A pair of Levi's jeans from the 1880s got sold for $76,000 at an auction in New Mexico. The buyer, however, had to pay $87,400 with a buyers premium factored in.
Kyle Haupert, a 23-year-old vintage clothing dealer from San Diego, bought the pair of jeans at an auction on October 1. "I'm still kind of bewildered, just surprised in myself for even purchasing them," Haupert told the Wall Street Journal.
He bought the jeans with Zip Stevenson, the owner of vintage clothing company Denim Doctors. Haupert paid for 90 per cent of the winning bid and is hoping that Stevenson, who is more experienced at this, will be able to help find the next buyer for the jeans.
Haupert also shared a video of the auction on Instagram.
"These speak for themselves," Haupert wrote on another Instagram post sharing a photo of the jeans marked by candle wax. The antique Levi's pair was in an old mine years ago, reported Long John, a denim magazine that first broke the news about the auction. As per the report, it was used by a miner and feature suspender buttons on the waistbands and a single back pocket.
This pair of jeans is one of the oldest known Levi's from the gold rush era, according to the auction listing, and "the holy grail of vintage denim collecting." It also added that the pair is in "good/wearable" condition.
"You could wear them to a Starbucks," Stevenson told the Wall Street Journal.
Read more: Is denim in an identity crisis?
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