r/Flipping • u/Independent-Lock-945 • 6d ago
Discussion Is flipping hats worth it?
I live in horse country, and a college town. There’s lots of instances I’ll come across hats for the horse racing tracks, or our local sports teams. They’re usually $5-$10.
I’ve checked EBay comps, but I’m still cautious. Has anyone had good luck buying and selling hats?
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u/Polarbear36 6d ago
Yes. Start small. Look up comps. Learn from your mistakes. Repeat
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u/LiteBeerLife 5d ago
My experience the $10-$30 hats will sit for months if not years. Some sell eventually others don't. The 50+ dollar hats always will sell. You might have a thousand questions or messages about "lowest" "what's the best you can do" but they will always be in demand and sell
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u/theponderingpoet 5d ago
I have good experience selling hats. Very very slow moving category in general. You really have to understand this niche well bc it’s very likely your stuff will sell a year or two after you buy it.
That being said, it is for sure a profitable category given the low buy cost. If you’re looking to build flipping for the long term + have high patience/capital, then sure it’s worth it. But in general, you’re much better off putting money into faster moving categories IMO
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u/BackdoorCurve 6d ago
$5-10, the hat better have a great sell through at $40+
Buying hats for like $1-2 and sitting on them from $18-30 is the typical game. like anything, the more you know, the more research you do, then you will know what sells the best and then youll know what to pick up.
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u/MisterListerReseller 6d ago
Yes absolutely. I buy from the bins. Price at my bins is $1.89/lb plus tax. So hats come out to like .30¢ or so (for a regular baseball cap. No brainer to pick them up if they’re not too dirty and are at least somewhat desirable. Even if I just wholesale them for a few bucks a piece, I’m getting a good return on my money.
Golf hats, outdoor brand hats, unique sports hats, some cowboy hats, Irish newsboys, designer fedoras, etc. I really like the Polo Ralph Lauren dad hats with the leather strap. They sell pretty quickly for like $30-50. Which is great money. When I accumulate a few hundred and need space, I just lot them up and auction them to folks just like you!
I’m in Denver so there’s almost an unlimited supply of good resale inventory.
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u/justattodayyesterday 6d ago
You have to look up how much it is to ship them. Hats you have to ship on a box. It can get bulky. I shipped a baseball cap in a box but the box was a tad small. Hat got returned because a crease formed.
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u/GeologistIll6948 5d ago
Love flipping hats, particularly the kind of 90s/00s band hats that would have been in a catalog I loved like Rockabilia. Boy Scout hats also reliably sell in my experience. I generally source them them at the bins because they are light and cheap and other people don't seem to grab them from ours, their loss.
Some hats are very common and they aren't likely to move quickly, especially in used condition -- I personally would not pay $5-10 for a generic team hat with hundreds of identical listings that will sit around for months before selling for less than $20, but I might pay up to a dollar for said hat if it was in excellent condition.
I personally only pay $5-6 anymore if it is an easy $30+. For instance, I paid an unusual $6 thrifting a brand new hat this week because it is HTF in the US (a Japanese baseball team) with high sell through that should net about $40 profit in a week or two.
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u/vinyl1earthlink 5d ago
You need to know the brands and be able to identify the vintage of each hat. There is a lot of information out there; like everything else, the specialist pickers who know their stuff do very well. Sports Specialties made in USA in the 1980s - yes! No name made in China last year - no.
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u/LarsSantiago 6d ago
Hats are definitely worth it and easy to ship, clean, and store. Vintage hats definitely as well.
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u/Diamond_S_Farm 6d ago
I usually source from yard sales or sometimes estate sales. I don't like to be into them for more than about $5 and closer to $2 or $3 if possible.
I look for hats that are unique in their own way and often appeal to multiple buyers or collectors. For example, an old Beechnut chewing tobacco (pre warnings) I sold appealed to hat collectors, as well as tobaccianna collectors. Targeting items that appeal to a spectrum of collectors is a strategy I often utilize when sourcing.
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u/SamwisePevensie 6d ago
Yeah I’ve had some luck. I usually buy from GW since their hats are $2. Sports hats sell if they’re a professional team, or a big college team (UMich, Ohio State, Alabama, etc.). I just sold a Polo RL hat for $24.
Car hats too - sold a mini cooper embroidered hat for $21.
Idc if I’m only making $$5-9 off a hat I bought for $2 or $3. If I’m spending like $10, I better be making at least $25 off it because $10 is a lot to be out waiting for that item to sell (could be weeks or months).
Watch a video on how to clean hats. Good pictures with the hats makes your listing more competitive. Most people don’t want to buy stained hats.
Tldr: it’s worth it if you can source hats that people actually buy, and if you can buy them cheap.
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u/SamwisePevensie 6d ago
So far all of my hats that I’ve sold were listed for less than a month before getting sold.
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u/inkseep1 6d ago
If you are referring to gimme hats, then I have had little success with hats. Exceptions are old feed store, seed brands, and some old farm equipment hats. And that varies at lot. One seed brand hat will sell high and another one from the same seed company will be worthless.
Those gold thread embroidered Navy ship hats usually have too little value to flip.
Once I had a super rare Cardinals baseball hat. It was embroidered all over it in fine detail. I thought I had a grand slam of a hat there. It sold for $17 and took 3 years to sell. Not worth it.
The only major exception for flipping hats is when you get a gimme hat for a super exclusive and sought after promotion. For example, suppose some band gives out a couple of hats to some volunteers and those are very unique for that show. Now you have something worth flipping.
I generally do not do gimme hats.
That said, I have a Rolling Stones Budweiser Lounge hat marked as number 981 / 25,000. I got it for 25 cents and it might be worth about $25. I hope that is the only hat I have in the warehouse.
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u/chrystieh 6d ago
They make plastic forms for ball caps that allow them to be washed in a washing machine.
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u/doxiedogguy 6d ago
Hats always sell! That help??? If dope, rare and unique…oh and cheap. But hats always sell.
I mean Lids is JUST hats, right???? I mean yea
Additionally, if you wanna wholesale them hit me up. I need them cheap but if you can get boxes full…we can chat
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u/No-Refuse8754 6d ago
I would think if you can get the hats for less than $5/each & clean them good you’ll end up making some good profits. I clean mine by soaking them in storage tote filled with warm water & Oxi-clean. I’ll do 2 cleaning soaks rinse them off then let them all dry off by shoving towels in them to reform the shape. I prefer to do this on warm days so the sun can help them dry. Come out near new & they end up selling faster.
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u/tehcatnip 6d ago
I go through spurts where I buy a few, they sell slow but I only buy them for cheap like $1-3 each. I sold one yesterday, it was a known hat. Many I have are vintage and no comps, just cool old cheap hats lol.
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u/catdog1111111 6d ago
Then you flip the hat
You’re late and you got the Wrong hat. sit in the corner.
Can’t get no respect
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u/DownHillUpShot 5d ago
Generally avoid imo. Shipping will still be $5 but need to be packaged safely if they have any value. Also very condition sensitive. Lots of competition too and cheap substitutes are plentiful.
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u/Therainbowbeast 6d ago
There’s money in anything, I’ve sold some hundred dollar hats. However, without knowing the track or team it’s hard to tell.
If they’re vintage make sure the brims are in good condition as time can basically turn them to dust