eBay Watch: June 2009

I want to start this month by thanking all of those who contributed to the raffle in my name held on skullandbones. Thanks to everybody who purchased “tickets”, and a big thanks to all who arranged it. I have spent the cash, and you will see the result of the raffle in the July BayWatch. I also want to thank all of the folks who email me with kind words about the column and also those who write in with tips and links to auctions of interest. Keep them coming because finding new and interesting stuff is a constant battle. Also, without the kind words of the folks that write in, I don’t know if I’d still be doing this!

A couple of reminders: you can click on the images to see the full size versions. If they don’t get bigger, don’t blame me: I grab the biggest image that is available on eBay, but sometimes the sellers don’t post large images, and in cases like that there isn’t much I can do. Also, remember to leave comments in the Feedback section, whether it is a simple comment or even a correction. If you won one of the auctions I mention, maybe tell us a little about the condition of the deck etc.

This month’s Baywatch is fueled by the sounds of Rancid and their new album “Let The Dominoes Fall”. Now some folks deride Rancid for being cartoon punks or sellouts, but I have nothing but respect for the boys from the East Bay. This is the band’s seventh album, and while it might not be as good as the brilliant “Life Won’t Wait” or “Out Come the Wolves”, it is still a very strong album, and might be their most diverse. It has the thrashers that you’ve come to expect, but also has some exuberant ska numbers (Booker T even plays organ on one song!), and even has a thought provoking acoustic number. No matter what the tempo, the lyrics are some of their most biting to date, focusing mainly on either the failings of the last regime (“This Place”, ‘Locomotive”), or on the failed military blunder that is the Iraq war, and more particularly the effect it is having on the families of those involved. Tim Armstrong has a very personal interest in this, with his own brother serving in Iraq and then coming home again. Some of you will roll your eyes at this, but remember, I saw The Clash five times and their first album was the first album I ever purchased. But to me, outside of the first two albums The Clash were wildly and maddeningly inconsistent. They recorded some good songs, but also recorded some absolute self-indulgent dross. Personally I find Rancid to be far more consistent, and they never turn their back on the musical style that brought them to fame in the first place. Like I say, some of you will argue vehemently, and that’s fine, but just ask yourself if you REALLY like Sandinista! or Combat Rock, or if you are just forgiving their crappy songs and huge lapses of judgment because they are “legends”. Whatever that means.

60s, 70s, early 80s.

So you thought longboards were a product of the 80s? Hell no! Here’s a longboard from the 1960s! Of course, by today’s standards this would hardly qualify, being 34.5” by 6.5”, but back then when the average deck length was about 24”, this was a monster! As you can see, it’s the Sidewalk Surfboard by Champion, and it has clay wheels that still spin well. Imagine cruising down a hill on this bad boy and having to make a quick turn! You’d be picking up your teeth in no time I’d imagine. Still, it may be rudimentary but it’s still very cool. $383.

And from a similar time period comes this “Hang Five” complete. The deck is solid mahogany (and looks to be a good 1” thick”), with Chicago wheels and trucks. It has clay wheels of course. The graphic bears the inscription “Monte 64”, so we can all assume that this dates from 1964. It measures 20” by 5” and sold for $501.

Again, staying in the 60s we have this Hobie Vita Pakt “Super Surfer”. It is almost mint, and the trucks and wheels look almost spotless. The wheels say Hobie Super Surfer and are clay. This one has alternating bands of light and dark hardwoods, and looks just beautiful. It’s just totally classic, and evokes a distant, simpler time. $677.

So let’s zoom forward a decade into the mid 1970s. Skateboarding has broken huge, and at its epicenter is the crew from Dogtown. At the center of the storm was Jay Adams, and here are two examples of maybe his most famous deck, his signature Z-Flex fiberglass. The top one is a rare white one. Production models were made in orange, blue, yellow and red, but team members had white and black too. Probably fewer than a 100 white ones were ever made, and most of those were trashed, because like I say they were for team members only. So for a white one to make it to auction is very unusual. Obviously it’s been set up and ridden, but the Bennetts are not part of the auction: they were put on the deck for display only. The same goes for the Tunnel sticker: it’s not applied, rather laid on top for display. That’s an odd choice because most people interested in something like this would want the deck as clean as possible. Why clutter up the deck? So the auction is for the deck only, but he said he might throw in the sticker. It ended up going for $999, which seems cheap to me.

