be used to denote any piece of clothing, the term “Vintage Clothing” in the industry means the garment is at least 20 or more years old.
Thrift Store Shopping Tips
4. Always Check for Rips, Holes & Tears
You found a vintage Polo Ralph Lauren 1990s shirt for $9 and it sells for $70 on eBay. You are so excited you add it to your cart and move on to the next rack. Once your home you review your thrift store haul and start getting ready to list your items when you notice a rip in the neck underneath the collar, in the hem, or under the arm pit and your heart sinks.
In my first few months, I purchased several shirts with these flaws and soon afterwards started doing a final pre-purchase check on every item before I got in line to purchase the item.
5. Always Check the Buttons and Zipper
It sounds silly, but always check for all the buttons and test the zippers. People are always trying on thrift store shirts and blouses, so it is not unusual to find unbuttoned shirts on the racks and this makes it easy not to notice something is missing. I have purchased shirts with missing button down collar buttons, front of the shirt buttons and the button on the sleeve cuff gone. So always double check.
The same thing goes for zippers. Always unzip and the zip a jacket, dress, shirt or jeans to make sure it works. A broken or stingy zipper can lead to money wasted or a future bad review if you do sell it.
6. Do a Final QC Check Prior to Purchase
Once you have selected all of the clothes you would like to purchase, find a space to review all of the items one at a time. This Quality Control check should be to look over the thrift shirt, dress or garment and check for flaws. Check for holes, missing buttons, stains, rips and decide which garments are being purchased and which ones are going back on the racks. I find that I eliminate about 20-30% of the items that I wanted to purchase during my QC check.
7. Avoid Tagless Shirts
Tagless t-shirts were introduced in 2002 by Hanes and started to become gain traction among major brands in the late 2000s. Tagless shirts save manufacturers money and most consumers find the shirts more comfortable, but tagless shirts are also a dead giveaway that the garment is new and not vintage. The one major downside to tagless shirts is that the information about the brand, size and care slowly washes away!
Today you’ll find t-shirts, polos, athletic wear and even some button up shirts have gone tagless. As a general rule pass on tagless garments, unless you do the research and know that you can sell the item for a good profit.
8. Know Your Thrift Store Deal Days and / or Color Promo Schedule
Thrift stores receive new donations are day and new to keep there inventory fresh to keep customers coming back. In order to manage inventory clothes are tagged with a color or number that identifies the week the item was put out for sale. In order to motivate customer to purchase aging inventory and make second-hand shopping exciting thrift stores may have a weekly % off day, a seniors % off day, or a day when the 50% off a select color switches. Also some stores to store wide 40-50% off days that tie in with major holidays and back to school events.
If you are reselling clothing online knowing when and how to gets these discounts can save you a lot of money and allow you to make more money.
9. No Returns! – Most Thrift Stores Have a No Return Policy
Salvation Army, Goodwill and many of the thrift stores I have visited DO NOT ACCEPT CLOTHING RETURNS, so once you buy it; it is yours. Just be sure you want the item before you head to the check out line.
Those thrift stores that do have a return policy, often have very specific return policies rules. We have one where you can return items within 14 days with tags on, but you must use the return credit on the same day the clothes are returned. In this case I always wait at least a week or more to return the items so that there is new inventory in the store.
10. Some Thrift Stores are Better than Others
Each thrift / second hand store is different. In Orlando, the price of a men’s pre-owned long sleeve button up shirt can $6 at the Salvation Army, while at Goodwill they run $9-$13. Also some of the smaller neighborhood thrift stores can be a direct representation of the community where it is located, so thrifts in wealthy neighborhoods may have more branded and luxury goods, while stores in older neighborhoods created before or during the 1960s may be more likely to score vintage clothing more often.
If you are going to do reselling, I suggest you visit a variety of thrift stores. Compare pricing, the type of merchandise you find and then continue to shop where you find the best value and clothing that sells.
11. Use Google Image Search to Identify Unique Shirts / Jerseys
Have a t-shirt, shirt, dress, blouse, or sports jersey and need help trying to identify it? Try Google image search where you can take a photo from your cell phone and Google will search it’s images to try to identify your garment.
This is not very useful with plaid and solid colored shirts, but it can help identify t-shirts, sports jerseys, and garments with unique patterns and iconic looks. I would say I find a match 40-50% of the time. It helps quickly identify the shirt or garment and if it is on sale on eBay, Poshmark or even Amazon it will often show the price so you can get an idea of value.
12. Use the eBay App to View Supply, Pricing and What Items Sold For
The eBay app is a great resource to look up items quickly and see what is available and what things sell for. This gives you a quick indication of supply and demand and whether you want to purchase an item.
