What is an original 1978 van halen tour t-shirt worth?

Answer 1

Tricky Question. It used to fetch a high dollar, as did the 1980 Invasion Shirt. Although an authentic, 1980 Invasion Shirt in really good shape, in a Large or Extra Large can still get over $150 easy, the Original 1978 Tour Shirt from their first tour, (opening up for Black Sabbath), has been reissued and reproduced in at least 3 versions over the last 6 years. Some are identical to the 1978, but with "2007 World Tour" on reverse. Another version is also nearly a perfect replica of 78 shirt, with small black and white Frankie Guitar at top of reverse side with the words "Atomic Punk". A 3rd reproduction looks exactly like the 1978 Shirt. All 3 are Van Halen licensed and approved, and of very high quality, resulting in a stark reduction in the demand for the real deal. If you have a genuine 1978, Concert purchased, VH Tour shirt in very good condition in a size Large or Extra Large, and you can prove it, I would estimate it's value at around $75.00. The US Festival Van Halen 1983 shirt can fetch over $200. As long as VH doesn't reissue any particular tour shirt, the high quality, genuine examples will sell high. Whenever they reissue high quality replicas, however, the value of the original takes a hard hit. People like to wear what others cannot obtain, and reissues kill the whole concept. Finally, when vendors steal the artwork and replicate tour shirts, passing them off as genuine on e-bay, everyone suffers, because the band usually takes legal action and issues their own licensed replica as a deterrent, thereby killing the value of the authentic tour shirt.