The short version
- Typical range: £15 – £60 — see the full football boots value guide
- What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
- Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
- Category: Shoes & Footwear
Before you photograph it
Ten minutes here is worth more than anything else you will do. Buyers are deciding between your listing and someone else’s, and preparation is what visibly separates the two.
- Knock the dried mud off, wash the uppers and let them dry away from any heat source.
- Check the studs. On screw-in boots, confirm they all turn and are present; on moulded soles, look for rounded-off studs.
- Check the sole plate for cracks across the forefoot, which is where boots fail and where the value goes.
The photographs that sell football boots
Four photographs do almost all the work. Shoot in daylight, near a window, with the item against something plain — and do not use the flash, which flattens texture and hides exactly what buyers are trying to see.
- The pair side on, clean, standing
- The sole plate flat to camera, showing stud condition and any crack
- The inside size label and the stitching around the toe
- Any split, peeled upper, loose sole or missing stud
Photograph the flaws too. It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover. Buyers who can see the damage stop imagining something worse.
Writing the title and description
Brand, model and surface: “Nike Mercurial Vapor FG Football Boots, UK 8” or “Adidas Predator Astro Turf Trainers, Junior 4”. Surface codes are real searches — FG for firm ground, SG for soft, AG for artificial grass, and turf boots are a different purchase entirely.
Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:
- Size as marked, with UK and EU equivalents, and whether junior or adult
- Surface type — firm ground, soft ground, artificial grass or astro turf
- Whether studs are moulded or screw-in, and whether a stud key and spares are included
- Upper material, and the state of the sole plate
What buyers will actually ask
You will receive the same three messages about football boots. Answering them in the listing itself removes the back-and-forth, and answering them well when they do arrive is what turns an enquiry into a sale.
Photograph the sole flat to camera. Stud height is the whole measure of remaining life, and a picture answers it far better than a description.
Give the code from the boot. Players buy for a specific pitch, and the wrong surface makes them useless however good the price.
Say plainly and give both size systems. Youth and adult scales overlap confusingly and this is the most common ordering mistake on boot listings.
Pricing it so it actually sells
Start from the honest condition grade rather than the price you hope for. WishThrift listings use five grades — New with Tags, Like New, Good, Fair and For Parts — and what each grade means is worth reading before you choose, because grading up is the most expensive mistake sellers make. It does not raise the price; it produces a buyer who arrives expecting something else.
The football boots value guide prices all five grades for this item. Pick your grade, take the figure, and if you sit between two grades price toward the lower one. Items priced honestly sell faster than items priced hopefully, and on a free platform there is no fee eating the difference anyway.
What you keep, compared
On a £37 sale — roughly the middle of the range for football boots — here is what the commission-charging platforms would take, and what you would keep on each:
| Where you sell it | Fee | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| WishThrift | £0 | £37 |
| Poshmark | −£7 | £30 |
| eBay | −£5 | £32 |
| Mercari | −£4 | £33 |
| Etsy | −£2 | £35 |
Seller-side rates verified 26 Jul 2026 — Poshmark: 20% commission on sales of $15 and above; eBay: 13.6% final value fee, plus a per-order fee; Mercari: flat 10% selling fee; Etsy: 6.5% transaction fee, plus a listing fee and payment processing. Percentages are applied to the sterling figure above; the fixed per-order and processing charges those platforms add are quoted in their own currency and are not included here, so the real deductions are slightly larger. Full breakdown: marketplace selling fees compared.
Timing and getting it to the buyer
Peaks in August and September as seasons start, with a second lift in January. Youth sizes sell quickly and cheaply because children outgrow boots every year.
Post boxed. Clean them properly first — boots arriving with dried mud in the studs produce complaints out of all proportion to the amount of mud involved.
WishThrift does not process payments or arrange delivery — you and the buyer agree both directly — so confirm payment has cleared before the item leaves your hands, and keep the conversation on the site so there is a record of what was agreed.
Ready to list it? It takes about two minutes, costs nothing, and there is no commission when it sells — create a free account or see how selling works.
Frequently asked questions
What are used football boots worth?
Typically £15 to £60, with current-season adult models at the top and outgrown junior boots at the bottom. See the football boots value guide for the grade bands.
Do worn studs mean the boots are finished?
Not necessarily. Screw-in studs are replaceable for a few pounds; moulded studs are not, so rounded moulded studs genuinely do mark the end of a boot’s competitive life. Say which type yours are.
Should I sell boots with a cracked sole plate?
Only as spares, described that way. A cracked plate flexes wrongly and can turn an ankle, so it is not something to leave for the buyer to notice at the first training session.
See also: what a used football boots is worth · browse live shoes & footwear listings · condition grades explained.