Let´s talk about shirt prices at shows....

Most international bands charge around $40-50 Australian dollars for a t shirt, $75 or so for a hoodie.

If I like a design, I buy it, If the designs are awful, I don't.

When I go to gigs I really like to get tour posters & I need to back track and get a few I forgot to get.

But like Doc said, It all adds up and costs a lot to tour.

Manowar want $1,000,000 to play in Australia, Do you think there is justice in that?

I support the bands I love through CDs, Patches, Shirts, I'm only one man, But everything adds up in due time.

Lately, alot of bands have been bumping up there prices!! I steered away from merch tables at a lot of shows ive been to lately. I understand that merch sales help with everything as Doc said, but i remember when i would leave shows with 4 shirts at a time... Now for what i used to spend im lucky to get 2 shirts and quailty of the designs seem to simple... The more bands drop prices the better they would be selling.... look at BT shirts $10-15 each and honestly the best quailty printing ive come across! Plus low prices selling by the truckloads, bands should use that method over the price. Raise method!

thats way to much..
a little while ago at Bloodshed fest we made jokes about how Crude SS their shirts said ''destroy capitalism'' while they where 16 euros. on wich we all agreed was too expensive..

I was in the concert of Ghost this monday and I could see a shirt in the merchandising for 40€ hahahahaha..

I'm pretty sure a lot of the larger venues take a cut of the merch sales. This probably partially explains the ridiculous prices.

Usually at whatever shows I go to, it'll be the usual $20-25, some for $15 if you're lucky, and $40 for hoodies
I always hear of bands like Children of Bodom charging a bit more, usually $30 or so, and if that's true, that may deter me from their table
However I wince when I think about how expensive they're gonna be at the Tool show in January... probably a good $35-40 a pop, but I suppose I understand

While we're in this discussion though, how much do y'all think all-over prints should be at shows? I remember seeing a Behemoth - The Satanist one during the Metal Alliance tour last year and they charged $50 for it, but supposedly their reasoning was that it was a Polish import. I personally thought it was a bit too expensive, and what really got me thinking about it was that exactly two months later I saw Meshuggah on their 25 year anniversary tour and they had their all-over shirts (which really were tie-dyes but essentially the same shit) for only $30. Any thoughts on that?

Merch prices are ridiculous. I usually only get tour shirts if I have disposable income on me. King Diamond shirts this past weekend were $40 each. I think Exodus may have been a bit cheaper ($30?) but still. It's crazy that shirts can be as much, if not more, than tickets themselves these days.

Totally agree about Ghost.... The merch price for their current tour is just stupid. Charged 30euros for shirts, vinyl and even for a fucking cap! Why would I buy any at the show if I can get it cheaper elsewhere?
Sure the band is shaping up to be the next big thing, but c'mon, wait a while more till it's official :D

I refuse to pay more than 20euros for a shirt or a vinyl (unless it's special edt. or good DLP or something...).

This is fucking stupid, bought official Satan and Blitzkrieg shirts at their gigs this year for like $12 usd each.

I'm sure the venues want a cut of the merch money too so that probably drives the prices up a bit.

Most big venues take a cut which is pretty shitty but seems to be the done thing these days, also if a big band has shirts for 35Euros then the opening band has to sell their shirts for the same cost or they aren't allowed to sell them - it makes the headliners look bad.

I have seen gigs where the openers were selling their shirts on the quiet outside for half the price, genius :)

I used to work for a t-shirt printers so I know they really do cost fuck all, to print 100 shirts that are 2 color front & back they will be 8Euros, maybe 9, if you go for just the front print on one color on a basic shirt you can get them for 5Euros or less.

