At least 10-15 times per year, I go to my neighborhood Goodwill and load up on great clothes for our eBay store. This was a holiday weekend, two weeks after Oklahoma reopened due to the pandemic, and so I’m not sure that I found as much as I normally would have. I sense that the best inventory was available last weekend.
Yes, I went then, too.
Goodwill is a resale go-to for me. Whether your Goodwill will have great items for your eBay store depends mostly on the neighborhood it’s in. The richer, the better. The older, the better. Every reseller is different, but here’s what I look for:
- Anything Nike
- Anything Polo Ralph Lauren
- Anything OP
- Anything Columbia
- Anything with a sports logo
- Anything NWT (new with tags)
Why those brands? They sell for me. You might have a better or worse experience with those brands. I can’t encourage you enough: Go with what you know over go with what you think will sell. As part of that process, you’ll figure it out.
Another day, I’ll detail what I look for specifically in each of these. But for now, I’ll show you what I bought and what I listed on our store this weekend:
This is a Virginia Cavaliers football jersey. Perfect condition. It’s a large, and you can find it here. Always loved Virginia’s color scheme. Sharp.
This 2XL Kansas City Chiefs shirt is in perfect shape, and if it doesn’t sell quickly, I’m going to keep it!
I picked up a handful of Polo Ralph Lauren shirts, too. Just in case you were curious, Goodwill applies a disinfectant to all incoming merchandise, and I wash everything I add to our store — unless it’s NWT. This one is a wonderful “Pima Soft Touch” shirt and feels like it would be super comfy.
The next two are both XLs, and if I could still wear an XL, I’d keep them. But because of my nagging, chronic back injury, I’m about 20 pounds beyond where I should be. This first shirt is a nice gray-blue-white polo.
This one is a black, white and red Ralph Lauren polo shirt, also an XL.
What you don’t see are the 30 Polo shirts I passed over. I pick what I would buy for myself, and the hope is that my taste and preferences translate into what other folks might want.
One item I regularly buy is any Polo Ralph Lauren shirt with a logo different from the typical horse and polo player. Check out this dark blue large Polo with more of a regal crest.
Let’s break up the mention of shirts for a second. It’s rare, but I found some brand new caps this weekend, too! These are both from Top Of The World, and they’re NWT. The first one is a One Fit Baylor Bears cap and the other is a One Fit M/L Florida Gators cap.
Three other shirts with sports logos new to our store, which is called Ryan & Kristi’s Happy HodgePodge. The first is a black XL Adidas ClimaLite Oklahoma City Thunder long-sleeved shirt. Keep in mind, these are pre-owned shirts, but they’re in like new condition. Something to know about eBay and the vernacular: you can’t say “like new.” It’s just pre-owned, and it’s important to let your photos do all the talking.
This next one is an “Air Force Golf” tee. If you know somebody who went to school in Colorado Springs and played golf for the Falcons, this would be a nice birthday gift!
This Oklahoma State long-sleeved t shirt is a conundrum though. Looks great, but when I took the measurements on this Large shirt, it sure did come out to be more of a medium — in my opinion. One thing I’ve learned about clothes in building our store is that what the shirt says is one thing. The actual size of the shirt is a whole other thing.
Still this Nike Dri Fit Oklahoma State Valero Alamo Bowl t shirt is gorgeous.
Another Nike Dri-Fit item I picked up is this sweet XL Dri Fit hoodie. I especially like how light the fabric is. If only I could still fit into an XL, lol. Also, if you look closely, there’s something weird going on with the swoosh. It’s as if it was given a couple of neon, reflective pixels in the swoosh.
My first foray into shorts is this pair of size 40 waist Columbia OmniShades. Really like how light they are, and — again — this is a piece of clothing I might keep for myself if the size were right.
This large, orange-brown Banana Republic tee would go pretty well with these shorts! To be honest, I’m mostly experimenting with Banana Republic to see how popular it actually is. My most successful casual tee brand has been Ocean Pacific (OP).
And let’s finish things out with a couple of long-sleeved shirts. One is a 3XL shirt from Pronto Uomo, made of Fine Merino Wool. Heck, I thought it was cashmere at first!
And the last one is a NWT shirt from a brand called Legendary Whitetails. Had never heard of them, but besides being brand new, I could tell this was a quality shirt. It’s 100 percent cotton, and it just oozes warmth.
