"Ukay-Ukay" is a thrift store in the Philippines where secondhand items such as clothes, bags, shoes and other accessories are sold at a cheap price. The term is derived from the Cebuano verb 'ukay', which means "to dig thoroughly" or "to jumble through".
From P180 initial bidding price, online 'Ukay-Ukay' seller Shaira Earl Algara from Pontevedra, Negros Occidental sold a Vintage Shabba Ranks T-shirt from 1992 for P17,000.
Shaira, a student from the University of St. La Salle-Bacolod, which has received many inquiries and offers on the black shirt she was selling on her online 'Ukay-Ukay' business said she didn't expect the old shirt was of so much value when she received a flood of high counteroffers from the thrift find she was reselling.
Despite the black 1992 Shabba Ranks T-shirt has already been sold for P17,000, Shaira said someone still offered her to buy the t-shirt for P25k, and then another for P65k. She added the highest bid peaked up to P90,000, which stunned her saying, "I was really shocked, I didn't expect that the value of that shirt would be so high" (transcribed and translated from Filipino).
Shabba Ranks also known as Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon is a Jamaican dancehall musician in the late 80s and early 90s, he was one of the most popular Jamaican musicians in the world.
Throughout his prominence in his home country as an artist, he gained popularity in North America with his studio album, Just Reality, in 1990. He released two studio albums, As Raw as Ever and X-tra Naked, which both won a Grammy Award as Best Reggae Album in 1992 and 1993. He is notoriously popular for "Mr. Loverman" and "Ting-A-Ling", which were globally acclaimed and deemed his signature songs.
Shaira said the money from the T-shirt she sold will be used to purchase more Ukay-Ukay from Manila for resale in Negros Occidental and online.