Turning Passion into Profit: How Cleat and Jersey Reselling Paid My College Tuition
Reselling Journey, Target Audience, Return on Investment Philosophy, Understanding Specialized Marketplaces, Bonus Content
$64,558.
The total amount of my college tuition.
How did I pay that off before I graduated? It all started at a discount store in 2015.
At the time, I was in 7th grade when my mom took me to a new store, ‘Ross Dress for Less’, that recently opened near the local Costco in town. I had no interest in going into the store, but my mom wanted to shop around and encouraged me to explore the men’s aisles. Reluctantly, I began to browse through the clothing and shoe aisles but could not find anything that caught my interest. I wandered around to the back of the store and ended up in the sports equipment section, where I found a pair of Nike Ohio State Football Gloves for $9.99.
My parents both were Ohio State alumni, which made me a huge Ohio State football fan growing up. After a bit of convincing, I got my Mom to buy the gloves for me and had them sitting around in my room as a decoration. One day, a friend named Max came over and noticed the new gloves in my room. His mom was running a successful eBay business at the time and wanted me to sell them on her account. I vividly remember my brother telling me not to sell them and keep them, but I gave in to my friend because I knew there was no risk in trying to sell them. Little did I know that this would change my life forever.
The Ohio State gloves were listed on eBay for a week as an auction listing with a starting bid of $99.99 and a Buy-It-Now option for $119.99. Hours before the listing ended, I went over to Max’s house and was in his basement when someone purchased the gloves for $119.99. A week later, I received $80 in cash from Max’s mom, a feeling I never forgot. This started my passion for reselling and turned me into an avid shopper. Instead of tagging along with my mom to go to different stores across town, I would beg my mom to take me to Ross, Burlington, and Marshalls to search for anything I could find to resell.
I would watch YouTube videos by HustlerHacks, whose videos taught me how to source, list on eBay, ship items out, inventory to look for, and essentially how to resell. From 2015 to 2019, I regularly used eBay to sell my inventory, like any typical reseller.
However, the niche I developed as a reseller stemmed from the knowledge acquired being an athlete. In 2016, I started playing lacrosse. My brother picked up the sport 3 years earlier and it was a natural progression from playing hockey in the fall. When looking for a pair of cleats to use, I found a pair of Nike Vapor Speed Low TD’s at Ross for $19.99 and used them for my first season of lacrosse. During practice that season, a teammate brought in a rare lacrosse stick. He bought the stick off a website called SidelineSwap which was a new marketplace app centered around Lacrosse at the time. I decided to check out the website and even sell a pair of lacrosse gloves my brother’s college roommate had given to me for free. This ended up being my first sale on the website on November 28th, 2016.
Since eBay was my go-to platform, I did not sell anything else on SidelineSwap at the time, choosing to stay with what I was most comfortable selling on. Over time, I accumulated a collection of lacrosse equipment that no longer fit me, beginning with the first pair of cleats I used, the Nike Vapor Speed Low’s TD. After not having success trying to sell the cleats on eBay for a couple of months, I remembered about SidelineSwap. I listed the cleats on there, around two years after my only sale on the website. Within a week, the cleats sold for $19.99, on December 31st, 2018, prompting me to rethink my entire business.
When I started shopping at discount stores in 2015, I quickly realized that premium cleats consistently find their way to these stores, priced anywhere from $19.99-$29.99. This led me to sell cleats on eBay and compete with many other resellers trying to make a quick penny.
After more sales on SidelineSwap, I realized how I needed to start thinking about reselling from a buyer’s perspective. Most athletes do not shop on eBay (most of you reading this have probably never even used eBay), but they will shop on a platform that is targeted towards athletes. I needed to start thinking from my perspective as an athlete, which allowed me to understand my buyers and the best platform to connect myself to them. This created my niche in selling cleats to athletes at a price that was often 2x-5x more than the price on eBay and other online marketplaces.
Why is this?
It is all about understanding the target audience and where they shop.
Let’s dive into this with an example:
Understanding my Target Audience
Nike Vapor Untouchable Pro 3:
These cleats were released on February 2nd, 2018, and retailed for $120. Each year, Nike comes out with new cleats during each football season, leaving last year’s model to often hit discount stores every 1-2 year cycle. Around June 2020, these exact cleats started to appear at Ross for $19.99.
Resellers started to list these on online marketplaces according to the ‘eBay economy’, which valued the cleats anywhere from $40-$60 with high supply within eBay. In fact, I was able to buy a pair on Mercari, an online marketplace, for $43 with free shipping.
However, I sold these cleats anywhere from $120-$150.
Now, why would I price these cleats at or above retail?
I price my cleats according to the ‘athlete market’, not the ‘eBay economy’.
The ‘eBay economy’ factors:
Supply and Demand
Mispricing by Resellers
The ‘athlete market’ factors:
Athletes Preferences
Seasonality of Sport
When resellers buy this cleat and sell it, most of them view it as any other cleat they find at discount stores. When I find this cleat, I see a cleat that is highly sought after by football and lacrosse players, particularly in the popular white colorway.
