Who Would’ve Thought?!

When I was young, I never thought that I’d be nearly making a living from selling hats. I’m not even a hat wearing type person. I’ve been selling on eBay for over 3 years now, and one category that has dominated as best selling category is hats.

Baseball, trucker, cowboy, dad hats, the whole lot of them are the perfect, easy to find, easy to list, easy to ship inventory you can add to your reselling business today to increase your monthly income.

In this post, I want to show you why hats are such a great addition to nearly any reselling business. I’m also going to give the best cheat sheet I can conjure up with types of hats to look for when shopping. And finally, you’ll see exactly how I photograph my hats for polished looking listings.

Why You Should Start Reselling Hats

When it comes to finding stress free inventory to add to your store, hats check a lot of the right boxes. They are extremely common as you can find them at almost every thrift store and garage sale.

Hats, like coffee mugs, are just that type of gift that are bought for people when you don’t know what else to buy. And most likely, they do not get worn and end up sitting in the top of a closet for years until they get donated in nearly new condition.

I’ve never had a hat break during shipping…knock on wood. As long as you box them up they are nearly impossible to break and that is always a plus! I use 8 x 6 x 4 (inch) boxes and, I can easily put 3 hats in a single box. I get mine 100 at a time from SupplyHut or The Boxery on eBay

If you use eBay templates you can easily design a women, men, boy, and girl template to make the listing process a breeze! There is no measurements to worry about, shipping is the same on nearly all of them, and after a while you can standardize a price point for them.

Now to the real question, money. My average sale price for hats falls around $8-$15 plus shipping. Which at first glance may not seem like a lot, but you can easily list 15-20 hats a day. With just a few sold hats a day it is a nice additional income for anyone. Even if you just did hats!

Hats in general as a whole are a great profitable niche to get into. I can’t say it any other way. Just grab a couple and try it out!

The Hat Sourcing Cheat Sheet 25 Tips

In this section, I am going to attempt to stuff as much gold in here as I possibly can. Feel free to copy and paste this list to print and take with you if you need it!

1. Sports Hats – All forms of sports hats do really well. College and Professional are the most obvious. Minor League Baseball does really well too. I’ve even sold local high school team hats.
2. Nike – Any well known brand does well, but Nike is on a whole other level. It deserves its own spot. Anything Nike is a grab.
3. Employee Hats – Large companies like, Wal-Mart, Target, Tractor Supply, McDonalds, Domino’s, and more. All of them have a resell market for their employee hats
4. Travel Hats – I’ve sold a lot of travel hats. Especially ones to unique locations. Mt. Rushmore, Baseball Hall of Fame, State Park hats, and more
5. Alcohol Brands – The Bud Light and Coors Light stuff do sell, on the lower end, but they sell. The real money is in the lesser known liquor companies and breweries
6. Designer Brands – I’m in the South and for me that’s HeyBo, Simply Southern, Southern Tide, that sort of thing. Figure out what is in your area
7. Vintage – Old hats with cool designs do very well. The market has fell on these a little, but getting that $8-$15 price average is very achievable
8. Vintage Blanks – High quality vintage blank hats do well. Anything that is a wool blend, Made in USA, or popular brand like Yupoong
9. Signed Hats – Believe it or not I have found plenty of signed hats at thrift stores. It might not be “A List” celebrities but, they still have good value. Good luck identifying the signature though. That’s sometimes the hard part.
10. Car Manufacturers- The popular branded hats from companies like Toyota, Ford, Dodge, GMC, and etc.
11. Veteran Hats – I love picking these up because they are everywhere. I try to look for ones that are good quality and don’t feel too cheap. Start grabbing hats for a while and you’ll know what I mean.
12. Golf / Country Club Hats – Some of these are a little obscure and may be more plentiful depending on your area. Here in South Carolina golf is very popular and we have several big courses around here.
13. Stetson Cowboy Hats – There is HUGE money in these. They have a rating system that goes by an X factor. The more X’s on a hat the better. The go anywhere from 10 to 1000. The more there is the more valuable they are. In fact, I could write a whole post on cowboy hats.
14. Collegiate Hats – Even if it isn’t the sports team, anything with a specific college or university can sell for a few bucks.
15. Disney – Like Nike, anything Disney should be a pickup. Disney Parks especially.
16. Canada Goose – Is a high end brand I’ve ran across that’s worth a lot of money
17. Hunting – Cabela’s, Mossy Oak, Real Tree, Browning, etc.
18. Energy Drink Brands– Monster especially, but Rockstar and all the others are worth grabbing too.
19. High-End Industrial Companies – Lincoln Welding,
20. Presidential Hats – Especially the official Donald Trump 2020 campaign hat
21. Military Issued Hats – All military branch issues hats w
22. Pop Culture Stuff – Anything that is Pokemon, Five Nights of Freddy, or any popular franchise typically does well. The highly searched keywords make all the difference.
23. 47 Brand – Most hats by this company are worth looking up. Commonly associated with sport hats
24. Captivating Headgear- I consider this a slightly less valuable brand than 47, but still worth grabbing
25. Tractor Companies- official hats from companies like John Deere, Kubota, Kyoti, and etc. have decent value

How Do You Photograph Hats For Reselling?

Photographing hats is extremely easy to do! I like to use one of those Styrofoam mannequin heads you get from the craft department of Hobby Lobby or Wal-Mart. You can also find these at hair stylist stores too where they use them for wigs.

If you don’t have a head available, a simple trick is use a small bowl or wad of packing paper to give the hat form. It will photograph much better.

The 2 tools I always have on deck during photo shoots is a pair of scissors and tape. I use them to cut off loose threads or remove any fuzz that will show up in photos.

I’m going to show you the exact photos I take for a listing using a National Baseball Hall Of Fame hat I grabbed recently.

For the listings main photo I like to use the 3/4 turn angle to show off the side and any embroidery that may be there.

I like to take photos of the hat on all 4 sides and sometimes even the top down view. If there are any flaws or imperfections I take up close photos of those areas between turning for the next photo.

On the underside, I make sure to photograph underneath the bill and the head band. That is where the most wear or staining will be and buyers will want to see it.

I always take pictures of any tags inside. First reason is obviously for showing the brand or size, but I also like photographing the material tag for the additional details during the listing.

Last, I make sure to take any up close photos of damaged threading and embroidery. With eBay’s 24 photo limit you can really go wild with it.

It Ain’t Much, But It’s Honest Work

One of my favorite things about reselling hats is how quickly the profits can snowball. At first selling a single hat for for a few dollars doesn’t seem like much. It adds up quick!

Reselling hats has become a labor of love, where modest sales quickly escalate into substantial profits, covering the cost of goods for multiple items. It may not seem like much at first, but with persistence and dedication, you’ll find that honest work with hats can lead to a fulfilling and prosperous reselling journey.

So, whether you’re already a reseller or just starting out, consider delving into the world of hats and unlock the exciting potential of this profitable niche. Happy hat-hunting and may your reselling venture be filled with success and satisfaction!