And here’s a mint, undrilled production model, looking so shiny that it could have been made yesterday! It’s probably not as rare as the white one above, but being mint and all must mean more to most folks, because there was a ton of bids and it ended up going for $1,654. The interesting thing is that both sellers were from England. There are some pretty hardcore collectors of Zephyr and Z-Flex over there.

And here’s another longboard, this one coming from the mid 70s! It’s a Sims Pure Juice 36” deck, complete with Santana Trucks and 70mm red Kryptonics wheels. It has very early wooden Z-Flex rails and Sims Gold Bearings. The stickers all seem to refer to components on the board, so I assume at some point that this board had Trackers on it. This would have been a killer hill cruiser of its day, and would still probably go a bomb today. I’m just not sure about those trucks. As a package it’s cluttered, but awesome, like a killer neighborhood bar with too much crap on the walls. This sold for $400.

And let’s step back in time again to the early 60s. Here we have a Nash “Tenderfoot”, complete with steel wheels and those “trucks” that don’t look like they’d turn at all. This is a death trap, and my hats go off to anybody who actually rode one of these tooth-rattling contraptions. It still looks pretty cool though! $30.

Mid 1980s

Now I was watching this one to bid on myself. A few of the kind readers of this column held a raffle for me and raised $140, so I had some money to spend and I fancied this one. It’s a SMA Brandon Chapman “Crash and burn” from 1989. It was stuck on $99 until about an hour before auction end, but it rocketed up to $275 when all was said and done. It’s mint, and a nice looking deck. I still think that price is a little high though.

OK, if you were skating in the 80s then you will remember a number of non-skate companies trying to cash in on the skate money-train. One such company was the BMX conglomerate, Haro. They made some horrendous pads, and they also made a series of equally horrendous decks. Pretty much the entire series was on sale on eBay in June. Haro loved the obvious pun, so we had the “Circuit Board” and the “Flight deck”. The final one is the “Dots” fishtail deck. They are all from 1987, and although they are totally craptacular, many have a fond memory of anything from that time period, so they are still somewhat desirable. They all had a Buy It Now of $199, which I thought was high for crap, but they all went to the same buyer at that price. I would love to know what the buyer is going to do with these 3 decks. They are one step above Variflex or Nash in my opinion, and who’d want a Variflex hanging on the wall?

OK, so we’ve all seen this one a million times, but I thought that this was a very nice, clean SC O’Brien “Reaper”. The graphics really pop on the natural stain. It’s NOS, not in shrink though. It has one small blemish on the graphic, which I guess was enough to push it down to $425, which seems very cheap to me. That is a quality deck.

A bunch of these have popped up for sale recently. It’s the Schmitt Stix Steve Douglas “Brew” from 1988. It’s on a deep silver metallic dip, which is probably stunning in person, but less so in the photos that accompanied the auction. The yellow label and the silver just don’t work together, but I bet in some colorways it’s awesome. It went for $160.

Man, Vision made the Gator “version 2” decks in all kinds of odd colorways didn’t they? This one is a very unusual brown and black. The seller claims that “it’s almost mint!” but that clearly isn’t so. The deck has plenty of scratches, tail wear, and griptape residue on top, so “ near mint” is stretching the truth by a substantial amount, but it isn’t too bad. It went for $170, which is probably down to the strange color combination.

Just a few years ago there were probably about 5 online skateshops that had stock of lots of old school decks. Almost all of them had this deck, the Santa Cruz Claus Grabke “Holding Back Time” in multiple colorways. It was around $79 I remember. Well, no more. Most of those stores are now either gone or have basically no stock left apart from PP Steve Saiz decks, so these Grabkes have jumped in value. This deep purple stain Grabke went for $330 with 34 bidders! Who’d have thought that this Grabke would have been so desirable? The melting clocks or exploding clocks I could see going for $300+, but not this one. It has some scuffs too!

So here’s a really nice Santa Cruz Jeff Grosso “toybox” on a blue dip. I actually find this graphic far too busy, and the central figure is not dominant enough, but this deck is still highly sought after by collectors. This one apparently has a coat of “anti-glare” on it, whatever that is, and the seller calls it a Jeff Gross deck. Anyway, despite the anti-glare and the misspelling of the auction it still sold for $750.

