Small Business Saturday Blog

That Vintage Football Shirt (TVFS) sells genuine vintage football shirts online through both their own website and ecommerce platforms including eBay.

TVFS buys the shirts in bulk, by the ton, and the top 15-20% of those are then processed, authenticated, listed and sold online by their dedicated team. Their shirts sell for prices starting at around £19.99 and going all the way up to £400-500 depending on the item.

The company’s football mad owners sold shirts in bulk through the wholesale market for ten years before launching as That Vintage Football Shirt in 2015 in order to supply the retail sector.

Their relationship with eBay started in 2020. They listed 40 shirts on the platform in January 2020, followed by another 80 in February. By April or May of 2020, they were selling 400 shirts.

TVFS’s director, Michael Wheatley, told us that they process a lot of numbers, and their margins are good because they buy in huge amounts. He told us, “The good thing about putting the shirts on eBay is that you’ve got such a huge audience, so as long as you get your key words right in your description, your customers will find you pretty quickly.”

Michael told us that the selling process on eBay is really simple: you just need a photo and a description and then you’re ready to sell.

His top tip is to communicate with your buyers. He told us that one way in which eBay stands out from other platforms is that you have far more communication with your customers than on any other site. He told us, “They message you and they ask questions, and that’s a positive thing because it means that they want to buy.”

In terms of growing the company, Michael says that they need to increase their input, whether that’s buying more stock or employing more staff: the bottom line though is how many shirts they can make available for sale. They are constantly adding new stock to their listings for their loyal customers to enjoy.

Michael told us, “As a company we have a great work ethic. We utilise ecommerce with eBay and our own website, we utilise the wholesale sector, and we just try to bring as much revenue in as possible. That way, if one stream is slowing then another will cover it.”