Vintage T-Shirt Forum & Community Authentication Appraisals

I've seen it said a couple of times on the forum that counterfeiters won't bother to produce something that isn't worth a lot of of money. So there's a chance that you'll run into a fake Nirvana heart shaped box, but unlikely that you'll run into a 1982 March of Dimes 10K or the 1989 Wiggins family reunion.

If that's the case, I'm trying to wrap my head around what's going on with shirts like these. I came across two sellers with listings for these obvious repros
One of the sellers has it listed for $31 and the year of manufacture listed as 1970-1979. The other seller has it listed at $56 and just says "Vintage Festival." Port & Company doesn't even exist until 1998!

This is a shot of the original front, apparently, so the repro isn't even that good My first reaction is that the sellers just don't know what they're listing, it's just another bit of product that comes their way, and that's very possibly the case.

The second seller has this one listed as "Vintage 1980's" for $26 The second seller also has some other things that look a little odd to me, but I'm hoping that you'll say I'm in the wrong. The stedmans I've seen have all been unfolded tags. This one is folded, has no binding on the edges, and looks like it's on guaze. It's listed as 1980s NOS at $86 Lastly, this screen stars on a 1986 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band shirt for $105. I'm not sure what to make of this. It seems like some screen stars tags have a kind of cream colored/yellowish tint to them, so this first picture looks potentially reasonable. You might argue about whether the T is too closed off or not, or if the color is off, or if the material looks too rigid. but in this second picture the coloring looks insane. Maybe it's just a weird lighting for the photo? Hopefully I'm wrong about the stedmans and screen stars shirts.

Presumably, the port & co stuff were legit reproductions that weren't meant to be fooling anyone, and maybe all the buyers are knowledgeable enough to know that they are obviously modern, but it makes me wonder if the idea that the only thing being faked is super expensive really holds.

The very expensive wares will get a lot more scrutiny, since nobody wants to drop 1000+ on something that's not real, but if you're pricing things in and around $50, maybe it's a slower income stream, but it might still add up and it probably won't get a lot of intense inspection into whether it's authentic or not. And even if you're a knowledgeable buyer, if the port & cos had been listed without tags, I think you'd have a harder time knowing off the bat whether they're vintage or not.

Ha. Ya. No reason for a counterfeiter to do those Marathon shirts. I think it's a combination of them being officially reissued by the organizers - and the sellers are inexperienced and don't realize they aren't from the 1970s or trying to play them off like they are, as you mentioned.

I think the folded Stedmans are specific to their polos. Ha ya! It does look like medical gauze but it's just woven fibers like screen stars tags are - just not as tightly. Again, think a tag specific to polos - I dug around and found a few others:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154789281696

The SS tag could be fine - I've seen them in various stages of decay, ha. The second one does look weird but think it's just a bad photo.

You've restored my faith in humanity. That's cool about the polo tags, I didn't think of that. I've seen that on sweatshirts, too. Like this funky Tultex