And here’s another classic: the Powell Peralta Tommy Guerrero “flaming dagger” w/ pointy nose. It’s on a deep black dip, and is listed as NOS. It has been set up at some point but I don’t think ever skated because the deck is clean and so is the griptape. Is it just me, or does it look to have a really small wheelbase? Like 14” small. It sold for $610.

And sticking with street skaters from Powell Peralta we have this Frankie Hill “Bulldog” complete from 1989. It’s in gently used condition, and is in a light purple stain that has faded over the last 20 years to appear almost natural. The graphic is in really good shape, and the tail has little wear. It has blue Trackers and red/green Vision Blurr wheels that are really eye catching and very unusual. I like them a lot. Overall it’s a very nice complete, and the Hill Bulldog is a hard deck to find. It sold for $200

Now for a couple of Santa Cruz Jeff Kendall decks. First up is this “End of the World” deck from 1986. It is in lightly used condition. It has no major dings; a couple of minor scratches are about it. The rails and sticker on the tail might hurt the value more than anything else. The white rails in particular have to go! The purple dip is stunning and the graphics really scream off of it. That a very nice looking deck, and it sold for $561.

And here’s the Kendall “Snake” from a few years later: 1989 to be precise. This deck has jumped in value the last couple of years. It used to sell in the $150 range, but recently has been going in the $600 range. This stunning, NOS one in red stain went for $701 and had 30 bids.

Now here’s one that you don’t see every month. It’s a Liberty Mike Smith “Naked Ape” from 1989. Liberty totally had their own thing going in the late 80s, and they didn’t seem to need major exposure to keep their shit rolling. They had some very innovative shapes and some great graphics. This one is particularly nice. The sun really pops off of that red stain, and the blue caveman is well rendered. It’s a sweet looking deck and sold for $300.

And here’s another sweet looking deck. It’s a Sims Eric Nash “Lizard” from 1989. It’s NOS on a red stain, and unusually the graphic is full bleed, taking up almost the entire bottom of the deck. It’s big and bright and colorful. A striking looking deck, and it sold for only $150.

And here’s another Sims Eric Nash. This is the slightly earlier “Bandito 2” from 1988. I don’t know whether you will ever find this deck in a better colorway than this. The blue dip is truly an inspiration, allowing the green of the cactus to really scream, and framing the action beautifully. It really is an exceptional looking deck, and went with a BIN for $450, which suggests that it could have gone higher.

Here’s a Lucero Ltd. Ben Schroeder “Dummy” deck from 1990. Shape wise it looks suspiciously like some of the Schmitt Stix decks of that era, so I’m wondering if they were using Schmitt wood? I think they were put out by Santa Cruz though, so that might not be right. It was the first in what was to become a series of Schroeder graphics that featured the crash-test dummy character. It’s a great graphic for him, and is a striking deck on the bright pink stain. $274.

The Town and Country decks of the mid 80s are a favorite of mine, and this is a perfect example of why. The lime green dip and fluorescent pinks and orange are a perfect representation of the mid 80s. It’s the “Quad” model as it proudly proclaims. It has been ridden, although I’m guessing only to the beach so that the owner could go surfing. It’s been in a closet since the late 80s, so condition wise it’s still excellent. Sweet deck. $104.

So here is a Dogtown Tim Jackson “Rat” deck from 1990. It’s his only pro deck, and has the classic/obvious Dogtown graphic that you would expect. They always blended in the DT cross with something personal about the pro. For Tim it is the rat. Anybody know why? Did he have rats as a pet? Was that his nickname? Did he like to tell on people? Enquiring minds want to know. The colorway is super dull, but Dogtown geeks don’t care about such things, so it sold for $350.

And to finish off the 80s section we have this World Industries Mike Vallely “Elephant 2” from 1989. The green on green colorway is either highly unusual and rare or highly dull, depending on your viewpoint. Mine is leaning towards the “dull” variety, but that didn’t stop the winning bidder from offering a large $800. It’s a rare deck, so maybe that’s about right.

This is a Santa Cruz Jason Jessee “Lady Guadalupe” from 1991. A couple of years ago you would see green stained ones coming up almost weekly, but they have dried up since then. This one on a dark grey stain is rather unusual, and appears to be near mint condition. The colorway isn’t the best, but you don’t see this one come up that much anymore, and even though it didn’t reach the BIN of $450, it did sell for $400. The SC reissue from 5 years ago is probably as rare as the original at this point. You NEVER see those go off anymore.

