Defunkd

[hoggard79]

I picked up my HSB t-shirt back in the 90s when I was in high school. I recently went through all my old t-shirts (all early 90s up to mid 2000s), gave some to my daughter & son-in-law, kept some for myself and unfortunately sold off the rest at a garage sale for what I found out was a steal to the buyer (he'll probably make about 1k in profit). The Nirvana HSB t-shirt was given to my son-in-law. He was showing off the collection I gave him and happens to have a friend who collects vintage shirts. They told him about the potential value of the shirt. I thought it was a joke until I started digging but what I haven't been able to find is why it's valued so highly. He's already been offered 5k for it but won't sell unless I approve. Can anyone fill me in about what makes this shirt so special?

[jimmyj]

Well, coincidentally, we just ran a poll, of 16 Nirvana t-shirts, HSB won as the most iconic, (which we don't really agree with, but the people have spoken!)

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highl ... 793090277/

It's an interesting question. The shirt has been hot since Justin Bieber wore one back in the 2010s. That seemed to create a snowball effect of hype that continues all these years later. There's a false perception that it's rare—it's not. That said, Nirvana t-shirts as a whole have been crazy expensive for about the last 10 years, and that bubble has yet to burst:

https://www.defunkd.com/blog/2010/01/20 ... -t-shirts/

The Canadian-based HSB is far more rare, and actually fetches more money, we recently sold one for $13k.

https://www.defunkd.com/dfnkdpc-003/

The standard HSB defies the logic of the collectible side of vintage tees, because there are far rarer tees that don't command the same money. Hype is the biggest factor, and we think at some point in the coming years these will come down to the $500-1000 range while the truly rare Nirvana tees will rise in value.

XL is preferred, condition matters; some have fetched more than $5k.

[hoggard79]

Thanks for the info. It's a little crazy but if someone is willing to pay it then so it goes. Mine is a US version, picked up at a music store, I think it was FYE, but that was about 30 years ago. And it's an XL. Everything I wore back then was over sized.

[Backdoorvintage]

If your son was offer 5k i would take that and run, the normally sell for 2500-3k in good condition