Defunkd

[zargosh]

I originally posted this image in a thread under the "How to authenticate a vintage t-shirt using the tag" post, but I wanted to start a new one here. I'm hoping Jimmy will weigh on some of this.

I scraped this from a completed ebay listing of a tupac memorial which was listed BIN at $256 and sold for $156.

Mayo responded to my post and said that these tags/tees are fake and can be picked up in Thailand for about $10.

a tupac tag 2.png (181.91 KiB) Viewed 2652 times

Here's some shots of the shirt that it came from

a tupac 2.png (428.89 KiB) Viewed 2652 times

To my eyes, the fingers and jewelry on the front hit look kind of "cartoonish," for lack of a better term. Is that a good indicator of this tee being fake? I guess we'd have to compare it to an original.

Also, I thought it was interesting that if these are indeed fakes, not only are the tags/tees being faked, but also the cardboard things [which I know there's got to be a name for].

This was another Tupac memorial that I saw sell with the same tag. It was probably the same seller, since the BIN was $256, but I didn't note that info down. This one actually sold for $256

a tupac 3.png (186.07 KiB) Viewed 2652 times

a tupac 5.png (533.84 KiB) Viewed 2652 times

I'm really curious about this, because I don't have a good original to compare either of these shirts with. To my eyes, this one has a lot of detail going on, especially on the back hit. The skin tone seems to be really good, with a lot of variation in the shading, and then the lettering has all that three dimensionality to it, and there's that crackly detailing going on in Makaveli. And in the little lettering at the bottom right, there's a very sharp, nicely shaded image (to my eyes) of tupac in the 2.

Isn't that a lot of detail for a fake tee? And if it is fake, wouldn't that mean that detail might not be the best gauge if someone is a skilled counterfeiter. But, maybe my eyes aren't attuned enough and this thing isn't as detailed at all in the way I'm seeing it.

[jimmyj]

They're creating "original" artwork. Not trying to copy artwork, so the prints turn out great because they're not trying to reverse engineer another print - they are starting from scratch with their own design and quality images. They're just not licensed t-shirts...so modern bootlegs, not vintage bootlegs that are trying to capitalize on a print.

roxxbkk.com/product-tag/tupac/page/2/

But it says on their about me page they've been around since 1999 so strangely some of their bootlegs are now vintage.

[zargosh]

ahhh, that makes sense. If I had only googled "roxx shirts" I would have stumbled on their website...doh! Too bad for all those people shelling out hundreds of bucks for them on ebay. With shipping from Thailand to FL, where I'm at, they come to about $28 a tee. Thanks to mayo for the heads up on that.