90s-present day

Now this is another deck I had my eye on, and I was about to bid when it jumped to over a hundred from the $49 it had been at for days. It’s a Lucero Ltd. Riky Barnes “Riky 2” from 1990. It is mint and the graphics look pretty good and really pop off that natural deck. I like the Devo hat on the character in the graphic. It’s a sweet looking deck, and it ended at $128.

This is a SMA Mike Conroy “Crystal Ball” from 1991. It’s mint in shrink and still has the warranty card inside. SMA decks at this point were being made by Santa Cruz, which explains the SC logo and the Cruz Missile II Concave. This is one of those graphics that goes over your head at first, but when you start looking at it, it really grows on you. The screen job is super detailed, and overall it’s just a very impressive looking deck. It sold for it’s BIN of $260, and I think it would have gone higher.

Now here’s one you don’t see every day. A lot of the 90s Powell Peralta Tony Hawk graphics were absolute dogshit (the pictogram might be the worst graphic of all time), and this might be the best of this bad lot, which isn’t saying much. It’s the “shotgun mouse” from 1992. The top graphic has the mouse with a smoking shotgun and feathers all around him. Now, reaction to this deck is extremely mixed. One went off in June 2008 for over $700, but this mint blue stain went for the BIN of $196. Was that a mistake from the seller or is that what this crap graphic is truly worth? I’m not sure, but I’m leaning toward the latter. If I’m wrong and $700 is a true valuation, then somebody got a real teal bargain.

Now from the same seller we have this mint Powel Peralta Frankie Hill “Clint Eastwood” from 1991. He again listed it with a BIN of $196, which was a huge mistake this time. The last one of these to go off went for almost $3,000! Shit, that’s a tough lesson to learn. If you’re not sure, don’t put a Buy It Now on things folks!

And rounding out the 3 decks from this same seller we have this Powell Peralta Bucky Lasek “Bucky Strike” deck from 1991. Again he had the Buy It Now of $196, which again appears to be a mistake as the last one went for over $700. It’s mint and double drilled. Damn, this guy appears to have taken a bath at eBay, although he might be quite happy with the $600 he made for all 3 decks. Of course he might have made $4,500, but let’s not dwell on that!

Here’s a Planet Earth “Animal Kingdom” from 1991. The interesting thing about this deck is that this shape and graphic actually began as a Powell prototype for Tony Hawk with original artwork by Chris Miller. It was bonged for some reason, (yeah, because Hawk’s 90s graphics on Powell were so excellent. There’s no room for this when you have something as hot as the pictogram!), so Chris took the graphic idea back to his own brand new company, and it was released with minor changes as this, their first team deck. Mint in purple stain this deck sold for $71.

The original Hawk prototype is underneath with shaping instructions written on there, etc. It’s courtesy of AOS.

Assorted Crap

So here’s a 3’ by 3’ Zorlac banner from 1985. It features the famous Pushead shrunken head graphic. It’s got the metal grommets in the corners for hanging at a contest, but this has been in a frame for the past 24 years. It’s pretty awesome actually, but I don’t know what I’d do with such a thing. Of course if you have a garage ramp or something it would be perfect on the wall. Are you reading this Jeff? It went for $118. If you ever visit Probe Records in Liverpool, you will see this banner on the wall.

So last month we featured a Powell Peralta multi-logo t-shirt that went for big cash, and in June we had another, but this one went even higher. The one in May I was suspect of because it was coming from the far east, the land of counterfeit goods, but this one apparently comes a collector in Germany, so it seems on the level. It went for $500.

This one cracks me up. It was an auction for safety gear from the 70s: Rector Palm-Pad gloves, Hi-Flite gloves, and the most ridiculously short Rector shorts in the world. Seriously, we are talking gay porno film shorts here. Talk about nut-huggers, these are nut-stranglers. It shouldn’t say Rector, it should say Rectum! But seriously folks, these are the jokes, and don’t forget to tip your waitress! Really though, those thing are crazy. The gloves rock though. I had a pair or five back in the day. $61 bucks for the set.

