It loots like the Van Halen store is getting low on merchadise

**stevei** · 01.26.03, 04:20 PM

Pretty soon they might run out of stuff to sell!

[ January 26, 2003, 04:21 PM: Message edited by: stevei ]

**5150atomic** · 01.26.03, 07:29 PM

The shirt selection is pretty weak. Too much Balance stuff, not a wide variety of sizes, and no shirts with just the damn plain logo on it!

**Brett** · 01.27.03, 09:00 AM

That's because most of them have been sold and are out of print.

**VHwasCoolestWithDLR** · 01.27.03, 10:25 PM

Originally posted by 5150atomic:
The shirt selection is pretty weak. Too much Balance stuff, not a wide variety of sizes, and no shirts with just the damn plain logo on it!

I emailed them once and asked them why the hell they had the rediculous price of $50 for a t-shirt with the 1st album logo on it. They said because it was no longer being made. I say big damn deal. Anyone who would pay that much for a shirt like that are out of theri mind. Only a month before that i saw one at a music store brand new for $16.00. I should have bought it

**Hecubus** · 01.28.03, 02:55 PM

along those lines....

anyone fork out $40 for the Fair Warning Tourbook?

That's a little excessive.....

**VHwasCoolestWithDLR** · 01.29.03, 03:20 PM

Originally posted by Hecubus:
along those lines....

anyone fork out $40 for the Fair Warning Tourbook?

That's a little excessive.....

I agree, a couple of year ago i bought one in great condition on ebay for 5 dollars.

**ChargerDave** · 01.30.03, 05:27 AM

Way to put it Jeff. Van Halen is the complete opposite of say, KISS in that way. Everyone I know thinks my favorite band is KISS just because I have tons of KISS stuff. Heck, I wish Van Halen had a fraction of the merch that KISS has. It is really hard to collect Van Halen stuff when not much of it exists...How much officially licensed Van Halen merchandise is in production now? KISS is the leader of the music industry with I believe over 1,000 copyrighted items from the past year in circulation now.

**Whawhazat** · 01.30.03, 06:58 AM

Originally posted by ChargerDave:
Way to put it Jeff. Van Halen is the complete opposite of say, KISS in that way. Everyone I know thinks my favorite band is KISS just because I have tons of KISS stuff. Heck, I wish Van Halen had a fraction of the merch that KISS has. It is really hard to collect Van Halen stuff when not much of it exists...How much officially licensed Van Halen merchandise is in production now? KISS is the leader of the music industry with I believe over 1,000 copyrighted items from the past year in circulation now.

**Whawhazat** · 01.30.03, 07:01 AM

Originally posted by Whawhazat:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by ChargerDave:
Way to put it Jeff. Van Halen is the complete opposite of say, KISS in that way. Everyone I know thinks my favorite band is KISS just because I have tons of KISS stuff. Heck, I wish Van Halen had a fraction of the merch that KISS has. It is really hard to collect Van Halen stuff when not much of it exists...How much officially licensed Van Halen merchandise is in production now? KISS is the leader of the music industry with I believe over 1,000 copyrighted items from the past year in circulation now.

</font>[/QUOTE]Whoops! Sorry about that! Anyway... I don't think VH have to put a lot of crap out with the logo on it and if they EVER come out with "action figures" or a video game, I'm giving up. That would be the height of SAD!

**Jeff Hausman** · 01.30.03, 12:37 PM

Hi guys,

Jeff from Van Halen Store here. Yes, the prices here can be very
interesting! Right next to a CD that we have than cheaper than
Amazon.com will be a Shirt or tourbook for $40. Why is that?
The most simple answer there can be; supply & demand. The
items that we have an unlimited supply of are cheap. The items
that we are running out of & are discontinued go up and up. This
is because thousands of people want them, but we might have 10
or 20 or 40 left in stock with no way to get more. Our prices are
not too high, because that is how much the items are worth. You
might not want to spend $40 on a mint condition unused Fair
Warning tourbook, and that's fine. But a lot of fans would. Who
has the time to hang out on eBay all the time and keep searching
for a $5 used tourbook? I've been on eBay... that would take
months! Many people would not want to spend all that time
doing that.

