Thrifting

[patience]

Reading my last post again it comes off a little rude, so, sorry if it offended.

[greentea]

Quote:

Reading my last post again it comes off a little rude, so, sorry if it offended.

--- Original message by patience on Jun 14, 2006 07:14 AM

we encourage rude behaviors.

[walletboy]

At the thrift stores here, the only jeans I ever see are Old Navy crap. Goodwill, Salvation army people skim off anything decent b4 it ever hits the floor.

[hawkeye]

Quote:

i've got a copy of This Is A Pair Of Levi's Jeans flying over right now. can't wait for it.

--- Original message by tweedlesinpink on Jun 13, 2006 06:26 PM

tweedles, hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I was severely dissapointed with that book. Very very little information on old levis, cool pictures of old 40s and 50s advertising, but mabie two pages of pics of old denim.

Also, when I'm trolling the denim section of thrift stores, one good factor of vintage Levis is the arcruate, which is less dramatic on older levis and deeper and sharper on newer models.

I feel like a lot of big name stores like the Salvation Army and Savers know what's up with redlines and big E's. Salvation army donations all go to a central location and are priced there, not at individual stores, and I have seen the Army themselves selling big E's on ebay.

Check anyway though, I found a pair of Big E redline 505s that slipped through, so who knows.

There are lots of thrift stores that will probably not know as much, I'm at my parents house for a few days and went hunting today, no luck, but I did hit up a church basement thrift store, and have seen thrift stores at old folkes homes before also, just keep your eyes out.

[tweeds]

the book just arrived and im not disappointed at all. yeah the information on old levi's is very minimal but the explosion of old ads, cards, banners, etc in multicoloured glory really got to me. i think the book doesn't mean to be a vintage denim guide, but a record of the history of the name. i like it. beautiful book.

[punyfig]

I picked up a paid of Evisu in a street market today!

They aren't too bad. Bit flat, but I'm hoping that a bit of wear and starch might breath a bit of life into them.

Selvage on the coin pocket. The rivets are cobra original on the inside.

Back pocket seagulls and halfway stitching. The tag is leather (I checked).

They are Italian.

The reverse of the leather tag.

Selvage seam on the leg.

I was wandering past a street market in town and chanced upon a jean seller. Looking through the table there was a lot of Levi's (small e only it seems), a few pairs of Wrangler and Lee, a stack of deadstock Levi's and these Evisu.... Can't turn down a selvage jean for £20! TWENTY QUID!!

...and to think I actually used to iron denim.

Edited by punyfig on Jun 17, 2006 at 11:48 AM

[tweeds]

deadstock Levi's? that sounds interesting.

and nice pants. twenty pounds off the street is certainly nice.

[captain5640]

This is a great post. I'm new to all this so it's great to see some quality info.

What exactly is "HYPE"?

[donkaiser]

Me i will get all those jeans hahahaha.

[tweeds]

alright new pics of stuff i picked up for 2.50 while out scrounging today:

need some timestamps from you guys with the more experienced eyes. patch appears to be made of some non-papery material, but i can't figure what it is--doesn't feel like leather either. no levi's tag, but a wash tag near the zipper which reads

"colour may transfer

shrinkage approx 3%

wash alone before wearing

couleur feut transferer

retrecissement approx 3%

laver seul avant de forter

do not bleach. ne pas blanchir.

216 H/4 B217-38

01333 50619 0212

34/34 05 514"

on the front, with washing instructions on the reverse side of the tag.

[Whodinihimself]

Unless theres a Big E on that back tab, or you forgot to mention that theyre selvage then theyre not very old...nor highly collectible...I'd guess early 90's....I come across hundreds that look just like those everytime I go thifting...You could probably sell them for $9 or so on ebay.

p.s. That back tag material is a cardboard composite...Orange tabs were considered lesser jeans than red tabs and some of the back tags on orange tabs were made with a rougher material that kind of give the feeling of grainy leather...but its not

useless fact: The YKK on the zipper of your Levis stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.

