Somewhere in Hong Kong, a trendy Chinese woman wears a pair of blue jeans broken in years ago by a Wyoming ranch hand. Here in the states, young people in need of a quick cash fix pack their duffel bags and head for the nearest buying post to sell their grooviest denim pants.
Second hand jeans, especially Levi's, have become the ultra-cool garments to wear and even cooler to make a profit from.
Green For Jeans, the largest used-Levi's buyer in Northern California, has 50 drop-off locations throughout the Bay Area where clientele can go and sell their old 501's for some extra cash. The company buys and sells more than 20,000 pairs of used Levi's every month. But the buck doesn't stop there.
The pants are then sorted, cleaned and sold to fashionable boutiques in Europe as well as Asia. And what a steal they are.
Brand spankin' new Levi's, which sell in the United States for $30, score at least $100 from jeans owners in foreign countries. As a result, people would rather buy old Levi's for half the cost at used clothing and thrift stores.
The most popular type of Levi's are vintage 501's. Predating 1983, they are known as Red lines. Green For Jeans gladly forks over $15 for a prized pair.
But the top prices are gained through a fuller-cut and wider-legged Levi's, which were made in the 1950s and 60s. These jeans are labeled Big E's, for the "E" that was used until 1971 on the small, red logo on the Levi tag. These babies can fetch more than $500, but according to Max Shapiro, president of Green For Jeans, it is really hard to find Big E's and the payoff is infrequent.
"It's sort of like a needle in a haystack. They're very few and far between," Shapiro says.
Levi's have the greatest resale value of any used clothing, due to their quality. The typical walk-in customer who brings in several pairs of jeans will leave with $25 to $30 in their wallet.
So if you're tired of begging mom for cash, put a smile on her face and rid your closet of all your old, ratty jeans. You'll fill your new pockets with green and perhaps give a young person in France or Hong Kong a taste of Americana.
[ back to top ]