eBay Watch: March 2007

Episode #50

Yup, we’ve reached a milestone here at eBay Watch! This is #50. Pretty incredible really. I started doing them because I was collecting and was interested in the (relatively) new eBay phenomenon. I did the first one in September 2001. Back then there was still a number of online stores offering vintage decks for sale at pretty normal prices. Oldschoolskates.com used to have Jessee Sungods, Ben Schroeder Big Ben models, McGill skull and snakes, and Cab dragon and bats, all for around $75. Skatepool used to have a Salba witchdoctor and plenty of Salba tigers for under $100.

What’s changed in 5 years? Not that much actually. Prices have stayed pretty consistent. In my first baywatch in 2001 a pink Hawk chicken skull went for $300. Now it might fetch $450. A Dogtown Bigfoot went for $2550. That’s about what it would go for today. Let me put it this way. There are a ton more old skaters skating and collecting now than there was in 2001. Blame the Z-Boys movie for that. This new influx has pushed up the price of the more common decks (Powell, Santa Cruz) that they had when they were kids. However, the decks from smaller companies or lesser known pros have stayed pretty much in the domain of hardcore collectors, and those decks haven’t see the wild variations of prices.

Anyway, happy anniversary to me. Oh yeah, and my rant last time really riled some folks up. Some random dude who wanted advice on his Kendall wrote in to threaten me. Too funny.

This month, the column is fueled by Hobgoblin English ale, the sounds of wrestlecrap radio, and is created on a 20” G5 iMac over the course of 3 days. This winter still sucks. It’s April, and we just had a snowstorm here a few days ago. Milwaukee got like 8 inches. Global warming my ass. . . .

60s/70s.

Thanks to Randy for spotting this. It’s a Humco Surfer model, got to be from the early 60s. Dig those crazy trucks with the springs, and how about the width of those steel wheels? I really love the images of the boy and girl surfers on top. Excellent stuff. $164.

Here we have a G&S Fiberflex from the mid 70s. Unknown trucks and wheels. It looks like it’s in great condition, so $202 is a great price for something of this vintage. It even has a power pivot on the tail: check out the screws. Great for doing 360s on, or for flowing though some cones.

This sucks. If I find a rare item with an unusual story I will cut and paste the item description from eBay so I don’t make shit up. I did that on this one, but the info is not there anymore. Maybe because I resized the image or something. Oh well, I’ll do it from memory. Here we have a late 70s Dogtown Wes Humpston model. I think it has original Indys and Dogtown rock and roller wheels. It has some kind of fiberglass or composite bottom ply, which is why it is black. This is very rare. Dig the ugly plastic tail skid and the one sort rail. It also has a very small Skateboarder Magazine sticker on the tail. $510.

You’ve all seen this numerous times. It’s a Z-Flex Jay Adam model. Pretty chewed up tail, but in red which is desirable. $415. By the way, Z-Flex just remade 100 of these, in fiberglass to the original dimensions, just like you remember them. The Jimmy Plumer model, in blue, undrilled. They are expensive though at $275.

This deck has always bored the hell out of me, but every time one comes up it goes for hefty cash. It’s a Kryptonics team deck from 1978. Some kind of composite material (used in skis or something) was used, and it may have been the first skateboard that used this technology, which explains the high price. Apparently they sucked to skate on. This appears to have ACS 580 trucks still on it. Note the gold front truck. $510.

Ooooh. A G&S team model from 1979 I love the 70s paint job and the honking wheel wells. It is complete with Trackers and Yandall wheels. Why do Trackers often look bent? Anyway, it’s in great condition. This wouldn’t have looked out of place in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. $733.

And what would you wear to skate such a deck? How about some OG vans, coupled with these Vans nut-hugging shorts? They’re certain to get you noticed when you hit the boardwalk. Noticed by child molesters at least. . . . $100.

80s

First up is this H-Street Ron Allen. It’s a really pretty graphic: shame about the glare though, it obliterates the best part. $301.

This one really surprised me. The Cab full dragon is still a highly desirable deck, despite the 2 Powell reissues. And red is one of the best colorways for this deck. Yes it had rails and a tailbone, but the graphic is all still there: it looks great. $210 is a major steal for a deck of this caliber.

These next 2 decks show the madness that is eBay. We have two Corey O’Brien reaper decks. One is natural, the other is a red stain. Of the two I like the natural wood one better: I like the purple robe on the reaper. The top one sold for $510, and bottom one for $773. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a COB go for over $700 before, and if so, I wouldn’t have expected it to be that colorway. They are both nice decks don’t get me wrong. But $773?? Wow.

