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Levi's Vintage Clothing


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I think it's a familiar story most of us share following LVC items at ebay in search of that nice and cheap deal. It's always a thrill to win something you're after for a while.
Lately I've been following my share of items due to a sudden (sad?) rush of itching for denim and even if it's difficult to find anything below W30, I'll keep trying. But all this attention brought to the fore a few fishy and nagging bits, about which, if some of you care, I'd like to hear your point. If you don't consider this adequate to this thread or find it in any way derogatory, judgmental or abusive, I apologize in advance, I'll do my best to avoid online pitfalls but I told you.

1st, a guy that bids mostly in new jeans (lvc, from what i've seen) be it in europe, usa or wherever, no matter what waist size. He never wins anything he just makes sure that everyone is kept honest. He never passes a certain amount, never goes until the end of the auction, anyhow he doesn't seem to want to buy anything but to make sure every seller gets a fair price for their jeans, a good samaritan after all, but also a guy that seems to subvert and falsifie the bidding spirit without much restraint. (as you can see below, ebay changes his alas from i***e (28) to a***8 (28) when you enter his details and for the sake of transparency :))

59b82a35e8331_BiddingDetails.thumb.jpg.a05ba0ad158607225c1334883f4485a2.jpg

See him in action at 60 quid

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105 usd's

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and here at 90 quid, all different pairs, sizes, places, etc.

292231397571.thumb.jpg.1e4693e40209cb042a2d288209f3bab9.jpg

 

There's a few more examples but I think you've got the point. What do you think of this lvc samaritan?

- Another situation comes from a past known seller of lvc, stylecreep, that now sells under the name stylecreep outlet at ebay uk. The guy I mentioned before is also a regular at stylecreep auctions but only bids in new lvc jeans, but there is also another regular, this one a true lover of stylecreep items, all of them... His bidding activity with stylecreep is 93%, incredible... but unfortunately he never wins much with stylecreep, neither goes to the end of auctions... just another very good samaritan with loads and loads of "friendly" bids with this seller. His alas appear as a***m (283 or recently 286 feedbacks) but if you press his alas it appears as g***2 (see below). Ebay business is profit not transparency, we already knew that long ago.

59b82fea054d5_BiddingDetails.thumb.jpg.cd87210e640b12b4bfbe8560b6754493.jpg

Will not post further proof of the presence of this guy at stylecreep auctions because I guess y'all know how to conduct advanced searches at ebay.

-Finally stylecreep outlet sold these two pairs last week (below you can see the happy bidders mr 28 and mr 283/286), they were won buy the same guy but I've never had seen him at other auctions before. Conspicuously two pairs with same specs are today again for auction  by stylecreep (at http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-34W-X-32L-LEVIS-VINTAGE-CLOTHING-1966-501-SELVEDGE-DENIM-JEANS-USA/292250932932 and http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-34W-X-32L-LEVIS-VINTAGE-CLOTHING-1955-501-SELVEDGE-DENIM-JEANS-USA/292250932529) which means either, they have loads of stock of the same items, improbable but not impossible, the guy didn't pay, he just had an adrenaline rush and went straight burning cash lvc's suddenly discovering he had to pay the rent, not at all improbable, and finally, just a little scam??? let´s hope not. Further research seems to show the same guy won five pairs of lvc's at stylecreep auctions but perhaps afraid of underbidding and losing some just overbid and finally refused the two bigger pairs. It can happen, but stylecreep could've gone to the 2nd higher bidder.

I bet we'll see the same ol' guys bidding again at these new auctions...

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Sorry for the hassle and long post, I'm not an auction cop by any means, just do my research before buying and this one seems pretty interesting.

 

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59 minutes ago, Paul T said:

looks like classic shill bidding. I would report it.

