Vintage T-Shirt Forum & Community Authentication Appraisals

7/12/2011 Edited the Iron Maiden shirt pictures to be attorney friendly. (Is there a better image hosting site out there?)

Hello, this is my first post here. I'm not really a collector, but maybe I am and just don't realize it. Here are some t-shirts I have found over the years. What do you think?

1) Motley Crue shirt with 1983 printed at bottom. No damage, black is faded and soft.








2) I got this from a guy that worked at a record store I used to trade Iron Maiden records with. New condition, he said it was a prototype shirt or something, a concert tour shirt with no tour dates added to the back? Could be a bunch of BS.









3) Tony Hawk with 1983 printed at bottom. I found this at a thrift store in the mid 90s. I wore it to work at a computer lab and the 5th student in the door said "that's a cool shirt." Its been in storage ever since.







4) Found this in a thrift store, nice condition, haven't been able to find any information about it.






5) I bought this at the Powerslave tour in 1984 (or when ever they came to Seattle) Wore it at the concert and one time since. I threw the t-shirt I wore to the concert up on stage, Bruce threw a bunch of crap off the stage into the crowd and I got my t-shirt back.








6) Found at a thrift store. Haven't really researched it so I don't know anything about it except I like it. Colors are faded.








Thanks for looking, I will add details about condition in a few minutes.

Nice little collection! The Crue t-shirt just sold for $219 - the Maiden shirts probably worth $200-300 each. We've featured the Aces High one - but not the other one - at least not that exact version - but don't think it's super rare.

The surf shirt is a gem...they usually do really well..especially 70s ones.

The hot-rod one is collectible genre - but usually only skyrocket in value if they are an earlier decade than the 80s.

And Tony would bring in some decent loot too.

Nice job hanging on to these over the years! Love the aces high shirt and that SATD shirt is one of my favorite Crue shirts. Hell, it's one of my favorite concert shirts! Got one in my personal collection too. That Tony Hawk shirt is a 90's reproduction....birdhouse wasn't formed until 1992. Thanks for sharing these!

One thing I should point out, the Motley Crue shirt does not have any printing on the back, I don't think it is a tour shirt like I have seen on ebay.

Definitely a case of quality vs quantity. It's great that you've have a personal experience associated with each them.

I've got a couple more shirts. The first one is a Hawaii tank top, similar vintage to the surfing t-shirt. The small text reads "ANCIENT HAWAII." What is cool about this one is it is printed in 3 colors; black, brown, and orange. The sun and sunset clouds are orange and there is orange behind the row of symbols and "HAWAII KAHIKO" at the bottom.









I see a bunch of these on ebay but without the number 13 on the back, doesn't seem that old but the proportions of the shirt remind me of 80s shirts.







This last one is one I found in a thrift store in the early 90s and wore it all through the 90s. I stopped wearing it because it was getting faded and there is something about it I really like. I think of it as a 60s socal surf scene t-shirt. Can you tell me what vintage this one is? (The upper heavy fabric tag has a "M" on it but it's hard to see because it's hidden in the fold)

EDIT: Added a couple more pictures of the tag due to interest. Better color balance in these pictures.











I've got this pair of track / basketball shorts from the late 70s or early 80s (?), any advice on where to find out more about them?

http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l62 ... G_2682.jpg
http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l62 ... G_2683.jpg
http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l62 ... G_2688.jpg
http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l62 ... G_2690.jpg

Nice, thanks for the pics! Especially the Hanes fabric tag on a ringer?! that's the first time I've ever seen one like that. It's from the 80s.

http://www.defunkd.com/2010/02/16/hanes/

The Jager tee is a product of the new millennium, I think I can see a faint screen printed logo where the tag usually is. That's more of a recent trend although I've seen a few 90s tees that did it. It's also got that fake vintage distressed logo look. #13 just meant Jager reps sponsored a local bar's softball or some other team and provided shirts for each player.

Hawaii one is the oldest, but tanks typically don't soar in value...