elling jeans can ease cash-flow blues
By Bridget Mason Special to the Kansan
Running a little low on cash this week?
Why not sell those old jeans? A pair of old 501 button downs can bring up to $19.
Buying and selling used jeans is a booming business that KU
ing business that KU students are cashing in on, says Sean Garrison, owner of Street Side Blues. Garrison has spent many Saturdays at a site in Lawrence buying old Levi's. He puts up a sign, sets up a portable table and waits.
"This is the greatest studying job for a student because you sit at a site for several hours and have plenty of time to do homework." Garrison savs.
Street Side Blues
jeans on a weekend. The business' site used to be in the Webb's Fine Wine & Spirits parking lot at 800 W. 23rd St., but because of Lawrence's strict sign laws, Street Side Blues moved to sites in Kansas City, Topeka and Leavenworth.
Street Side Blues sells some of the jeans
"The neat thing aout my business is that there is no sign it will fade away."
buys Levi's 501 jeans exclusively. The business buys old jeans for up to $19, but the average payment is $10 to $11. Quality determines value, Garrison says.
Sean Garrison
Owner of Street Side Blues
Street Side Blues usually picks up 30 to 40
that it buys to Arizona Trading Company, 734 Massachusetts St. Others are sent overseas.
Levi Strauss does not export, Garrison says, so his jeans are a hot commodity in other countries. Levi's 501 jeans, along with bowling shirts and Hawaiian shirts, are a huge fad in Japan. The most Garrison has ever sold a pair of Levi's for was $500.
"They were about 45 years old in a size double X with bright yellow thread and old copper rivets," Garrison says.
Liza Youngscap, Arizona Trading Company manager, says that jeans are the store's hottest selling item.
"We fill the rack with them in the morning, and especially on Saturdays when we get really busy, the racks will be almost empty at the end of the day," Youngscap says.
Andy Rohrback/KANSAN
At Arizona Trading Company the top price for a pair of Levis 501 button fly jeans in good condition is $22.50. Someone who
brings in jeans to sell to the store gets either 40 percent of the retail value in cash or 60 percent of the retail value in trade.
"The neat thing about my business is that there is no sign it will fade away," Garrison says. "I think people will continue to buy and sell used jeans far into the future."
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