Is Your Concert T-Shirt Worth $1000?

How much are your concert shirts worth? I suppose that depends on who you ask. But if you ask me, my shirts are priceless. Long before the ability to buy concert tickets online I slept out for those tickets, got rides to those shows, and bought my shirts with money that I earned at the local grocery store. The concert shirt was a badge of honor in the '80s and in 2021 some may be worth more than the $10 you paid for them back in the day.

I only have a couple of concert shirts left from my youth but lately, I see shirts everywhere. I pass by people wearing them at Colonie Center, the grocery store and even see celebrities wearing Rock shirts. This got me thinking, are the old shirts we have worth anything?

My most prized possession is a Rolling Stones shirt from their 1981 tour supporting the album Tattoo You. Using this as an example I started my internet search. This is what I found:

$24.99 Looks like a reprint (Not vintage) available at eBay
$247 - Similar shirt from 1st leg of tour (Mine is 2nd leg) available at Etsy
$500 - Similar shirt from specific show (New Orleans) available at Poshmark

Buffalo, NY native Tommy Daley has a vintage apparel business in Nashville specializing in concert shirts. The prices at Black Shag Vintage are much higher than what you may have paid at the show but also give you an idea of what value you have sitting in your drawer. Here are some examples:

$132 - Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet Tour Shirt - 1986
$170 - Cheap Trick - Dream Police Tour Shirt - 1980
$175 - AC/DC - For Those About to Rock Tour Shirt - 1981
$265 - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Long After Dark Tour Shirt - 1983
$318 - Motley Crue - Tour Shirt - 1987

The least expensive shirt I found was Eagles Farewell Tour 1 2005 tour shirt for $62. The most expensive shirt I found was an Iron Maiden 1986 Phantom of the Opera concert shirt. Asking price? $1,312.00!

Be careful when washing your Van Halen shirt. You may be washing $1000. Or you could just pick up a Rock shirt at a wide variety of stores like Walmart and Hot Topic, around the Capitol Region starting at $9.99. Target in Niskayuna even has an AC/DC sweatshirt, sweatpants combo for women.