S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff) with Amy Moyer: T-Shirts – WorthPoint

T-shirts are one category of S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff) that can have significant value, depending on what’s printed on the garb. While you can generally safely dispose of old shirts featuring past road races or fraternity parties, be sure to sift carefully through your piles to save or sell those with value. Read on to learn which of your S.O.S. (Surplus Old Stuff): T-Shirts can bring in some serious bank.

Miles to Dollars

Earlier this year, I met with a new consignment client who had a smorgasbord of vintage items to sell, including a single old T-shirt that I immediately knew would be a hit on the resale market. Why? It was “true vintage” with a paper-thin, super-soft cotton texture, and it had a simple monochrome silkscreen print on the front advertising jazz legend Miles Davis performing in the early 1980s in Western Massachusetts. A few weeks and $450 later, my client and I split a decent profit, and the T-shirt’s new owner was tickled pink to have a piece of the jazz legend’s history.

Lessons in T-Shirts

Lesson 1: Band and concert T-shirts often have value.

Vintage concert T-shirts can be valuable if they feature famous musicians and bands, even if the artist’s popularity has ebbed and flowed over the years. As morbid as it is, one of the best times to sell an old concert T-shirt is after the musician dies. When Jerry Garcia died unexpectedly in 1995, and Deadheads knew an era was over, fans and collectors clamored after whatever tied-dyed old Grateful Dead T-shirts they could find. Today the market isn’t as strong for these old Dead T-shirts, but other collectible bands have taken their place. Today, hot vintage band T-shirts include those from 1990s grunge bands such as Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and any old-school rap from the 1980s and 1990s. Once Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour wraps up later this summer, hold onto and preserve any T-shirts you snatched up when she visited your town. They will undoubtedly increase in value in decades to come.

Lesson 2: Autographed T-shirts are worth saving.

No, don’t wash them or wear them! That ink on fabric is just as valuable as ink on paper, with many collectors framing signed T-shirts and jerseys instead of stuffing them in a drawer. No man cave is complete without a signed sports jersey or two behind glass on the wall, with those signed by deceased players like Kobe Bryant garnering the most admiration and increase in value over time. The same holds for T-shirts signed by departed rock stars such as Mac Miller and Michael Jackson.

Lesson 3: Investigate old T-shirts before donating.

Generally, old T-shirts are worth examining for value before sending them off to a charity shop. The aforementioned “paper thin” cotton texture of an old T-shirt is a telltale sign that the garment was once loved enough to be worn, and chances are someone will continue loving it today. This holds true, especially for brands, places, or events of national or international renown—from the Harley Davidson brand to old college or university shirts. Be sure to double-check all words and graphics on old T-shirts you’re thinking of trashing in case some word or idea is relevant to collectors today. Maybe a collector of vintage tech would enjoy that shirt you picked up at Comic-Con a few years ago or even that 1980s shirt with one of the original Apple logos on it?

Better Off a Quilt

What shirts are not worth saving? Unless you have an extra rare and desirable T-shirt for a particular band or event, you can toss any stained or yellowed shirt in the textile recycling bin. Don’t be as quick to toss ripped shirts, though, as a rip or two can sometimes even add value as a “sign of love” for the tee. Do you have piles and piles of souvenir shirts from races and charity events? Once you have slept in or run in those for a couple of years, those can also be tossed as they are generally not worth saving. If you are feeling extra nostalgic about a bunch of triathlons or Ironmans you did pre-middle age, there is one solution. You can always scissor out the logo of those shirts and craft them into a quilt to huddle under to binge-watch the latest Netflix while being reminded of your more active years.

The Odors of Past Owners

Once you have made a bit of money selling some of your own vintage T-shirts, you may be tempted to enter the business of vintage T-shirt reselling. Personally, I avoid this trade other than the few and far between Miles Davis shirts that pop up with a new client. Why? The main reason is the material of these goods, which is notorious for holding all sorts of smells and scents of past owners. Sure, you can douse them in Febreze or run them through the washing machine, but I recommend neither for preserving the garment’s integrity. While I am okay selling all sorts of vintage goods made of less porous material, the ick factor of some vintage T-shirts is too much for me. Some of those old Nirvana and Harley T-shirts have seen too much in their lives on the road and in the stadium. I’ll stick with reselling the vintage Bon Jovi and Cinderella T-shirts I held onto from my own 1980s childhood (or that stray Miles Davis one that turns up somewhere).

Amy Moyer is the proprietor of Antmuffin: Art, Antiques & Collectibles. She holds a B.A. in Visual Art from Brown University and lives in Boston.

WorthPoint—Discover. Value. Preserve.