Sell to Us · San Diego

Sell vintage clothing in San Diego, a city built for our trade.

Free visit · cash offers · no obligation

(949) 449-1255Text photos

California Vintage Buyers buys vintage clothing across San Diego County: old denim and Levi’s, workwear, sea bags and flight jackets, surf and band t-shirts, military uniforms and western wear. Free house call, every piece read in front of you and paid for in cash on the spot. San Diego is a regular run for us. Call (949) 449-1255.

San Diego closets are unlike anywhere else in California. A century of Navy and Marine families left sea bags, flight jackets, and uniforms in attics from Coronado to Clairemont. Surf culture printed its own history in Windansea and Pacific Beach. Both worlds aged into exactly the vintage that collectors now chase.

We are California Vintage Buyers, based in Orange County, and San Diego is a regular run for us. Tell us what you have by phone or photo, and if it is right we will be at your door within the week, often sooner. Everything is evaluated in front of you and paid for on the spot.

What San Diego closets hold

Military clothing

Flight jackets, deck jackets, uniforms, and sea bags from Navy and Marine service across every era.

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Surf brands and shop tees

Early surf labels, shop shirts, contest tees, and board shorts from the 60s-80s.

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Denim and workwear

Levi’s, Lee, and Wrangler, plus shipyard and aviation workwear with honest wear.

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Aloha and resort wear

Rayon Hawaiian shirts brought home through San Diego by generations of sailors.

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Full closets and estates

We go through everything, from the uniform trunk to the garage.

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A Navy town keeps its gear

The estates we visit in San Diego often belong to career service members, and the best pieces are usually in the garage footlocker, not the bedroom closet. A G-1 with squadron patches, deck pants from a Pacific cruise, the jacket bought in Yokosuka in 1952: these are serious collector pieces now. From Point Loma and Coronado to La Mesa, Chula Vista, and Oceanside on the way down, we cover the whole county.

Gray 1964 JFK Newer Frontiers memorial sweatshirt with hangtag attached
A 1964 JFK sweatshirt, hangtag still on it, six decades later.

A Recent Find

A 1940s Levi’s Type 1 jacket, sold to us by a former dealer who knew exactly what he had. We paid $12,000 in cash, the same day.

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.

Watch page with full transcript

How it works

01

Call or text photos.

A real conversation about what you have, no pressure to sell.

02

We come to you.

We look at everything, at your pace. We know what we're seeing.

03

Cash offer, same visit.

A fair price on the spot, or a full estate sale run for you.

Common questions

Is the drive from Orange County really worth it for you?

For the right pieces, absolutely. A description over the phone or a few photos tells us quickly. San Diego trips usually group several stops, so even a modest collection can fit the route.

We have a mix of military gear and regular clothing. Do you want both?

Yes. Military pieces and civilian vintage usually travel together in a Navy family home, and we buy across both. Keep everything together until we look.

Can you handle a full estate in San Diego?

Yes. We run the same walkthrough and single-offer purchase in San Diego that we run in Orange County, and we coordinate with out-of-town family by phone when needed.

How can I tell an issued G-1 flight jacket from a later copy?

Look inside at the collar and along the lining for a stamped contract label with a spec number and a size, since issued jackets carry one and most later copies do not. Real squadron patches are leather or embroidered and sewn down with age-darkened thread, never glued or heat-pressed. The collar should be real sheared sheepskin, dense and a little greasy to the touch. Do not remove the patches or the name tape before selling, because the squadron history is much of what a collector is paying for.

Dad brought a silk souvenir jacket home from Yokosuka. How do I tell a period one from a later copy?

Look at the embroidery from the inside. Period souvenir jackets are chain stitched, so the reverse shows dense, slightly uneven work and the thread sits into the rayon rather than on top of it. Later copies are machine embroidered onto a stiff backing patch, with English-language labels and modern sizing tags. Do not have one dry cleaned or press it with a hot iron, because rayon scorches easily and the raised embroidery flattens permanently.

Should we launder the sea bag and the uniforms before you come out?

Please do not. The stenciled name and service number on a sea bag or a set of dungarees is the provenance, and washing fades that faster than anything else. Old wool and cotton uniforms shrink and bleed at the piping, and dry cleaning strips the finish from a flight jacket’s leather and dries out its lining. We would far rather see dust and a crease than a clean garment with its markings gone.

Are old surf shop t-shirts actually worth anything?

Honestly, most bring modest money: surf, skate, and brand tees generally trade around $30 to $250, with early brand shirts and defunct shop tees at the top of that range. What raises a San Diego shirt is the same thing that raises a band tee: single-stitch hems, an era tag, and an original print rather than a reissue. A shop that no longer exists cannot reprint its shirt, which is exactly why collectors chase them. Photograph the graphic and the tag before deciding anything.

One call. We’ll take itfrom there.

(949) 449-1255
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