Vintage T-Shirt Forum & Community Authentication Appraisals

Just poached this off someone else's ebay store:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/SCANNERS-Rare-Movie- ... 2612wt_754" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I figured it was rare as hell and of serious interest to horror fans- Freddy and Jason command big bucks, but nobody's got a Scanners shirt. Of course, it's a tiny kids' size (how the hell did that happen?), but I've sold kids-sized stuff before: one of my biggest scores was a youth-sized Cramps shirt (again: who are these mutant children? The Brood, maybe?) Still, it's a wild card: I may be inclined to overrate the size of its market being a movie buff AND a Canadian. Cronenberg was all over film studies, and he's big with nerdier film types, but I might be assuming he crosses over more than he does- though I did see a Fly II shirt (not even the good movie!) go for $40 once. On the plus side: exploding heads! Whaddya say, kids?

I've monitored that seller for a while now, that shirt has been listed for quite some time. Yer gonna have to lose a few more inches (and i mean height) and wear it yourself.

jimmyj wrote: I've monitored that seller for a while now, that shirt has been listed for quite some time. Yer gonna have to lose a few more inches (and i mean height) and wear it yourself.

LOL! Good one Jimmy!

The seller does have a nice little collection of deadstock movie promo tees but there doesn't seem to be much demand. His vintage photos and posters are doing nicely though.

Is it that there's no demand, or is it that there's no solid information on the shirts and truncated pictures? Most of these movie paper places treat the shirts as memorabilia rather than clothing- and when I try to write for measurements, they very often don't want to give them because they're stashed away under a pile of stuff that they're more comfortable selling. One of the other shirts in that store is sized at "somewhere between medium and large" and there's a caveat that their sizing is conservative- it might be XL when listed at L but never M! Doesn't make you feel good about the sizing. I figured that listed under entertainment memorabilia and not using the word vtg in the slugline might also be hurting their chances.

I could be fantasizing, though. And indeed that shirt is tiiiiiny- though I don't think that means it's got no chances. But I've been wrong before.

Reminds me of when i worked at an ad agency in the days before google image search. They'd send me to Jerry Ohlinger's Movie Memorabilia Store on 14th street to dig up some pictures of whatever celebrity was in the movie of the week so we could use in the ad that would run in the paper. Can't believe these guys are still around http://moviematerials.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Call them up maybe they have a Scanners t-shirt for you under a pile of stills from Smokey & The Bandit. Somewhere between a medium and an extra large

Dealers in movie paper are crusty as hell. They've usually been in it from the days when classic Hollywood was king (at least on the late late show); they have set ideas of what their product is and are notoriously resistant to new trends and the concept of synergy. I got a number of James Bond shirts from a place in Toronto called Hollywood Canteen: check their website here and see what passes for e-commerce round those parts.

http://hcanteen.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What makes my purchase of this shirt all the more bizarre are the shirts that are priced higher: Straight Talk? Just Tell Me What You Want? And God Created Woman, the Remake? Yeah, the thing is tiny, but a collector's item is a collector's item and it has more of a shot than those titles. Plus, National Lampoon's Euro Vacation and The Hit- which whatever their mid-tier status, have popular and hipsterish fan bases that could be tapped into for at least minor bucks- are given the same low-level treatment as Scanners.

This is me testing the theory that the valuable shirts are gummed up in such sellers' ignorance of other markets. This could be a long shot, but if I do this enough times we may all be able to tap into a source for unusual and lucrative items their current owners aren't equipped to appreciate or get to their most enthusiastic customers.