 

https://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/seller-shill-bidding.html

 

Yeah, it does. Ebay has a report link but doesn't let you tell the whole story which means it's just an escape valve, but they won't do anything. Once, after a pair of crocket & jones boots (I also have a wonderful story with cj boots and arnold schwarzenegger at one of their shops in London but I'll tell it later) I discovered the seller was someone from Paris.  He sold lots of luxury goods, usually for very high amounts and always with auctions, never using buy it now option. When researching what he had been selling the same 4 or 5 bidders were a constant in his auctions, hugely inflating prices. I reported dozens (yes, dozens) of items to ebay and continued to watch his items, for months he just continued his practice without any trouble (ebay got huge commissions from him...). Just by hazard I found him in a style forum :) , checked and he was the same guy, this time advertising some of his sales (but not selling them at the forum) usually praising and bragging about crocket jones shoes, posting the same photo shoes he posted at ebay. I sent him a message asking for info about the shoes and telling him that was suspicious of most of his sales and that I had amassed some proof of his scams. He never answered... and I just posted a warning at the cjones thread about the guy, don´t know if he is still there or not. Do you know what happened? He just changed all his auctions to private (impossible to trace) and ebay perhaps gave him a friendly warning to turn his auctions to "buy it now" instead of "shill bids". He continues to do business with impunity at ebay to this day, check him at https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/pokac/m.html.

After that, I can´t be bothered to report anything more to ebay and couldn´t care less, just wanted to share this story, hear your take and potentially avoid some casualties here but that's all. I remember one of the guys at that style forum almost assumed he did some friendly bids with his friends items and vice-versa and that it was "ok", in order to keep prices "honest", after all clothing was only pocket change... Some honesty, I'd say, on the other hand also know that some collectors will do anything to have their items regardless of the price and couldn't care less to investigate or research like the poor man I am ^_^

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I thought I write down my experience with a couple of Raw LVC jeans I purchased. I recently got two pairs of LVC Levis. One was 1947 36W x 34L, and a 1954 34W x 32L. I prefer the leg to shrink to a 30", and the waist to 34". The 1947 had a slightly longer leg than I wanted, but that's all they had in stock.

The 1947, I soaked in a hot bath and wore them until they were dry. I wore them for a few days, but I found that they didn't really shrink to a 34" waist. The leg did shrink a lot, but still a bit too long for me, but I expected that. They jeans were baggy all round especially in the hips and bum, and I had to wear a belt with them. I tried soaking them again without me in them, but not much changed. I then washed them with no soap inside out in the washing machine at 40c. This has shrunk the leg more, but not the waist. The colour in these are good, but haven't kept that nice dark dark blue denim.

The 1954 I soaked in a hot bath and again wore them until they were dry. These have shrunk to me, and they fit perfectly. The length is perfect and the waist just right, also the colour looks fantastic. I know I can't wash these in the machine as they will probably shrink too much. Generally I don't machine wash my LVC as I like to keep the colour.

I was told to by the shop that I should purchase 2" extra in the waist because of shrinkage, but from my experience from these two jeans I should always get my tagged waist size as they don't seem to shrink as much as they say they will. I was expecting the 36" to go to a 34", but this hasn't happened. I was also worried the 34" would go to a 32"..but I thought it was worth the risk.

I don't think the 1947 will shrink much more, and I really don't want to put them through the machine again as they may loose more colour. Any ideas how I can shock shrink?? If there is such a thing. I like the 1947, but prefer a more fitted look without a saggy arse! Overtime they may shrink more, but I doubt they will ever be a 34" waist. My favourites are the 1954.

Thanks for reading.....

 

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@shovett: This is what I guess we are all through. Sorry for you that the shop assistant had been without a clue.

Your jeans will always stretch back to the waist size they had when been rigid, often they will become even wider with wear.

The conlclusion would be to either buy em fitted when raw or even size down 1" , but that depends on how you like to wear em.

I have the same issues with the current 47s quite snug at the waist, but full at bum and legs(seems LVC had altered the hole fit to a more

straight rather than a slim fit, which is more accurate though.)

 

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4 hours ago, shovett said:

I thought I write down my experience with a couple of Raw LVC jeans I purchased....

Did you measure the 47's before you soaked them? They may have been bigger than tagged size. I've measured 1954's in the same waist size but different leg lengths and there was a consistent +1" difference in the waist on the longer leg.

