This is just an incredible read from the January issue of Outside magazine. It’s all about mining for the vintage denim and duds of old miners!
Brit Eaton is the best of a curious breed of fortune hunters combing old mine shafts and barns across the West for vintage denim. He’s discovered $50,000 worth of clothes in a single day, and his clients include Ralph Lauren and Levi’s.
Perhaps the most important thing Brit learned while hunting vintage clothes in thrift shops is that thrift shops are not the best places for guys like him to hunt vintage clothes. He didn’t want the things that a person had recently quit wearing and donated; rather, he wanted the things that a person’s great-grandfather had quit wearing and tossed into a dusty corner on a homestead, where it was forgotten about for a few generations. “I used to walk into a good thrift shop and my palms would get sweaty,” Brit told me. “And then one day I couldn’t get excited by thrift shops. It’s like I used to enjoy firecrackers, but now it takes dynamite to get me high.”
Link to story in Outside magazine
The oldest known “XX” 501s– dated by Levi’s historian back to circa 1879.
The Selvedge Yard 
I really enjoyed this post. That’s a serious addiction!
i loved this story too!
i still get mostly sweaty palms from the thrift shops, and i have had some major coups in my day, the best are always the old levis which i Still find from time to time… they have sold into the thousands per pair… it’s still a thrill! i can only imagine the going into mine shafts and dog houses and coming up with a pucci dress or a ysl jacket! my imagination gets the best of me sometime…