Home › What We Buy
What we buy
Here’s the honest list. Most of it is ordinary good clothing and shoes — nothing rare, nothing old. Vintage is a specialty of ours on top of that, not the price of admission.
Start here: everyday quality clothing and shoes
This is the bulk of what we buy, week in and week out. Regular clothing and footwear from the last few years, in wearable shape, from brands people recognize — jeans, jackets, boots, sneakers, work and western wear, athletic gear, dresses, outerwear. Mall brands and department store labels are exactly right. It does not need to be old, rare, or a name off the list below to be worth a photo.
And on top of that: true vintage, where the older the better.
Vintage is the one corner where the condition rules go out the window. If a piece is genuinely old, we want to see it regardless of what shape it’s in — faded, thin, holed, sun-rotted, repaired is character on an old garment, not damage. Single-stitch tees, selvedge and big-E denim, 60s and 70s western wear, old military, chain-stitched workwear, cracked leather jackets, beat-up boots with a real maker’s stamp. Those are the pieces we get most excited about. They’re also the rarest, so don’t let a shortage of them stop you from sending photos.
How to tell if something might be vintage
You don’t have to know — that’s our job. But if you’re deciding what’s worth photographing, these are the tells:
- A single line of stitching around the sleeve and bottom hem of a t-shirt
- “Made in USA” on the tag, or a union label
- Tags that look printed rather than woven, or that have gone stiff and yellow
- Metal zippers with a brand stamped on the pull (Talon, Scovill, Conmar)
- It belonged to a grandparent, came out of a garage, or you have no idea how old it is
Names that always get our attention
These are the labels we actively look for — in clothing and footwear both, modern or old. A brand that isn’t on this list isn’t a no; this is just where our hands go first.
- Harley-Davidson
- Levi’s
- Carhartt
- Ariat
- Wrangler
- Nike
- The North Face
- New Balance
- Red Wing
- Justin
- Patagonia
- Jordan
- Hoka
- Danner
- Miss Me
- Tommy Bahama
- Ralph Lauren
- Kuhl
- Keen
- Sitka
- Military & camo
- Dress shoes
- Athletic wear
Categories worth digging out
Everyday closet clothing
The normal stuff: jeans, jackets, hoodies, dresses, button-downs, sweaters, activewear. Mall and department store brands are welcome — Ralph Lauren, American Eagle, Lululemon, Free People, Columbia, Under Armour and the like. Clean and wearable is the whole bar.
Women’s denim
Miss Me, Levi’s, Wrangler, Lucky, Silver, Rock Revival — embellished back pockets and boot cuts especially. Bring the tags into the photo if you can; sizing matters here.
Workwear & western
Carhartt jackets and coveralls, Wrangler and Levi’s denim, pearl-snap shirts, Ariat and Justin boots. Yuma is full of this and it sells well. Worn-in is fine.
Military, hunting & camo
Issue and surplus clothing, field jackets, flight suits, unit shirts, and hunting gear — Sitka, Kuhl, camo patterns, insulated bibs. Yuma is a military town and this turns up constantly in garages. Old issue is often worth the most.
Boots & shoes
Red Wing, Danner, Justin, Ariat, Nike, Jordan, Hoka, New Balance, Keen. Resoleable leather boots hold value even rough, and good leather dress shoes — Allen Edmonds, Florsheim, Johnston & Murphy and similar — are worth far more than people assume. Sneakers should have life left in the sole.
Leather & motorcycle
Harley-Davidson anything, old leather jackets and vests, vintage riding gear. Cracked and worn is not a dealbreaker on genuinely old leather.
Outdoor & athletic
The North Face, Patagonia, Columbia, Kuhl, Nike, New Balance, Hoka, Jordan, and athletic wear generally. Fleeces, puffers and shells move year-round. Older Patagonia in particular — the faded 80s and 90s pieces are the good ones.
Graphic tees
Bands, racing, rodeo, tourist and souvenir shirts, old local business shirts, anything with a big faded print. Age matters much more than condition.
Tommy Bahama & resort
Silk camp shirts and resort wear in good shape. Yuma’s winter visitor population leaves a lot of this behind and it moves reliably.
What we usually pass on
Short list, and none of it is a judgment on anybody’s closet — it’s just what doesn’t resell. We’d rather tell you now than waste your afternoon.
- Big-box store brands
- Kids’ & baby clothing
- Modern items badly stained or damaged
- Undergarments
- Heavily pilled modern knits
- Shoes worn through the sole
On the store-brand thing: the house labels sold at Walmart, Target and similar stores — and the fast-fashion sites — are made to be inexpensive up front, and there’s simply no resale market underneath them. Nothing wrong with the clothes. We just can’t pay you anything meaningful for them. Mall and department store brands are a different story entirely — send those. If it turns out we can’t use something, here’s an honest look at donating instead.
The one exception that matters: worn out but old? That’s vintage — send it. Everything in the pass list above assumes the item is modern. Age changes the answer.
Not sure? Send the photos anyway — that’s what they’re for. A good chunk of what we buy is stuff the seller nearly didn’t bother showing us. You don’t have to sort or guess — that part is our job. Running a sale first? Read this before you price the clothes.
Show us what you’ve got.
Takes about two minutes. You’ll hear back with an offer, usually the same day.
Rather just text them? (928) 294-6488