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The 1947's seem to be a pitfall (google example of the word applies right to me "the pitfalls of buying goods at public auctions") for the inexperienced. Have two pairs and same problem reported by sympathy and shovett. most strangely the bigger marked waist W31 rigid is an inch smaller (15.25) than the smaller W30 new rinse (16.25), crazy..

Edited by free2hear
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I have two pairs of LVC 1947s. Both were raw / made in USA. I don't know about the new pre-washed pairs but with the raws it's best to go one size up if you intend to machine wash them regularly. They'll shrink two inches but strech back one. If you decide to only cold soak them you can get away with TTS, but it will be a fairly snug fit...

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@free2hear - the sizing rules discussed on here relating to LVC typically only apply to their raw jeans, made in USA. The various rinsed/washed offerings, usually made elsewhere, seem to be a law unto themselves and not really discussed on here. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do so but simply not to expect much in the way of advice or feedback.

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10 minutes ago, Maynard Friedman said:

@free2hear - the sizing rules discussed on here relating to LVC typically only apply to their raw jeans, made in USA. The various rinsed/washed offerings, usually made elsewhere, seem to be a law unto themselves and not really discussed on here. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do so but simply not to expect much in the way of advice or feedback.

Learning the hard way :) Maynard, thanks for the tip!

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@shovett, I have found that when you machine wash (including spin), then you can get 2 inches of shrinkage in the waist. If you don't wear a belt, then the waist will pretty much stretch all the way back to its pre-wash measurement.

Oh yeah, here's a quick pick I took of me in my '76s and the '55 Sawtooth.

IMG_20170913_202432-01.thumb.jpeg.b60966cacb3545d04896c76e48d8856d.jpeg

This is all I have at the moment. Hoping that when it's no longer cloudy, I'll be able to take some pics outside, and maybs some better detail pics as well.

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1 hour ago, free2hear said:

Pretty sure that's not LVC...

Edit: Thought it might be more helpful if I gave some reasons as to why I think it's not an LVC product, and why I reckon it's just a Levi's mainline item. The red tab is a little 'e', which means it would be a post-1971 jean, and the only ones that I know of that LVC made were the '76, '78 and '83. Quite certain that all those models had a paper patch instead of a leather one. Speaking of the patch, you can see on their current MiUSA STF 501s that it is the same. The pocket shape and stitching are also a giveaway (you can see how towards the opening of the pocket, the stitching flares out). Also, the "This is a pair of Levi's" print on the pocket bag is something they do nowadays as a throwback since the originals had a separate label sewn to the back right pocket. Someone else can probably chime in about this, but all my LVC 501 care labels are sewn horizontally on the outseam, and the one you linked is vertically sewn on the waistband, which is what they do today for all (?) their jeans. Plus, that Levi's batwing label sewn to the outseam is something I haven't seen on my LVCs.  The overlock at the top of the outseam also doesn't look like something I've seen before on LVC jeans either.

There are probably more details, but these are most noticeable to me.

Edited by propellerbeanie
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19 hours ago, bod said:

Did you measure the 47's before you soaked them? They may have been bigger than tagged size. I've measured 1954's in the same waist size but different leg lengths and there was a consistent +1" difference in the waist on the longer leg.

Sadly no I didn't..as I really thought they would shrink to a 34" after my conversation with the shop staff. Not sure I have the budget for another pair just yet, but will be doing that in the future.

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9 hours ago, propellerbeanie said:

Pretty sure that's not LVC...

 The pocket shape and stitching are also a giveaway (you can see how towards the opening of the pocket, the stitching flares out).

Thanks Propeller, thought so too, but I'm on a learning curve... That flaring out stitching at the pocket is some ugly s**t (imo).

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9 hours ago, alvin_cheong said:

Thanks all for the recommendation...I will size up on the 55jeans.

Why? I think everyone here suggested you buy your actual waist size. The 55 jeans are very generous in the seat etc. See my various posts here and elsewehre.

Good call folks re those eBay jeans - the seller presumably knows they're not LVC as they haven't posted the white label with code numbers on.

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