A rail, tubs sorted by club, soft light for shirt fabric and folded mailing bags for selling classic and current kits from a bedroom corner.
Built forYou sell secondhand football shirts, mostly 1990s and 2000s home and away kits with some current seasons, on Vinted and Depop from one corner of a bedroom, posting 10 to 40 orders a week.
Kit total
£275 to £449
Running cost
£21 to £34 a month
Consumables at 25 orders a week
- Orders a week
- 10–40
- Space
- Corner of a room
- Budget
- £200
Why this setup
You sell secondhand football shirts, mostly 1990s and 2000s home and away kits with some current seasons, on Vinted and Depop from one corner of a bedroom, posting 10 to 40 orders a week.
Buyers check the season and size tag, then look for cracks or lifting on the badge and sponsor print. Cracked print or a lifting badge cuts what buyers will pay, so photograph those spots close up.
Shirts are light and flat. A folded shirt in tissue and a grey mailing bag goes as a small parcel, and the whole kit fits under a desk.
The kit
Every item, why it’s here and what it typically costs in the UK.
Heavy-duty double clothes rail
Hanging stock stays uncreased, so it photographs and ships without ironing. A double rail fits along one wall of a spare bedroom.
Typical price£35 to £60
See on Amazon
Clear stackable 32 L tubs, 4 pack×2
Label each tub with a shelf code and record the code against the listing. A sale then tells you which tub to open.
Typical price£60 to £90
See on AmazonGooseneck phone holder
Bends to any angle for an overhead or side shot. It wobbles more than a jointed arm when you bump the desk, so it suits short shows and listing photos.
Typical price£12 to £20
See on AmazonTwo softbox lights with stands
Softboxes spread light over a big area, so a whole outfit or a rail of stock gets even light with soft shadows. They take more floor space than panels and suit a spare room better than a desk.
Typical price£50 to £90
See on AmazonPhomemo thermal label printer
Costs less than most thermal printers and fits on a shelf. It prints the same 100 x 150 mm labels, so your label stock carries over if you upgrade later.
Typical price£70 to £110
See on Amazon30 kg digital postal scale
Covers the parcels most home sellers ship, up to 30 kg. Choose it when the 40 kg scale is out of stock.
Typical price£12 to £20
See on Amazon
Buy this kit
Copy the full list to take shopping, or print it.
Postage per order
What most orders like these go by, at today’s published prices. Prices checked 6 October 2026.
Royal Mail Tracked 48 Small ParcelUsual£3.75
TrackedUp to 2 kgClothing and small boxed items up to 2 kg, with tracking for less than untracked 2nd Class.
InPost locker to locker, small£1.99
TrackedUp to 15 kgFlat parcels up to 8 cm deep, such as folded clothes, dropped at a locker and collected from one.
- Royal Mail 2nd Class Large Letter
£1.55 to £2.70
Not trackedUp to 750 gSingle cards in a rigid mailer, jewellery and other flat items up to 750 g that fit through a letterbox.
About £406 a month in postage at 25 orders a week On most marketplaces the buyer pays postage; this is the cost when you pay it.
How to lay it out
Where everything goes, so each order moves one way through the room.
- 1
Rail for the next photo batch
A short clothes rail holds the twenty shirts you’ll list next, on hangers in club order. Leave a shirt on the hanger overnight and the fold lines drop out before you photograph it.
- 2
Tubs by league under the bed
Keep listed stock folded in clear tubs, one per league or era, each shirt in its own bag with a code. A sale on Depop means opening one tub.
- 3
Softboxes facing a door
Hang the shirt on the back of a plain door with one softbox each side. Flat front light cuts the shine on polyester, so the sponsor print shows its real colour.
- 4
Packing on the desk
Mailing bags, tissue and the label printer sit on one shelf above the desk. You can fold, wrap, bag and label a shirt in under two minutes.
The guide
Each step in the order you'll need it.
Finding stock
You can find shirts at charity shops, car boots and in bundles from other sellers. Away and third kits from the 1990s can sell above the home shirt, so compare sold listings.
Check the year from the product code on the wash label before you pay. The same badge appears on several seasons.
Prepping a shirt for photos
Wash, air dry, then hang on the rail for a night. Lint roll the front, and trim any loose threads with care around the badge.
Put the code label on the hanger, never on the shirt.
Kit for this step
Photographing badge, print and tags
Front and back first, flat on the door under even light. Then close-ups of the badge, sponsor, size tag and wash tag in the order buyers scroll.
Show flaws in their own photo with a fingertip pointing. Show every pull in the listing photos, so the buyer knows about it before they pay.
Writing a listing buyers search for
Put club, season, home or away, size and maker in the title, in that order. Add the player name and number if printed.
On Depop, a styled photo of the shirt worn helps. On Vinted, the flat front photo should come first.
Folding and posting
Fold the sleeves behind, fold in thirds with the badge on top, wrap in tissue and seal with a sticker. Squeeze the air out of the mailing bag before you seal it.
Weigh the first shirt of each type so you know which size band to pick. Weigh a packed shirt and check it against the smallest band in Royal Mail's current parcel guide.
Matchday and season peaks
Buyers look for old shirts around tournaments and when a club releases a new kit. List that club’s retro shirts in the week before a big match.
Stock up on shirts for clubs in the news. Searches for a club’s shirts often rise during a cup run.
Common mistakes
Each one costs you money or reviews, and each has a fix.
- Tumble drying a vintage shirt cracks the sponsor print, so air dry it.
- Leaving the product code out of the listing makes buyers guess the season, so photograph the wash tag.
- Folding a shirt with the badge inside creases the crest, so fold with the badge facing up.
- Listing replica shirts as originals breaks Vinted and Depop rules, so check the codes and leave out anything you doubt.
- Quoting only the label size leads to returns on older cuts, so measure pit to pit.
When to upgrade
Past 20 orders a week, a crosslisting tool lists each shirt on Vinted and Depop together and removes it from both when it sells. At 30, a shelving unit replaces the under-bed tubs so you can see the whole stock.
- 20+ Vendoo
- 30+ 5-tier steel shelving
Questions
How do I tell a fake football shirt?
Check the inside wash label and product code, the badge stitching and the sponsor print quality. Compare against a known genuine shirt from the same season. Vinted and Depop both ban counterfeit items, so don’t list a shirt you aren’t sure of.
Which photos does a football shirt listing need?
Front, back, the badge close up, the sponsor, the neck label with size, the wash label with the product code, and any marks or pulls. Add the back print if it has a name and number.
Should I wash shirts before selling?
Wash them inside out on a cool cycle and air dry. Hot washes and tumble dryers crack old sponsor print and lift heat-pressed badges.
How do I post a football shirt?
Fold it with the badge facing up, wrap it in tissue and send it in a grey mailing bag. On Vinted and Depop the platform gives you the label, so weigh it and pick the right size band.
Do shirts with names and numbers sell for more?
A popular player from the right season often does. Check the lettering for cracking and photograph it close up, since buyers check it.
How should I describe the size?
Give the label size and measure pit to pit and collar to hem in centimetres. Older shirts run differently from current ones, and measurements stop returns.
More setups
Updated 6 October 2026