[tweeds]

...and TIP strikes out again. thanks whodinihimself

that "useless fact" isn't really useless - it's told me that YKK is much easier to say than Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha

[Whodinihimself]

hehe dont even stress'r ... I've swung and missed alot in my hunt for vintage Levis ... youre not alone ... Just remember the mantra: Big E, Selvage, Talon 42/Gripper Zipper/Scoville Zippers and the obvious Cinchbacks & Suspender Buttons (good luck finding one a a thrift store tho)...the overall look and feel of the denim should also give you a clue about its age. There are of course other more intricate details to look for but these are the basics.

[mopar_jj]

looks to me as made in canada levis - no more than 20 years old

[tweeds]

thanks again whodini

mopar, how do you tell the country of manufacture?

[thelion1856]

okay i hear you guys talking about this "big E" on the back. does anyone actually have a picture of what this "big E" looks like? Is it just a screenprint large "E" on the inside back of the jean? how big? 5 inches? 10 inches?

[nemoulette]

okay i hear you guys talking about this "big E" on the back. does anyone actually have a picture of what this "big E" looks like? Is it just a screenprint large "E" on the inside back of the jean? how big? 5 inches? 10 inches?

On the little tab sewn onto the back of the right back pocket where it says LeVI'S, it should say LEVI'S (capital E).

[vivaloschet]

hehe dont even stress'r ... I've swung and missed alot in my hunt for vintage Levis ... youre not alone ... Just remember the mantra: Big E, Selvage, Talon 42/Gripper Zipper/Scoville Zippers and the obvious Cinchbacks & Suspender Buttons (good luck finding one a a thrift store tho)...the overall look and feel of the denim should also give you a clue about its age. There are of course other more intricate details to look for but these are the basics.

you forgot black bartacks on the back pockets and the numbers behind the front button, most notably 6 or 555.

[tweeds]

big Es don't exist in singapore. i swear they don't. grr.

[cheapmuthafukr]

you forgot black bartacks on the back pockets and the numbers behind the front button, most notably 6 or 555.

555 is lvc... the redlines i have have a 524 on the button.

[mopar_jj]

either

its written on the inner tag, or in your case there is french, so they could be made in france as well, but they dont look it

also, the rear patch does not have made in the usa in tiny type

[tweeds]

saw a pair of big Es today, but they are suspicious looking things:

non-selvedge, button fly with 501 stamped on the back of the top button

back tag reads 501 without any XX behind, doesn't look like typewritten but my memory fails me here

back tag also has an extra piece of tag attached with typewriter font numbers

small inner tag on the front right side of the pants waistband, no levi's batwing (or might have been erased)

the fishy thing is that when you turn the orange stitching inside out, some of the threads are coloured black and others white or yellow. where you have parellel rows of stitching there would be a row with black insides and another light insides. i don't get that last bit especially.

fakes?

[mopar_jj]

my guess w/o seeing thai fakes

still worth decent $ on ebay if you can get them cheap

I wish Levis were making stuff like the fakes, some of them are really nice

[tweeds]

not cheap enough to warrant the cash; not my size either and not selvedge so that takes away alot of the possibilities with the pants.

the pair was still dyed pretty deep though, so it really jumped out from the rack.

[shinobi2000]

a few questions -- "Redlines" are referring to vintage Levis with a red line in the white part of the selvage right? Are these more rare? made from better denim? I was in a vintage shop recently that had an amazing number of old selvage Levis and while most of them were going for $80s to $100s the ones they marked "Redline" were marked way over $200. It didn't occur to me that it might have been referring to the red line on the selvage so I didn't pay close attention. They didn't look particularly older than the other vintage pieces, what makes them worth so much more? The only thing I noticed was that they had more of a twist to their legs.

