A pair of Levi's jeans dating to the 1880s sold for $76,000 at an auction in New Mexico.
The pants were bought earlier this month by Kyle Haupert, a 23-year-old vintage clothing dealer from San Diego, the The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
"I'm still kind of bewildered, just surprised in myself for even purchasing them," Haupert said.
He put up 90% of the winning bid, while Zip Stevenson, a Los Angeles-based denim expert, paid the remaining 10%. The total price for the pants was $87,400 with a buyer's premium factored in, making it one of the most expensive pairs of jeans sold.
The pants were found years ago in an old mine, according to a denim magazine titled Long John, which noted that the jeans belonged to a miner and featured suspender buttons on the waistbands, a single back pocket and marks of candle wax.
The inside label reads, "The only kind made by white labor," which is in reference to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that forbid Chinese workers from the U.S. Levi's dropped the slogan in the 1890s.
The jeans were auctioned at the Durango Vintage Festivus on Oct. 1 and were listed as one of the oldest known Levi's jeans from the gold rush era.
"These are the holy grail of vintage denim collecting and have been in private collection since discovery long ago," the listing adds, noting that the pants as in "good/wearable" condition.
“You could wear them to get a Starbucks,” Stevenson told The Wall Street Journal.
"You really have to see them in person to see how insane these are,” Haupert stated.
Stevenson and Haupert have already received great interest in the jeans and, according to the Independent, believe the pants could be worth as much as $150,000. But Haupert noted that they were "not in any rush to sell."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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