Here’s a nice looking complete. Sometimes you can get completes cheaper than you can get the deck alone, so always look in the Completes section eBay bargain hunters. This Gator deck is in a great colorway, and is in very good condition. No holes, graphics all there. Red Gullwings, and 4 different colored wheels complete the package. $20o won it, which is less than similar Gator decks have gone for before. Nice.

Original Gonz decks are becoming like gold these days. This one isn’t even one of the earliest models: I believe the early ones had wheel wells. But it still fetched a large $770, even in this dull colorway. BTW, what the fuck was the deal with that Krooked video Gnar Gnar? $50 for a VHS tape in 2007? For that price it better be great, but it was average at best. Sorry Chris, you got taken on that one.

Here’s another deck that’s rocketing up the charts. The Powell Tommy Guerrero flaming dagger. Oldschoolskates.com used to have bunches of these for $89. This one just went off for $500, and they are climbing every month. Again, this one isn’t even an early model (no wheel-wells), but somebody with a big tax refund wanted a present and didn’t care how much they had to spend. People, AOS lists it as a pretty common deck. Use your heads!!

Everybody loves the Matt Hensley. Nice guy, great skater, great accordion player. A true street skating legend. It’s no surprise then that his first deck on H-Street would go for over a grand. This one is even signed by the man himself. $1,225. That seems about right actually.

The Santa Cruz Jason Jessee V8. I tell ya, Jason’s hysterical appearances in Stoked (the Gator documentary) have rocketed this kooky Santa Cruz pro to stardom, and sent his decks through the roof. Everybody wants a piece of this eccentric dude. It helps that his graphics were cool too. You don’t see this V8 model too much, but when you do it always goes for decent green. $503 for this mint red wood stain.

Nice. Here’s a Santa Cruz Micke Alba “gravestone” from 1986. I don’t remember this graphic on this shape, but there it is. I really like this graphic. Simple, bold and clean. $305.

You want wheel-wells? Well here’s a Mike McGill skull and snake pig from the early 80s. Wheel-wells, snub nose: the works. It doesn’t get more old school than this. It’s basically flat too. Fat and flat. Insert dirty joke here. $1,025.

OK, I lost the notes on this one. It’s obviously a Mike Vallely barnyard, but I don’t remember if it’s a World original, or the Powell version of it when he went back there in the mid 90s. The price suggests Powell: $338, but I don’t remember. I suck. That’s what happens when you copy and paste notes: you don’t pay attention. Just like storing phone numbers in your cell phone. If you had to call someone and didn’t have your cell phone would you have any idea what their number is? Of course not. So don’t get all superior on me!! OK. I’ve figured it out, because I love you guys. It is the World Industries version. The factory in the back has the World logo on it.

Rodney Mullen. Wunderkind. Skateboarding legend. The innovator of a billion tricks. Polite guy. Wore full safety gear to do freestyle. Rode for Powell Peralta. So famous that his old decks are worth mucho dinero, even used. $326. Oh snap.

Fuck yeah! Remember in 1980s TV shows, when they’d show the “punk night club”? There’d be a bunch of guys and gals in leather with mohawks, all with crazy dangling earrings and they’d have paint on their faces. I’m not sure where Hollywood got this idea from, but it would be the same every time. More often than not they’d be new wave dancing to some lame crap. Anyway, if those “punkers” had skateboards, this is the deck they’d have. A Sims “new Wave” from 1983. Radical! Outrageous! $310.

Yesss. Here we have the Vision “Old Ghosts” street model. Artwork by John Grigley. The graphic is so shaky supposedly because Grigley had broken his right arm and did the artwork for this with his left. This is a really nice example. The colors really pop on the blue. $440.

I got into it on a skate forum recently when somebody tried to argue that this graphic is one of the worst of all time. Are they nuts? This has to be one of the BEST of all time. It’s a frigging classic. The ratbone has spawned a million imitators, but much like the Ramones, none have done it better. Brilliance. It is particularly superb in the red, and others must agree because this went for a huge $2,644. Wowza.

Skull Skates did a series of band decks in the late 80s. Social Distortion, Gang Green, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers all got decks. Here is the RHCP model, complete with bent Trackers and unknown wheels. It looks to be in great shape. Perfect for the RHCP fan with everything. $381.

Here we have the original Santa Cruz Keith Meek slasher model. Surf inspired graphics. Later models dropped the wave and blew up the slasher character. He has a new model on the SC veterans Division label. $391.

Just like the Corey O’Brien above, we now have dueling Powell Mike Vallely decks. My favorite is the top one, in red, but again I am wrong. I guess the numerous reissues by Powell haven’t hurt the value of the original. The red one went for $1000, while the blue went for $1,305. Both great prices. This is one enduring graphic.

