At an auction in New Mexico on October 1, a man paid $76,000 for a pair of Levi's jeans from the 1880s. The buyer of the used jeans was Kyle Haupert, a 23-year-old vintage clothing dealer from San Diego, California, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"The bid makes the pair of vintage jeans one of the priciest ever sold. Mr Haupert, a vintage clothing dealer, put up 90 percent of the winning bid, while the remaining 10 was kicked in by Zip Stevenson, an elder statesman of the vintage market who has run the Los Angeles shop Denim Doctors since 1994," the report further stated.
Mr Haupert told the Wall Street Journal that he was still kind of bewildered, just surprised in myself for even purchasing them.
The total price paid for the jeans, including the buyer's premium, was $87,400. The rare pair of expensive jeans dates back to a time before airplanes, traffic lights, and radios.
A self-described denim archaeologist, Michael Harris, told the Wall Street Journal that the pair of jeans were found several years ago in an abandoned mineshaft in the American West.
On the Instagram account for his store, Mr. Haupert posted photos of the auction and the treasured pair of jeans.
The Mr. Haupert captioned the photo as, "the $76,000 Jeans, 1880's Levi's One Pocket Buckle Back Jeans. One of the oldest known pairs of Levi's to exist These speak for themselves. Thank you to everyone who's been supporting me throughout the years. I am very blessed to be able to own these."
