Levi’s Type 1 Jacket (506XX): How to Date It, What It Is Worth, and Where to Sell It

Families rarely know the name of this jacket when they find it. They know it was grandpa’s, that it looks older than any denim jacket they have seen, and that something about it is different. That difference has a name. Collectors call it the Type 1, or the first, and Levi’s called it the 506XX: a jacket it sold for nearly fifty years to miners, ranch hands and railroad men. It is the jacket collectors want most, and the one most often given away by people who did not know.

How do I know if my jacket is a Type 1?

Count the pockets and look at the back. A Type 1 has one pocket on the chest, on the left as you wear it. Down the front, on each side of the buttons, run pleats: folds of denim stitched down so they could be let out for room. Across the lower back is a strap with a metal buckle, called a cinch, for pulling the waist in. If your jacket has two chest pockets, it is a Type 2 or a Type 3, and the jacket types guide sorts those out. On the biggest sizes there is one more thing to look for: a line of stitching down the middle of the back that forms a T. The narrow selvedge denim of the day was not wide enough to cut a large back in one piece, so Levi’s sewed it from two. Collectors call these T-backs or split backs, and the T marks a big size, not an older year.

How do I date a Levi’s Type 1 jacket?

Levi’s changed the 506XX in steps, and each step left something you can see. Two denim histories, Heddels and Long John, agree on this sequence. Read the pocket flap, the tab, the buttons and the buckle together; one detail alone can mislead, and boundary years are approximate.

Two notes on that table. A jacket with no flap can be very early or wartime, and the buttons tell you which: wartime donut buttons look like the fly buttons on old trousers. And the buckle stayed on the Type 1 all the way to 1953. The wartime rule that took the cinch off Levi’s jeans in about 1942 did not take it off this jacket, so a buckle back on a Type 1 does not by itself mean before the war. Long John notes that collectors pay more for the silver buckle than the later bronze one. The WWII Levi’s guide covers the wartime S506XX on its own.

Is my Type 1 an original or a Levi’s Vintage Clothing reissue?

This is the question that sets the price, because Levi’s itself has reissued the 506XX many times under its Levi’s Vintage Clothing line: in the 1990s from its Valencia Street plant in San Francisco, later from Japan, as a 1936 model and as the wartime S506XX of 1944. The reissues copy the pleats, the pocket, the buckle and the tab. They do not copy the inside.

A reissue is not bad news. On October 28, 2026, 1990s Valencia Street reissues of the 506XX were listed on eBay at about $950 to $5,300 and Japan-made ones mostly at $300 to $750; those are asking prices. The reproduction guide covers more tells. One more trap from the same listings: Levi’s also used 506 as a lot number for jeans in the 1980s, so a pair of 506 jeans is not a Type 1 and sells for tens of dollars.

What is a Levi’s Type 1 jacket worth?

Read the listing prices with care. We could not read sold prices, so those figures are what sellers were asking on October 28, 2026, and asks run above sales; eight of the eleven original Type 1s listed at $5,000 or more came from one seller in Japan. Heddels, whose dating guide is the one collectors use, says authentic Type 1 and Type 2 jackets commonly sell for $1,000 to $6,000 on eBay, and that wartime examples sometimes bring more than 1930s ones. The record jacket is a museum piece; nobody should price a family jacket against it. What moves a real Type 1 inside its range is the same list every time: age, size, condition, whether the patch and tab survive, and whether it has been washed, cut or repaired.

A Type 1 with a striped wool blanket sewn inside is rarer still. Levi’s offered the Type I with a blanket-lined option, and Japanese collector references call that version the 519XX; none was listed on eBay US on October 28, 2026. The blanket-lined jacket guide covers it, with the lot-number traps.

What should I not do to a Type 1 before selling it?

• Wash it. One hot wash can shrink it, fade it and loosen what is left of the patch. Collectors pay for the jacket as it is.
• Repair it. Leave holes, torn pockets and blown pleats alone; Sam’s house-call jacket had all three and was still a Type 1 worth buying.
• Cut the buckle off, or remove patches and pins someone added. They are part of the jacket’s record.
• Trade it in at a store counter. Checked in September 2026, Levi’s SecondHand pays up to $30 in store credit for a jacket made more than twenty years ago, whatever it is.
• Price it from a listing. The highest asks are not sales, and a reissue listing tells you nothing about an original.

Where can I sell a Levi’s Type 1 jacket?

You can list it yourself on eBay or Grailed, which usually brings the most for a seller who can photograph the inside, answer collectors’ questions and handle a valuable shipment; the route comparison sets out each platform’s cut. An auction house is another route for an exceptional one. Or sell it to a buyer who handles Type 1s. California Vintage Buyers buys Levi’s Type 1 jackets, originals and reissues, worn or not, from every state. We look at the jacket with you on a free video call, agree the price on the call, and pay through PayPal before you ship, with shipping on us. In Southern California we come to you and pay cash the same visit. If a jacket is worth more listed yourself, we will say so. Start with the photo guide, then call or text (949) 449-1255.