And last month I featured a fake Christian Hosoi deck bearing a bad rip off of one of his graphics and no mention of his name. It was a big hit, with lots of folks apparently liking it more than the original thing! Well here’s another from Australian eBay, courtesy of a friend of the column called Aan from New Zealand. It’s a SC Rick Demontrond “Spidey” rip off, right down to the face and leopard skin background. The real drag is that I can’t read what nonsense is under the back truck. I think it says Mick Maniac! The brand on the top of the deck is Ritter Skateboards; does anybody know anything about them? The wheels are “Blue Storm”. This rules.

Bargains!

Up first in the Bargains! Section is this H-Street Ron Allen “Keys of Life” from 1989. It’s been set up but is in excellent condition. The graphic is all there, but of course there wasn’t much of a graphic anyway, so even mint it would look like this! Yes it’s pretty dull, but H-Street collectors are a rabid bunch, so I was surprised when this went for less than $41.

I think that of all the decks that have been reissued, the Cab full dragon might be the one where the OG value has been hit hardest. There was a time when a silver dip original full dragon in good condition would have sparked a bidding war, and it would have gone for over $700. These days, no such luck. Yes, this one is used and has been drilled for rails etc, but it’s still a full sized, full dragon cab in a very rare and striking colorway. It comes complete with Trackers and PP Ratbones. Actually, it might be the seller’s fault because he put a very low BIN of $149. It went very quickly.

Man, I love this deck, and you don’t see it very often which makes the price it went for even more puzzling. It’s a Tracker Lester Kasai “Twisted Dragons” from 1988. There’s a lot going on in the dragon: three intertwined dragons all meeting in the Japanese oak leaf, with an oak leaf print in the background. It’s a truly cool looking deck, but most must have missed it, because this complete went for $81.

Now I’m not big into 90s slicks, but I know some folks are, so I thought that this G&S Shannon May “Models Collage” from 1992 would go higher than this. It’s been used but the graphic is all there. Apparently the little kids head above the logo is Shannon may, and apparently he was a total dick. At least a number of people on AOS say so. Maybe that’s why nobody bid on his deck! $48.

Now a bargain is in the eye of the beholder. Some might look at this Zorlac Donny Myhre “Florida Gator” complete and think it went for the right price. But others will know that the deck alone goes in the $200 range, and coupled with almost untouched neon green Deadbolt trucks and Zorlac Zombu wheels, this had the potential to go pretty high to the right Zorlac collector. So for it to go for $128 seemed crazy, at least to me.

Now somebody definitely got a bargain here. Even used Natas decks normally go for far more than this. Hell, I’ve seen ones with the graphic almost completely gone get almost $100. So for this SMA/SC Natas Panther to go for only $96 was a major steal. It’s a nice green stain, and the graphic is almost completely perfect apart from a couple of scratches. Take off those rails and you’ve got a real keeper. The top of the tail is pretty bad, but nobody’s seeing that other than the wall, and the wall’s not talking

This is a Vision Primo Desiderio deck from 1987. He was a freestyler, but branched into street, and this is his streetstyle deck. He was wildly unpopular and his graphics were so crap that they ventured into Valterra territory. The funny thing is, he’s a really good skater and invented the primo slide, which still blows me away today. No matter. Even though this deck is NOS and in a black dip, it couldn’t get a buyer 20 years ago and had a hard time getting a buyer today. $83 and this could have been yours.

Look, you want to buy an 80s complete for a nostalgia trip or to impress your nerdy friends at your next work party? Then this was the auction for you. Everybody remembers the Vision Psycho Stick, and this one is complete with white Trackers and red Vision Shredders. It’s actually a rocking setup that screams 80s!!! It’s louder than Don Johnsons pastel jacket or George Michaels’ stubble. $142 and instant credibility could be yours.

And this one is just fucking insulting. Look, I don’t know who the Godoys pissed off, but guys, come on. This is an Iron Cross Steve Godoy “fire dragon” from 1989. Iron Cross decks were hard to find back in 1990, so 20 years later they are rare as all get out. I know the graphic is not that great, but ANY Godoy deck is rare, and this one is NOS, so for it to go for $41 is ludicrous. I guess that only big names are selling these days.

And rounding things out this month we have this Uncle Wiggley “Fishstik” complete from 1986. It’s in really good shape overall and has all kinds of vintage stickers on there, all surf related though. It’s epoxy/glass like most of their decks were, and is complete with Gullwing trucks and Vision Shredders. Uncle Wiggley was one of those small companies that always put out a quality product and interesting shapes and graphics. This is no exception. $82 took it.

See ya next month.

-Neil