Sell mens clothes online in the UK and keep the full price

Running is a separate market from general gym wear, with a more knowledgeable buyer and a much higher ceiling. The buyers are runners. They know what they are looking at, and they will ask specific questions if you leave gaps.

Shoes carry most of the value. Race day models with carbon plates hold their price better than anything else in menswear sportswear, and lightly used pairs of Nike Vaporfly and Alphafly, Adidas Adizero, Hoka, Saucony Endorphin and On Cloudboom all find buyers quickly. The one detail that decides these sales is mileage. State an honest approximate figure, because a runner will work it out from the outsole photograph anyway, and a pair described as barely worn that clearly is not is how a dispute starts.

Beyond shoes, technical outerwear does well: waterproof and windproof shells, Gore-Tex layers, thermal tights, reflective gilets and running vests with bottle pockets. Basic polyester tees, especially race event shirts, generally do not, since most runners already own a drawer of them.

Photograph the outsole, the midsole compression and the upper mesh at the toe box, which is where wear shows first. For apparel, note the fit style, since a slim technical cut in a size large is not the same garment as a relaxed cut in the same size.

Designer menswear is where the money is and where the scrutiny is highest. Buyers spending three figures on a secondhand jacket will read a listing four times before they order, and the listings that convert are the ones that answer every question before it is asked.

Provenance does the heavy lifting. Original receipts, dust bags, care cards, hangers and boxes all raise the price, and photographing the internal labels, the hardware, the stitching and any serial or batch code raises it further. Brands with a strong UK resale market include Stone Island, C.P. Company, Barbour, Burberry, Paul Smith, Ralph Lauren, Represent and Carhartt WIP, and archive or discontinued pieces from any of them often sell above their original retail.

Sizing needs care. Italian and French labels run to their own scales, so quote the size as printed and then give your own flat measurements in centimetres: chest across, back length, shoulder to shoulder, sleeve from shoulder seam. This is the single change that reduces returns most in this category.

Be careful about authenticity claims. Describe what you have, show what you can, and say where you bought it. Do not assert that something is authentic if you cannot evidence it. Escrow matters here more than anywhere else in menswear, because it means the buyer's money is held by ASiS rather than sent to you on trust, which is exactly the reassurance a cautious buyer needs before spending £300 with someone they have never met.

Formalwear is the category where expectations and reality part company most often. A suit bought for £600 does not resell for £300, and high street suiting in particular struggles because the buyer can find new stock discounted. Tailored and premium brands do considerably better: Hackett, Suitsupply, Reiss, Charles Tyrwhitt, Ted Baker and anything from a proper tailor.

Separates frequently outperform sets. A navy blazer listed on its own reaches a much larger pool of buyers than a two piece suit, because the buyer does not need the trousers to fit as well. If your suit is a common colour and the jacket is in good condition, consider listing it as a blazer and the trousers separately.

Measurements are not optional in this category, and alterations must be declared. Give the chest, jacket length, shoulder width and sleeve length, plus the trouser waist and inside leg. If the trousers have been taken up, say so and give the finished inside leg, since a buyer with a 34 inch inseam cannot use a pair hemmed to 30. Note whether there is enough fabric left to let them down.

Dress shirts, dinner jackets, waistcoats, ties, cufflinks and Oxford or Derby shoes in good condition all sell steadily alongside suiting. Shoes in particular hold value when they are a recognised welted brand and the soles have life left, so photograph the sole and the heel.

Summer menswear is the most weather-sensitive category on this list. UK demand does not follow the calendar so much as the forecast, and a warm spell in May will shift more linen shirts in four days than the whole of a cool June.

The pieces that sell are shorts in chino and cotton twill, linen and linen blend shirts, polos, Cuban collar and camp collar shirts, lightweight overshirts, vests and canvas trainers. Linen holds value well because it is expensive new and improves with wear, which is one of the few cases where secondhand is genuinely the better buy.

Timing is the whole game. List from mid-March so your items are already indexed and saved when the first warm week arrives, rather than trying to list into a spike. Buyers in this category also search by fit far more than by brand, so lead your title with the cut and the size rather than the label if the label is not a strong one.

Two practical notes. Sweat marks under the arms of pale shirts are the most common reason a summer listing gets disputed, so check them in daylight before photographing. And swimwear sells poorly secondhand across the board, so unless it is a premium brand and genuinely unworn with tags, it is usually not worth the listing time.

Holiday clothing overlaps with summer but the buyer intent is different, and that changes how you should list. Someone shopping for summer is topping up a wardrobe. Someone shopping for a holiday has a departure date, a suitcase and a deadline, which makes them decisive, less price sensitive and very interested in how fast you post.

This is the strongest bundle category in menswear. A group listing of four resort shirts and two pairs of swim shorts in the same size will often sell faster than any of those pieces alone, because it solves the buyer's entire problem in one order. Resort and camp collar shirts, packable linen, lightweight chinos, swim shorts from recognised brands, sliders, espadrilles and a packable sun hat all belong in this category.

Two demand windows matter in the UK. The first runs through January and February, when people book and immediately start planning what to take. The second is the fortnight before school holidays and peak departure weeks in July and August. Listing across both gives you two chances at the same item.

Because these buyers are working to a flight date, dispatch speed is part of the product. Say in the listing when you post, keep to it, and use a tracked label so the buyer can watch it move. Sellers who post the same or next working day get repeat custom in this category more than in any other.

Christmas party wear has the narrowest selling window in menswear and the sharpest price curve. Demand climbs from the start of November, peaks in the first fortnight of December, and falls off a cliff the moment the last office party is over. An item that sells for £45 on the second of December is often unsellable by the twentieth.

The category splits in two. On one side sits proper eveningwear: dinner jackets, velvet and jacquard blazers, dress shirts, bow ties, cummerbunds and patent shoes. On the other sits novelty, which is where the volume is. Christmas jumpers, sequinned and printed shirts, festive knitwear and anything loud enough to win a competition all shift in quantity, usually between £8 and £25.

List from the last week of October. That sounds early, but buyers start saving items well before they buy, and a listing that has been live for three weeks with twenty saves converts far better than one posted into the peak. If you are only going to do one seasonal clear-out a year, this is the one that rewards being early.

Watch the postal deadlines. Once you are past the middle of December, buyers need the item for a specific date, and a parcel arriving after the party is a refund rather than a sale. State your last dispatch date in the listing and stop accepting orders when you cannot meet it. If something has not sold by the third week of December, take it down and relist it the following October rather than dropping the price to nothing.