2002 England Match Issue World Cup Home Shirt Owen #10 (v Sweden)

How to read a listing

Every title on this site begins with a season and ends with a type, and those two details decide what you are actually buying. A title that reads 1996-98 covers a shirt used across two seasons; a single year such as 2008 usually means a tournament summer. Home, Away and Third are match kits. Training tops, polo shirts, track jackets and hooded rain jackets are the touchline and leisure range sold alongside them, and they make up a large slice of what survives, because far fewer people kept them.

Player Issue, Match Issue and Name Set

Three labels catch buyers out. Player Issue means a squad-specification garment, cut and finished for the players rather than the retail rack. Match Issue means it was prepared for a specific fixture. Staff Issue was handed to club employees, not the squad. A Name Set is the printed name and number only, with no shirt at all, which is why it costs a few pounds rather than a few hundred. Read the type before the price.

The 1-10 condition grade

Second-hand items carry a grade out of ten in the title. It describes wear alone, not whether the garment is wearable: fading, cracked printing, bobbling, small marks. Across the catalogue 8/10 is the most common grade, with 6/10 and 9/10 close behind, and fewer than one listing in twenty falls below 5/10. Items sold with tags carry no grade at all.

Which decades actually exist

Roughly two-thirds of everything listed dates from 2000 onwards. The 1990s account for a substantial block, the 1980s for a much thinner one, and anything from the 1970s or earlier runs to a few hundred items in total. If you are hunting a pre-1980 shirt, expect a short list and a long wait.