Somehow we are already a quarter of the way through 2025 – yeah, we don’t know how that’s happened either! The positive thing about another month being completed is that we have a host of new polyester sales to discuss! (Writes Mike Carter)

Online sales of match-worn shirts have been few and far between this year, but we live in hope that this changes, soon!

With that being said, we’ll start with the replica sales that caught our eye in March. First up is this 1982-84 home shirt by Admiral in size small. When I saw the sale price of £42.46 I was a little bit shocked. The size isn’t the most popular, but for an original shirt that is over 40 years old, the final price seems highly reasonable.

This commemorative 2003/04 home shirt by Patrick with added promotion text in size XL sold for £45.44 last month. Sometimes seen as a way to clear end-of-season stock, added details are a clever way of protecting your margin. Assuming you have something to celebrate…

This 2007/08 home shirt by Umbro in size XXL is the cheapest shirt we’ve ever covered in Auction Action. It sold for the small sum of £5.92 after just one bidder attempted to purchase it.

It’s rare these days that Goalkeeper shirts get produced in short sleeves, and that was also the case in 2010/11. That means that this adidas GK jersey shirt in XXL has, at some stage, been modified into a short-sleeved shirt. The shirt also has elbow pads, something that was quite common back then, but not so much these days. £19.99 was the sales price, which feels about right for something like this. If you look closely, you can see the overlock stitch used to create the new hem.

This Sans-sponsor 2021/22 ‘Blackout’ away shirt by Umbro (which later became the 2022/23 third shirt) in size large, sold for just £13.50 last month. As one of the most virally popular shirts in recent times, it is hard to believe that it sold for so little. The lack of sponsorship may have put some people off, but it looks so classy without it! It wasn’t like it went under the radar either as 4 bidders placed 7 bids in pursuit of this blackout shirt.

A sponsorless blackout shirt going for £13.50 amply illustrates that the price of replica shirts has tumbled on the resale market, and even rarer shirts from the 80s and 90s have fetched much less than they did just a few years ago. This 1991/92 GK shirt by Matchwinner in XL selling for £245.12 (if the best offer option wasn’t used) seems to have bucked that overall trend, but it’s entirely possible that someone has seen the number 1 on the back and presumed it is a match worn or issued jersey. However manufacturers adding the number 1 as standard was fairly commonplace in the era before squad numbers meant the “number 1” wasn’t always wearing number 1. If this was a match shirt, you’d expect to see Football League patches on the sleeves, and for the Matchwinner logo and club crest to be fully embroidered, not embossed felt.

A long-sleeved 1999/00 home shirt by Avec in size XL printed with #5 and the name of pro-footballer turned postie, (Justin) Whittle sold for £185! Again, it’s possible that someone has presumed this is a match shirt because of the name and number, but player names that season tended to be applied in a radial arch rather than straight (with the notable exception of Whitmore and Goodison, who’s shirst were printed up after the season had begun) and where are the Nationwide League sleeve patches (which were curiously retro-reflective, which must have annoyed match photographers).

For the first time, we’re able to bring you a sale via the popular second-hand marketplace Vinted. The honour goes to this 2007/08 home shirt by Umbro printed with (Jay-Jay) Okocha and #44. The shirt is a size medium and was listed for £90. Vinted allows buyers and sellers to send offers to each other, so it is possible that it sold for less than the list price, but either way, it is refreshing to track a sale from a different source. Hopefully, this is the first of many.

The last shirt we’re going to cover this month is this 2016/17 away shirt by Umbro in size medium, printed with (Sam) Clucas and #11. It was listed at £42.32, with the best offer option in play, making it difficult to know what it sold for. It looks to us like it has had the pro-sized letter and number set applied, but the lack of competition patches makes this highly unlikely to be a player-issue shirt.

That’s all for March; we’ll be back in May with April’s rundown! 

Caveat emptor!