Resellers often mistake the ‘eBay economy’ as the end-all-be-all, when it is about seeing past that information and into the mind of your target audience. They build the listing according to the current selling prices on eBay, instead of building it backwards from the target buyer. In other words, putting yourself in the shoes of your target consumer and pricing it according to their perspective. For example, I priced these cleats high and waited until the start of football season (August/September) to maximize my return. This allowed me to sell 15 pairs of these exact cleats for a profit of $1,276.85.
Let’s move on to my ROI philosophy, and this time, the cleat is bought at Burlington:
Return on Investment Philosophy
Nike Alpha Menace Elite 2:
These cleats were released on April 22nd, 2019 and retailed for $200. This was purchased on August 18th, 2020 for $24.99 and I ended up with 10 pairs in total. Just like the Vapor Untouchable Cleats, Resellers started to list these on marketplaces according to the ‘eBay economy’. Once again, I was able to buy a pair on Mercari for $50 with free shipping.
Notice a pattern?
Another cleat that is valued by resellers according to the ‘eBay economy’, but highly valued by the ‘athlete market’ due to:
Cleat Performance
White Colorway
With both cleats, I was extremely happy to find them in stores in the ~$20 range but also took advantage of other reseller’s mispricing for more inventory. I like to follow a rule which is 100% Return on Investment (ROI). In this case, it means that for every $20 you spend, you should be making a $20 profit on that cleat. With a cleat I can resell for $160, I know I can go up to around $70 to maintain my 100% ROI (factoring in marketplace fees).
I resold 10 pairs of this exact cleat for a total of $1,532.59. After marketplace fees of $205.24 and the 10 pairs costing me $257.49, I profited $1,069.87 with a Return on Investment (ROI) of 4.2x.
The concepts I learned through reselling football cleats allowed me to diversify my business through my understanding of specialized marketplaces:
Understanding Specialized Marketplaces
Diversifying my Business:
Around 2021, Adidas Player Jerseys started showing up at Ross for $19.99. One jersey in particular, an Auston Matthews Toronto Maple Leafs St. Pats Jersey, was one I could not find at my Ross and a jersey that resellers were severely underpricing.
This jersey appeared at Ross for $19.99. Resellers were pricing the jerseys according to the ‘eBay economy’, which was around $60 on the low end at the time.
I bought two jerseys on eBay for $65.40 each in June 2021 and resold both jerseys on
SidelineSwap for $169 each in December 2021. In total, I profited $166.38 with a ROI of 1.3x.
Once again, resellers viewed this hockey jersey as just another jersey at Ross. However, I viewed this jersey as a player playing for the most popular fanbase in the world, the Toronto Maple Leafs, who is the biggest star on the team.
Whether buying from a discount store or reseller, I took advantage of arbitrage opportunities that I foresaw. Resellers often lack the awareness of the true intrinsic value of their items which comes from not understanding specialized marketplaces. My reselling journey with SidelineSwap taught me the importance of selling into specialized marketplaces. This eventually became my theme as a reseller, understanding how:
SidelineSwap will attract affluent athletes
eBay will attract value consumers
GOAT will attract passionate sneakerheads
Understanding which specialized marketplace to list on and tailoring my listing and pricing to my target consumer allowed me to maintain my ROI and overall business.
Translating that to today, I am able to sell various high arbitrage items among marketplaces, ranging from Under Armour Hunting Coats, Nike Illinois Basketball Jerseys, and even Veja’s.
With all of that, the most important lesson I learned throughout my journey was that money was not motivating me to run my business. It was about seeing my ideas come to life, whether that was researching items in stores, understanding which platform to list it on, or pricing an item. The process is what motivates me to continue to resell even today and outweighs all the monetary value I have been fortunate enough to receive.
So how much have I made reselling?
From 2019 to 2023, I generated $154,291.06 in Revenue and $72,931.25 in Profit.
Enough to cover my college tuition.
Shoutout to my Mom, who probably didn’t think a trip to Ross would pay for her son’s college tuition 8 years later.
Thank you for taking the time to make it all the way down here, and if you found this interesting, sign up for my newsletter with insights in the retail market coming soon!
Jonathan
Check out my Seller Accounts Below!
SidelineSwap Account | eBay Account
Bonus:
On February 14th, 2024, I found 3 pairs of Nike Vapor Edge Pro 2 ‘White Metallic Silver’ for $24.99 at my local Ross.
These exact cleats are selling for $114.97 on Nike’s website as of February 14th.
On eBay, you can find over 300 listings of this cleat for $60-$70 with free shipping as of February 14th.
History always repeats itself.
Remember,
The ‘eBay economy’ factors:
Supply and Demand
Mispricing by Resellers
The ‘athlete market’ factors in:
Athletes Preferences
Seasonality of Sport
On Nike’s website, it says “101 purchased in the last 7 days”. The demand for these cleats at a high price is there; it is all about connecting to the athlete, not the ‘eBay economy’.
Excited to be patient and sell these for $120 on SidelineSwap.
