Weekly survey: How much would you spend on a vintage rock t-shirt?
Vintage clothing has always been big business. A subset of that, the vintage concert t-shirt market, keeps getting bigger.
For example, a Led Zeppelin t-shirt from a 1979 gig at Knebworth in England sold for US$10,000 through an eBay auction back in 2011. But a new all-time record was just set last week when a Grateful Dead shirt from 1967 went for US$17,640 through Sotheby’s.
Why so much? First, it belonged to Dan Healy, a one-time Dead roadie. Second, it was one of the first-ever t-shirts made specifically for the Dead.
Cool collectible, right? You bet, but obviously not for everyone. How much would you spend on a vintage rock t-shirt?
A Grateful Dead t-shirt from 1967 just sold at auction for US$17,640. How much would you be willing to spend on an old cool rock t-shirt? (Pls retweet)
— Alan Cross (@alancross) October 17, 2021
There are many things I want in this world and some of them certainly fall into this category. However, there’s no way that I’m ever going to have the money to justify the ‘collector’s’ rates for these items. That is a lot of money for concerts, music and merch which equates to *more* memories than a t-shirt that I paid too much for to a stranger.
I just have to remember the few items I once had (long ago stolen by ‘friends’) and cherish their short stay in my life. (Now, if you could magic up my ticket stubs in their original storage container or my Oingo Boingo drumhead in its original storage container or my Salvador Dali jacket – I might take out a loan.)
In the meantime, I’ll just have my t-shirt guy make me some incredible originals 🙂
Anyone want to buy a vintage Police muscle tee from the ’80s 😉