Defunkd

[theeteetotaler]

All the Markers on the pants dont add up...

- the 555 stamp would put it in the early 80s or more recent.

- the single stitched rear pockets would put it in the late 70s or prior.

- the big E would place it in the early 70s or prior.

you've got conflicting time periods here and since you omitted a picture of the zipper and the denim doesn't look correct for a pair of big e's i would say these pants are not correct.

[theeteetotaler]

oh yeah, here's a great website for vintage denim jackets, its pretty basic, but it helped me a great deal when vintage denim was more plentiful.

http://www.vintagemotorcyclejackets.com/index-denim.htm

[maxvintage]

Yeah, that's definitely a great a resource for jackets.

I'm very new to the world of collecting denim and honestly don't know much about vintage Levis other than the Big E and selvedge, etc.

I would post a picture of the zipper, but there's not much to post. It doesn't have a name or anything on it.

I contacted the folks at Blue Gold Blues, so hopefully I'll hear back from them soon and we can determine if these are indeed fakes. If so, lesson learned and I'll have to be more careful next time.

[maxvintage]

I wrote the fine folks at Blue Gold Blues (http://bluegoldblues.com/) and here's what they had to say about this specific pair:

I would say they were early 90's repros, 555 means made in USA and believe it or not are actually quite collectable (check out ebay). Again not sure about bootcut models but 555 501s go for a couple hundred bucks as they are considered the best quality repro and made in USA.

So that helps. I was glad to hear that they aren't fakes and super happy to learn that they are still collectable.

[Johnny65]

So so cool.....just wanted to see if you knew of any other cool sites dedicated to vintage?

Hey Max - sorry I didn't see your post sooner. Work has been kinda busy lately.

Anyways...here's a couple more sites I check on a regular basis:

http://sanforized.blogspot.com/

http://66supa.blogspot.com/

http://www.marvins-jp.com/index.htm *Japanese site but the photos are nice to look at.

The Inspiration Show was great! I've gone the last 2 years.

[moonbeam9209]

Hi, I know its been a while since anyone has posted on this, but I do know a bit about vintage Levi's. I bought a pair of 501 Big E almost two years ago at a thrift store for $5.00 and really didn't think they were authentic since they looked so new. I learned so much about them. Long story short, I sold them for over $800.00 on Ebay.

There are so many factors with the big E and also since they have made repro's. Those can be worth quite a bit too. But maybe 80.00, not 800.00

I found out from someone that you can email Lynn Downey at Levi's, so that is what I did and she helped me to date the Levi's to 1969-1970 due to many factors. Here is her email: LDowney@levi.com She is the historian there and was very nice and helpful.

Feel free to contact me if I can help in any way.