Moppar's excellent pics talk about the double vs single stitch on the back pockets -- you circled the stitching on the outside but you're referring to the inside stitch right? At one vintage store, the supposedly very knowledgeable salesperson was using that as a quick guide on how old the Levis were, the older ones had only single stitching on the inside of the pocket whereas the not so old ones had double. My 2 LVCs have single on the inside, but my 2 not-so-old vintage pairs have double. I'm guessing she's right cuz I assum the LVCs are repros of the oldest models. When did they change from single to double?

I'm not so sure how accurate that vintagemotorcycle site is with the pics of the tags. They say that the 501 -0117 model was only in circulation from 1966-1968. My two vintage Levis have the "501-0117" model number on them and they are most certainly not from 1966!

[mopar_jj]

Yes, the inside stitching is what is being refered to -this indicates a jean made in like mid 1970s and before, with a Big E Levis Red tab dating it before 1971. Redlines were made before 1986, with a denim made on a narrower loom. The model numbers (501-0117) were used upto 1986 when they changed from a 'typewritten' style on the patch to a printed 501xx or 501 in red or black. 0117 refers to indigo color. I am guessing that you have a couple of Double stitch Redlines. Would need pics to be sure tho.

Another dead giveaway is on the corners of the rear pockets. All of what I consider 'Vintage' red tab Levis have Black stitching on the top corners of the pockets, just a quick 'acid test' when looking.

[cultpop 0217]

Yes, the inside stitching is what is being refered to -this indicates a jean made in like mid 1970s and before, with a Big E Levis Red tab dating it before 1971. Redlines were made before 1986, with a denim made on a narrower loom. The model numbers (501-0117) were used upto 1986 when they changed from a 'typewritten' style on the patch to a printed 501xx or 501 in red or black. 0117 refers to indigo color. I am guessing that you have a couple of Double stitch Redlines. Would need pics to be sure tho.

Another dead giveaway is on the corners of the rear pockets. All of what I consider 'Vintage' red tab Levis have Black stitching on the top corners of the pockets, just a quick 'acid test' when looking.

cone mills stopped production of redtabs in late '82 or early '83 not '86.

the numbers following the model number (501-0117 505-0217) refers to the type of denim.

black bartacks replaced rivets in 1967 but again are not the best indication of age because they were used on 505s at least through the 80's and ive seen plenty of jeans with no real value with b b and plenty of big E without.

Big E was supposed to be stopped in 1972 for red tab, I guess orange would be the same although I have a pair of bellbottoms with Big E so I am not sure for the oranges.

And there seem to be loads of E jackets out there.

yep. the small e replaced the big E in '72 orange tabs actually started in the late sixties or early seventies and continued all the way up to at least '96, maybe as late as '98, so by itself is not really a great indication of valuable vintage jeans.

Zippers are pretty good judge - the problem with the talon 42 is that someone may replace a newer zipper with a new 'old' talon 42 that someone had for ages. They are common.

Scovill or Gripper Zipper are usually a sure sign

talon 42 zippers are indeed a reliable indicator of age. while the pull tab part says talon on it the actuall zipper part says 42 and if someone had replaced this they would have to do pretty major surgery on the jeans and it would be noticable.

scovill zips are a bit older. heres a pic for reference.

random pic of a pair of old 505's i sold on ebay. #5 button, talon zip, black bartacks, red tab

some newer orange tab 517s. not especially valuable but they have a crazy tiger hige

good info mopar. we really need paul t or ringx2 in here.

[brozek]

Just wondering whether someone could help me identify what I found here (but I didn't think it warranted a thread of its own) - these jeans have no model #, but they have a leather patch & tab, as well as a Talon 42 zipper. There's a tag inside the front left pocket that reads "Levi's for Men: With a Skosh More Room", which I think is hilarious. The leather tab is tough to read, but it's definitely a small e, and these aren't selvage.

[tangerine]

^ all I can tell you is that the "skosh more room" slogan was introduced around '78-79.

[Superstar]

Danish thrift shops carry shit only !

Damn it give me som vintage denim for crying out loud !