Found this beauty at Goodwill. How much is it worth?

[Darney]

Hey everybody! I found a pretty neat Lion King shirt at Goodwill yesterday, and came here to see how much you guys think it would be worth, assuming you're all pretty knowledgeable about this stuff, (which you are)! I absolutely LOVE this shirt, but I want to know how much this could go for, as I am a little low on money, and if I actually can get some good money out of it, I'd probably sell it. If not, then I'll keep it and cherish it.

Here's a little background context:
I decided to go on a regular Goodwill run yesterday for some nice clothes. I was browsing through the shirts and came across this beauty. I took it off the rack and realized that it had never been worn before, and had the ORIGINAL tags on it! This thing was BRAND SPANKING NEW! I looked a little closer at the tags and saw one of them (in the picture below) have a small print on the bottom that said "Coming to a theatre near you". That led me to assumption that this shirt was probably a promo shirt for the original Lion King in theatres back in '94. I knew there were some collectors out there for Lion King merchandise, plus I just LOVED the shirt itself, and it was only $4! Therefore I was forced to buy the beauty, bring it home, and see if there was some sort of price range. I looked around and found absolutely nothing (I don't know if that's a good thing, or a bad thing :I). So therefore, I raise you the question. How much do you think this beauty is worth? (Would love to get a numerical price range in U.S. $$)! Would it be worth it to sell, or should I keep it and shine the beautiful colors of The Lion King as I walk down the hall at work? Thanks for taking your time to read this, and have a wonderful day!

[MooLion]

That's a really unique looking t-shirt - I like it! I'm afraid I wouldn't know how much it would be worth, though.

[Darney]

I agree with you about it looking unique. It was well worth the $4 I spent for it. Thanks for the feedback!

[FlipMode]

Honestly, not very much to be honest. But it is still a very nice find.
I can explain. The Lion King was, as you may know, released twice in cinemas, once in June and again in November 1994. You will find most of the promotional material was produced around the time of the November release. By this point Disney were more confident in the film's success and so more promotional material was made, and it was A LOT! Giveaways with tons of companies, promotional posters, trailers etc... So since there is so much of it, most of it is worth not a lot except sentimental value to fans =). You would be lucky to even get more than $10 for a promo poster unless it is signed.

A bit like how a Michael Jackson record is worth less because they sold millions of them, but good luck finding a fan willing to part with theirs.

However, if the t shirt came from a collab then you may be in luck. (A bit). See here in the UK, GamesMaster (A gaming magazine that has a big legacy here) teamed up with WoolWorths ( a weird department store chain that went bust quite some time ago) whereby if you cut the code out from the mag and presented it to WoolWorths when you bought the MegaDrive edition of the TLK game to them, you would get an exclusive TLK shirt.
You will find that particular shirt would be worth a lot more to collectors of the magazine than TLK collectors.

Similarly, my TLK pogz are worth next to nothing to TLK collectors, but Pog collectors would pay more if they needed them to complete that series. Get what I am saying?

So do a little research, try to track down the origins of the shirt. If it is just a promo shirt then keep it, if it was available exclusively via a certain means / company, then you may be in luck.

To support my theory, here is a promo shirt for the TLK DVD release - notice the bidding is unlikely to exceed $5 at this rate...http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WALT-DISNEYS- ... 19df7a480f

[Darney]

I see what you're saying. Thank you for shedding some info into my find. I took your advise of doing a little research and found these on eBay:

These are shirts that are currently listed on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VTG-90-THE-LION-KING-DISNEY-MOVIE-CARTOON-ALL-OVER-PRINT-CRAZY-SIMBA-PUMBA-SHIRT-/151078842457?pt=Vintage_Unisex_T_Shirts&hash=item232d003059

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VTG-90-s-THE-LION-KING-T-Shirt-DISNEY-All-over-print-Original-Movie-Adult-LXL-/251295598834?pt=US_Mens_Tshirts&hash=item3a826288f2

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VTG-THE-LION-KING-T-Shirt-All-Over-Print-Movie-Simba-Walt-Disney-blk-Adult-XL-/261236829683?pt=Vintage_Unisex_T_Shirts&hash=item3cd2edadf3

These are shirts that have sold on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/vtg-the-lion-king-t-shirt-t-shirt-disney-XL-inv-236-/271226986513?pt=US_Mens_Tshirts&hash=item3f26636011

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VTG-1994-Disney-Lion-King-T-Shirt-All-Over-Print-Black-Gold-Made-USA-XL-/271229395152?pt=Vintage_Unisex_T_Shirts&hash=item3f268820d0

This is what I'm wondering: Why would some people be selling these shirts for so low, such as the one that sold for $16 bidding, and why would some sell for $30? There's also those 2 pairs that are being sold at $55, which makes me think there isn't a set price on this specific shirt. Also to mention, none of the shirts on eBay had the tags on them, yet mine does, which makes me believe I could get a lot more out of it than the other listings.

One thing blows my mind. These are two shirts that have the exact same design, yet one sold for $18.50, and the other sold for $480. Would you happen to know why both sold for drastically different prices?

$18 shirt: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-1994-Disney-Lion-King-Nala-One-Sz-T-Shirt-1990S-XL-/190870403642?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c70c33a3a&nma=true&si=e1wlQCR2%252FP6qIInzfuIrdcl1d9Y%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

$480 shirt: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NWOT-XL-2XL-Vtg-1994-Disney-Lion-King-Nala-Jerry-Leigh-California-One-Sz-T-Shirt-/261212639727?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cd17c91ef&nma=true&si=e1wlQCR2%252FP6qIInzfuIrdcl1d9Y%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Anyways, back to my shirt topic. I still haven't been able to find where my shirt originates from. Although, I have been find shirts like mine. Thing is, there are only 6 of these on eBay. You say these may have been mass produced, then why aren't there more of these out there on the internet? Could it be because people either cherish these and don't want to let them go, or this shirt is not that common?

[nathalie]

[quote="FlipMode"]Honestly, not very much to be honest. But it is still a very nice find.
I can explain. The Lion King was, as you may know, released twice in cinemas, once in June and again in November 1994.[/quote]


It was released twice?
Wasn't it just one big run-through?

Even in Belgium, Lion King started showing in cinema's in June 1994, and it did not stop running untill February 1995!

[MooLion]

^ I didn't know it ran twice in 1994, either! o_0

[Wrightfan]

[quote="MooLion"]^ I didn't know it ran twice in 1994, either! o_0[/quote]

This was in a magical world where movies didn't leak and if they did, you had to buy a VHS from a shifty person

[Fangtuft]

I have the VHS, and thas the only version of the movie that I have. . . Shamefully.