Sell to Us · Los Angeles
Sell vintage clothing in Los Angeles, to dealers, not resellers.
Free visit · cash offers · no obligation
California Vintage Buyers buys vintage clothing across Los Angeles County: old denim and Levi’s, workwear, band and surf t-shirts, military uniforms, western wear, leather and designer pieces. Free house call, every piece read in front of you and paid for in cash on the spot. We drive into Los Angeles weekly for the right closets. Call (949) 449-1255.
Los Angeles is the center of the American vintage trade, which means closets here get picked over constantly, and owners still routinely sell five-hundred-dollar pieces for five dollars at the yard sale. The difference is knowing which is which. That is our trade.
We are California Vintage Buyers, vintage buyers based in Orange County, and we drive into Los Angeles weekly for the right collections: denim, workwear, band shirts, military pieces, western wear. One call, a conversation about what you have, and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth a visit, usually within days.
What we drive to LA for
Vintage denim
Levi’s, Lee, Wrangler, jackets and jeans, the older the better. This is our specialty.
Text us a photo Send us a photoBand & tour shirts
Concert tees from the 70s-90s, promos, and single-stitch shirts of every kind.
Text us a photo Send us a photoWorkwear
Chore coats, coveralls, gas-station jackets, and union-made pieces from American mills.
Text us a photo Send us a photoMovie & studio wardrobe
Western costume, studio stock, and wardrobe-house pieces with provenance.
Text us a photo Send us a photoWhole closets
Estates and decades-deep closets from the Valley to Long Beach, we go through everything.
Text us a photo Send us a photoFrom the Valley to the harbor
Pasadena craftsman homes, mid-century houses in the Valley, Long Beach bungalows, the apartments of Hollywood lifers, Los Angeles closets hold the deepest vintage in America. If you have inherited one, or you are finally clearing your own, do not let it go to a clearance service that weighs clothing by the pound. We pay by the piece, because we know the pieces.
Why It Matters
The difference between ordinary and valuable is in the details: a stitch, a hallmark, a date code. Knowing them is our entire job.
From the Shop
Chain Stitch Embroidery: Why Old Bowling Shirts and Club Jackets Are Worth Money
Read the transcript
Hi guys, today we're talking about chain stitch clothing. What does that mean? Well, it could have been a auto body. It could have been Bob's Painting Company. It could have been you and the boys on a bowling crew. Or it could have just been the dadgum Glendale Shrine Club. What happened is he got his boys and their crew blasted on the back of his jacket with chain stitch embroidery. Again, they did this with many different things. We love this stuff. This is quintessential. It could say Bob's Pick Apart and I would want to wear that thing because it just has chain stitch. It's just a sign of the times. It's the best. So that's what chain stitch is. To even find the sewing machines nowadays that can still do the chain stitching, it's not easy. And they're kind of expensive, the machines themselves. So there's some people that still do chain stitching or keeping it alive. You can go to them with like a new garment and say, I want this so-and-so on the back and they'll do it for you. But to find the originals, see it was a bowling shirt. That was a big one. Lots of bowling leagues, bowling teams did this. And so this is just a pristine example of what is chain stitch clothing. If you find any of this stuff, if you're cleaning out a house or an estate, it could have anything on the back. If it just has chain stitch, we love it. It's the exact era that we're looking for. So, great example. Give us a call if you're coming across old clothing and you see some chain stitch stuff in the back. Number is 949-449-1255. Bye. Bye.
How it works
Call or text photos.
A real conversation about what you have, no pressure to sell.
We come to you.
We look at everything, at your pace. We know what we're seeing.
Cash offer, same visit.
A fair price on the spot, or a full estate sale run for you.
Common questions
Is it worth your drive for my collection?
Tell us what you have by phone or photo first, that is exactly what the first call is for. For strong single pieces or solid collections, the drive from Orange County is nothing; we make it weekly.
Do you compete with the Rose Bowl and resale shops?
We sell into that world, which is precisely why we can pay more than a shop’s buy counter. A store pays wholesale against its rent; we pay against what collectors actually spend.
Can you handle a full estate in LA?
Yes, clothing is often our way into an estate, but we buy antiques, collectibles, and full contents too, and can run the same first look process in Los Angeles that we run in Orange County.
A cleanout service offered to take the whole closet by the pound. Is that a fair way to sell?
By the pound is a rate for rags, not for clothing. It pays the same number whether the box holds a plain sweatshirt or a 1950s denim jacket, so every good piece in the house ends up paying for the bad ones. Have someone read the pieces first, even if you sell the remainder in bulk afterward.
My aunt worked in the industry and her apartment is full of clothes and old paperwork. Does that change how we pack it up?
Yes. Keep every scrap of paper that was stored with the garments: wardrobe tags, rental tickets, name tapes, receipts, and photographs. For a studio-adjacent piece the provenance usually lives in the paper rather than in the garment, and once the two are separated it cannot be put back together. Leave sewn-in labels alone, even torn ones.
My dad kept his concert shirts from the Forum years. Do you buy those?
We drive to Los Angeles for exactly that closet. Original tour shirts from the 1970s through the early 1990s are seriously collected, and shirts with the tour dates printed on the back do especially well. Do not wash them, and do not sort out the ones that look too worn, because thin and faded is often the premium feel rather than a flaw. Photos of the fronts and the tags are enough for us to tell you honestly whether the drive makes sense.
One call. We’ll take it
from there.
(949) 449-12555.0 on Google · Free visit, no obligation · Cash the same visit
Mon-Sat 6 am-8 pm · Sun 8 am-5 pm
A real person answers seven days a week, weekends included. Photos sent today are usually answered the same day.
Or send your photos online Photos on your phone? Text them to (949) 449-1255
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