Here is how I use the eBay app. I find a shirt and then I type in the brand, type of shirt (polo, t-shirt, button down), long or short sleeve, and a descriptive terms (plaid, stripe, image, color) and hit search. I review how many listings 0, 5, 10, 50 and so on and look to see if I can spot the exact shirt I have just to get an idea of what it might be listed at.
Once I have scanned the listings and have an idea at what items are priced at, then I use the eBay filter and click on Sold listing to see if any of this type of item has sold. This tells me what people are willing to pay for this item. While the listings may show for sale at $40, the sold price might be $15, $25 or $40. A selling price under $20 is normally a do not buy signal for me, but if I can make $20 or 30 on a shirt I am willing to consider making the purchase.
You may not always find an exact match for your item, but it will often give you an idea if a brand sells well and at a good price. You want brands that sell, rather ones that do not and this gives you the tools to make better decisions.
13. Made in USA, Made in Italy and Made in China
When you are thrifting you want to pay attention to Made in USA clothes as they often mean older and / or vintage shirts as they do not make many clothes in the US anymore. Also shirts, dresses and garments that have tags noting Made in Italy are often high quality and worth researching and evaluating. (If you get lucky you might find a Gucci, Versace or Armani garment.)
US clothing brands started shifting clothing manufacturing to China in the mid-1990s. So when you see Made in China on the label, it means that the clothing is newer and if it is not a brand name you recognize it might be best to pass. One example I can share is Hawaiian shirts; if it is Made in Hawaii always investigate as some brand’s of Hawaiian shirts can sell for $30-$100, however Hawaiian shirts that are Made in China are a dime a dozen and they tend to sell for $10-$20.
14. You will Purchase a Counterfeit Item
Often you can spot a fake Polo Ralph Lauren shirts, because RL labels are very consistent, so when something is off you notice. However I have purchased a fake Hugo Boss, Burberry and a foreign sports jersey even when I was looking for fakes!
So what do you do if you purchase a fake shirt, dress and pair of jeans? First – Do not sell it on it on eBay as it against eBay policy to knowingly sell a counterfeit item. Plus if you do sell it, it harms your seller reputation. Second – Since it is a garment that can be used, you can donate it back to the thrift store or destroy it. (I donate them back to the thrift store.)
15. Some Clothing Brands include Manufacture Dates
Nothing is more helpful in determining when a garment was manufactured than finding a production date on the tags. Levi’s has used them for decades. Tommy Hilfiger started including them in the 2000s, and GAP, American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch and other brands started including them over the last 10-15 years. Some tags are coded, but others are easy to read.
The reason for adding these tags vary, but many mall based stores started to include the tags so the employees would quickly know the age of items being returned. No longer could someone walk in and say I just bought this shirt and I want to return it, when the sales associate can easily point out the item was from 2 or 3 years ago.
16. You’ll Need to Learn to Remove Stains
Nothing ruins a great thrift store purchase more than getting ready to take photos for your listing, turning on your photo lights and finding unexpected stains on a shirt. Thanks to poor store lighting many stains can go unnoticed, until you are ready to list it.
You should be able to get most of the stains out of the garments with Shout or Oxi-Clean. However, there are times I’ve had to get a brush out and use nail polish remover, rubbing alcohol and / or dish soap on the stain and sometimes it still does not come out. In that case you can sell the clothing as is or donate it back to the thrift shop.
17. You’ll Need a Lint Roller
You are going to purchase clothing that attracts or has lint and / or hairs on them. Black fabrics and some sweatshirts tend to be lint magnets, so a lint roller is needed to remove those pesky hairs and lint.
18. Knowing How to Sew is a Plus
If you accidently do purchase a shirt, dress, or jacket with a tear, seam separation or loose hem, knowing how to sew is extremely handy as you can repair the garment and list it.
19. Bad Purchases can Be Donated
Sometimes you purchase a garment with high expectations, list it and nobody wants it even after you lower the price several times. Well the good news is that you can always donate it back to a thrift store, move on and take the tax credit.
20. Little Known Brands often Sell for Less
Some brands last decades, while others may last a few years. However lesser known brands often sell for less because fewer people seek those brands (less demand). Are there exceptions? Yes. Brands with a unique notoriety or fad induced (men’s disco shirts) can sometimes bring in more, but in general if you’ve never heard of it or don’t remember it almost no one else does either.
21. Mall Based Store Brands Don’t Bring Big Profits
Pre-owned clothing from American Eagle, Zara, Forever 21, Hollister, Abercrombie, GAP, Old Navy and other stores found in the mall rarely bring big profits. I find that most of these t-shirts, button ups, and dresses tend to sell in the $5-20 range. I took a screenshot of recent eBay sales and someone sold 5 shirts with shipping for $24! That’s less than $5 a shirt and cheaper than some thrift stores!
While there are exceptions to the rules, like a shirt style that was in a popular movie or a brand that partners with a celebrity or designer, in most cases pass on teen retailer merchandise.