35 euros for a band t-shirt ??? That's more expensive that the ticket ! Personaly I dont give a fuck of how big and succesfull a band is (yes even for bands like Slayer,Metallica,Iron maiden etc) there is no excusse for such high prices. Yes I agree with all the arguments that are mentioned above ( veniue cuts, shipping cost etc) but still. All those things existed in the past but the prices were more resonable. I see no reason to support such greed.

as long as there are idiots buying shirts for €35 or more, they won't reduce the prices. my personal maximum is €20. went to the Deathcrusher Tour lately, where Napalm Death sold their shirts for €15 (which is pretty cool, for a rather big metal band), Carcass and the others for €20. sure, you can't compare Napalm Death or Bolt Thrower with bands like Slayer or Iron Maiden, but they are fucking classic bands, and still sell their merch for cheap!! so I guess it's all about the band's attitude (means having a punk/crust background), and I totally support that!

i dont mind buying shirts,patches,posters,hats,pins,jerseys etc from 25-0 dollars since i support the band and get something to remember the show by. the only thing that pisses me off is that most of the time the band shirts are crap. simple shirt and color design and they rarely have anything youd see worth your money. i always find myself getting a bootleg shirt outside for 5 bux lol with a better design.

Lol I remember in the 80s when bands upped their price from $10 to $12 and we all screamed ripoff!!

I'm going to Eluveitie and hope the t-shirt prices will be reasonable (less than $20).

Every gig that I've been to that's at a bigger venue than your moms basement you'd be lucky to find anything on the merch table for under 20$. I'm astonished when shirts are under the 40$ mark. It's bullshit, but what can you do. Obituary and cannibal sold their shirts for 20$ a pop on their tour, while Slayer, Testament and Carcass charged 50+ dollars for their shirts. Really just comes down to the band.

i saw slayer the other day at the house of blues in boston and their prices were real bogus. $40 a shirt? $15 for a patch? not a back patch but a smal square patch. testament and carcass had the same prices for their shirts. last time i saw testament, i bought two of their shirts for $25 a pop. now, i could buy one with a few bucks left over for a hot dog, haha.

Here in Sweden the prices still are pretty humane. But they're staring to go up. When I saw Blues Pills they charged 25€ for a singe sided tshirt. A bit pricey but not ridiculously so. And at Entombed last weekend they wanted 20€ for a shirt. I rarely attend bigger events simply for monetary reasons. So I've never seen a shirt cost more than 10-25€. But I recall at Mörkaste Småland 2015, Dark Funeral took 9€ for a fucking 7", That's about twice what I'd ever pay for a brand new single.
I'm a bit of a sucker when it comes to the merch table though, I just have to buy something so I'm glad the prices are still within my league here. It all depends on the band. I'd gladly cough up 40€ for a King Diamond shirt(as I said, I'm a sucker), but if it where say Behemoth, no fucking way.

I honestly think some bands can get away with asking some more than usual for a shirt, but 25EU is really the maximum for me.. especially when you know how CHEAP the shirts are that they make. gilian heavy cotton, 4 colour print with waterbased inkt is like 5EU per shirt, 10EU+ per longsleeve and 10EU per Baseball as well. so the most fair seems to me for underground bands to aks 10/12EU per shirt and 15/20EU for a longsleeve or baseball. but this is all depending on what brand shirt it is, if it's multiple colours, type inkt etc.

I've noticed the merch prices go up to 35 a shirt depending on the band. Now I wouldn't mind paying such price for a shirt I'll take as a memory of a good show....BUT! The fucking shirt designs now adays are fucking horrible! Like put a little effort in making decent merch. I've seen mainly logo shirts or one color shirts. Now I prefer getting bootleg shirts off ebeay or vendors outside selling bootleg shirts that are actually more better than the official ones you see inside. Example would be slayer. At there show all the shirts where the well known iron eagle in a gray color or the "slayer nation" shirt for 30 bux. Im walking outside and some guy is selling "bootleg tour shirts" which had the dates and location on the back and had full color album artwork in the front for 10 bux. There were 3 people helping the guy sell the shirts and they completely sold out everyone of em meanwhile the merch booth inside was still overstocked. I just think they should put more effort in the merch and have something going like they did before with the 80s tour shirts, very colorful well designed, and exclusive concert design shirts and I'll throw my wallet at them and go broke haha. CDs I still buy at shows though..,..I'll support only in that way at the booth....just the shirts that bother me