Someone said they saw an classic VH shirt in a store last year
for $16.... that's a GREAT find! Yes, you should have bought it.
That shirt's worth $50!! [img]smile.gif[/img]

It's frustrating, because years ago, when VH actually made
merchandise, we could get a virtually unlimited supply of many
great shirts. We sold those for $20 or less. Believe me, I wish it
was still like that. It would be a win/win situation... more fans
would get cool stuff for less and we would be busier. The shirts
would still be $20 in that scenario. But everything has been out
of print for years and the price naturally goes up. Anybody that
doesn't understand that.... I don't even know what to say. That's
what happens when thousands of people want the same 20
t-shirts.

VH is the only huge rock band I can think of that doesn't give a
crap about merchandise. They haven't made any in YEARS. If they
made new stuff we wouldn't be having this conversation. Jimmy
Hendrix has so much official merchandise that it literally fills a
magazine-sized catalog. Eddie VH has absolutely nothing! Not one
poster, shirt, anything. That's why Eddie stuff goes for so much
money. Not that we even have much Eddie stuff! Bottom line is, if
you like Britney Spears or Korn you're in luck... go to the mall and
spend $20 on a shirt. A rare VH shirt will be more, naturally. Any
item with a VH logo is getting more & more rare, and thus more & more valuable.

**muffdiver** · 01.30.03, 01:04 PM

geez...maybe i'll keep all my old vh attire....and my picks that ed and mikey gave me....

**ChargerDave** · 01.30.03, 01:56 PM

Actually, one of the most requested figures for the McFarlane line is a 1983 US Festival Eddie Van Halen. This would be absolutely killer looking, with the red-and-white striped outfit.

I would love to see a 1984 tour stage set with all four and the grid floor. Damn, that'd be great!

**Rocket** · 01.30.03, 02:42 PM

Jeff,

Just curious....

Did you buy the merch when it was available and not out of print?

If so, then you paid about $7 for a shirt you thought you would sell for $20, but due to demand and supply you are able to get $50.

Isn't that what car dealers do (usually for Honda minivans)? And isn't that called gouging?

Not saying it isn't standard business practice, just seems the only thing going up is the profit margin.

Just the same, I appreciate to venue to get the stuff.

**Jeff Hausman** · 01.30.03, 09:03 PM

Rocket,

You are asking why I don't sell items for LESS than what they are worth? Let me ask you, if you had to sell your car and you knew it was worth $10,000, would you sell it for $5,000?

Speaking of cars, the car companies keep making cars! Van Halen has pulled the plug on making merchandise. People... when this stuff is gone, it's gone. Over the years I've been searching the
world, finding small caches of these vintage treasures from distributors and retail stores. I'm
always trying to find anybody who has Official Van Halen merchandise. But over the years it has
become harder and harder and harder to find any. Some day it will ALL be gone.

Back in the good old days, when Van Halen actually had licensed merchandise distributors, I bought
directly from them. Unfortunately, now I DO have to buy VH stuff from other retailers. This is stuff
that they themselves bought from the distributors years ago, and they usually will not sell it for less
than a premium. You would be surprised how little mark up there is on many of the items I carry.
There is hardly anything that I was able to mark up a lot. And if there is something that I get in that I
can mark up ... great! Since I spend a lot of my time running this business, making a profit is not an
option, it is a necessity. But most of the best selling items are the CDs and Videos, which I sell for
less than other online retailers. And you might know that online retailers have extremely small profit
margins. I offer them as a service to fellow fans.

**Brett** · 01.30.03, 10:50 PM

Rocket, it's like buying a classic car. Take an old Camaro SS for example. It was probably $3,500 new back in 1968, but now it's worth $16,000 or so. If you had one in mint condition now, would you sell it for $4,000 or would you sell it for what the market will bear, $16,000? You'd get what the thing is worth now and that's what Jeff is doing, with every right.

BTW, Jeff sells the RHRN DVD for $14.95. First of all, that's LOWER than ANY retailer I've seen and that DVD is impossible to find too in the big stores. Have fun trying if you want it.