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Football seasons reach their climactic peak in May, a month of play-off mayhem, cup finals, clinched promotions, relegation escapes (or falls), half arsed laps of honour, Wembley travel planning and all round heightened emotions. But what’s May like for shirt and other City memorabilia collectors? Is it as exciting as the final moments of a season’s worth of competition? Mike Carter (@MikeyCarter90) will know, he’ll tell us what you could have have won… 

Starting as we do with the player issue/worn shirts, we have four to cover which shows pretty good availability. First up is a 2010/11 Away shirt which is believed to have been worn by Anthony Gerrard at Watford in a 2-1 victory for the Tigers. Looking at the bid timing this one was at around £50 heading into the final 5 minutes and absolutely rocketed up to finish at £192. Looking at recent sales, I would say this one finished higher than I expected, maybe that final second eBay lust kicked in for a few bidders on this one…

This Ahmed Elmohamady issued/worn 2012/13 Home shirt has been on eBay for what feels like forever. Finally, in May 2022 it has a new owner. Listed at auction starting at £84.99 the best offer option was exercised to end the auction ‘early’. Elmo was renowned for giving his shirts out to supporters during his time at City, so it won’t be long until another shirt of his crops up.

The bargain of the month was this Brian Lenihan 2017/18 Home shirt. It is likely a match issued shirt but for £36.41 I don’t think many would turn their nose up at it.

Another shirt which has been listed in the past without selling was this 2020/21 Max Sheaf FA Cup shirt. Previously it finished at just under £50 but it didn’t complete as there had been a reserve set by the seller. This time it has sold but for what we don’t know as the best offer option has been used again on this listing.

Moving into the replica scene and we have another 1992/93 Home shirt by Matchwinner to cover. The size is small and as we have discussed in the past that can dramatically affect what price people will pay for a shirt that won’t fit many people. It was listed as an auction with a start price of £235 but the very commonly used best offer feature was used to secure this shirt.

The 1997/98 Home shirt by Super League is one which we’ve consistently seen sell at around the £100 mark and this one isn’t any different. This one was listed at £109.99 and again, the best offer option was used.

Another May bargain was this Avec 1999/00 Home shirt in size XL. It sold for £27, and for comparison the last XL sold for £52 in March 2022. A medium was also a part of Auction Action in March and that one sold for £107.99.

Staying with the 1999/00 Home shirt another one in XL sold in May and this time for  £40. It is slightly more than the £27 also paid, but again is less than both examples which sold in March.

Another Avec Away shirt, this time from 2000/01 (though incorrectly listed as 1999/00 (in size medium) sold, it finished at £79, which will have pleased its buyer. It’s a shirt that we don’t see crop up very often, indeed this is the first one to sell in at least 9 months.

The 2001/02 Home shirt by Patrick is one of my favourites. One sold for £30, however it was a size small. Still, someone will have been content with paying £30 for something so beautiful.

The month of May is synonymous with Play-Off Finals and the 2007/08 Home shirt by Umbro will be forever remembered for the first Wembley victory for the Tigers. This alone will likely keep the price at a reasonable level but coupled with the fact that an amber version of the template used by England  is aesthetically beautiful, it still sells well. This size large with long sleeves sold for £42.

Moving onto printed replicas, we start with another 2007/08 Home shirt by Umbro, but this one has Okocha #44 on the reverse which sold for £54.99. It is possible that this shirt has been flipped by a seller for profit as we covered a suspiciously similar shirt in February’s Auction Action. Initially it sold for £41.

The last shirt we’re going to cover is this 2015/16 fully signed replica shirt with Clucas #11 on the back. It was listed for a ridiculous £150 and sold following an offer. The fact an Elmohamady match-worn shirt sold for almost half of this is crazy. I know signed replicas have an appeal to some, but it is something I will never understand…

Right, that’s your lot. Next month we’ll see if off-season boredom might drive up final prices.

Bid wisely, and remember soldier, caveat emptor!

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