This Vision leopard “animal skin” deck was just one of a series of three different models. They also had the lizard skin and the zebra skin. I’ve never seen it sold as a full set: that would be cool. This one went for $305. AOS has it listed as 1986, but that is way off. I know because I saw it on the wall of Alan’s skateshop in Wigan England in 1983, before I came to the states.

Here’s the perfect example of what I was talking about in the intro. This is a very rare and very early Zorlac deck: the sacred cow. It is mint, and should be worth a ton. However, most of the skaters at the time paid no attention to underground skate companies, and therefore most of the old skaters getting into it again now have no interest in a deck like this. It is truly rare, much rarer than a Guerrero or a Cob. Probably only a handful exist. But it only went for $499. Oh well.

Kilwag here – Just butting in again. (See Weird Stuff, below) This is a 1988 NOS Madrid pro model for Gary Sanderson. Supposedly a rare color for the deck, but the deck in any color has got to be rare. Check out the phallic shape. Gary had a couple models on Madrid and a brother Eric that rode for Powell as an am. I can’t remember a damn thing about him except that he had boards on Madrid. I’m guessing these aren’t much sought after. This one went for $100, which seems right to me, but I’m not Neil. Then again, I think any old deck from the 80’s ought go for at least this amount as long as it’s not a Nash board. Or Atlantic Skates, for that matter. OK, Back to Neil.

90s-today

Contrast the Zorlac Sacred Cow with this piece of excrement. I guess it’s a limited Bam deck from a few years ago. Very few were made in silver or something. Who cares? I guess somebody does because it went for $800. WTF???

This G&S Neil Blender deck just slips into the 1990s section, being of 1991 vintage. It’s the “sketchy dudes” street model. Dig the double drilled nose. Pretty rare, and his last model on G&S before he went on to start Alien Workshop. $400.

Here’s an Anti-Hero (maybe the first Anti-Hero deck I’ve featured?) John Cardiel, with artwork by Chad Johnson. Or am I messing this up again? It’s clearly a Cardiel deck, but my notes say something about Chad Johnson, so I’m guessing he’s the artist? Something makes it rare because it went for $355.

Now this is nice. Some of the “newer” deck companies release decks I don’t care for, but occasionally they’ll come out with a series that rocks. Sold all together they look great. That’s how it is with this Chocolate series of street scenes, each one bearing the name of a different pro somewhere on it. Nice idea, great series, and hard to complete. $1,900.

And here’s another example. It’s a Real series from 2002, all spoofing the original Vision Gonz graphic. Gonz himself has the ghost graphic on the last one. This is a rare set, and the $271 that the buyer paid is a real steal. Each deck alone normally goes for over $100.

Reissues

And here’s another set. After their original run of full color reissues came to an end, Santa Cruz re-reissued the most popular graphics but in black and white, calling it the Ashes 2 Ashes series. Response was pretty muted in collecting circles, most taking it as a complete cop-out on the part of Santa Cruz. Sales were poor, and you can see why by the complete set shown here. The set went for $425, which if you do the match works out at about $47 a deck. Probably about right for a rider. The rumor is that they are reissuing three Salba graphics next: the bevel, the voodoo and the tiger. Please Sc do it right and do them full color, not this black and white crap.

Ah yes, the Cab propeller. Still going strong, but still ugly. $235. Yup, more than the original Cab full dragon in red above. It’s a crazy fucking world.

Weird Stuff

Hey gang, Kilwag here, guest writing the Weird Stuff part of this column. Don’t worry, it’s just a temporary situation. I promise I won’t muck up Neil’s future columns.

I’ll start you off with a old vintage skateboard racing game. Wow, old and vintage! What are the odds? It’s battery powered an looks to have been made in the late 70’s to 80’s. You have to click through to the enlargement to see a bonus closeup of the crazy kung fu stances of the racers. Classic stuff, and it went for $26.68 plus ten bucks shipping. How can you pass on a toy with such a great name as "Skateboard Racing Game?"

Still with me? Not after this “REAL Color 8 x 10 Photo is a Rare Vintage find. Featuring a very cute young Scott Baio sitting on his skateboard wearing blue jeans and a school jacket. A must for fans!” Err… yeah. Fans of what I’m not sure. What’s he riding? I dunno, cause he’s so dreamy. According to the page counter, as of this writing only 49 people looked at it, and two of them were me. There were no (zero) bids, so it could still be yours. Starting bid was set at $7.95.

As long as I’m doing teen heart throbs, here’s a shot of Leif Garrett taken at a skatepark. I couldn’t find the auction details (hadn’t planned on writing this up) but I know it was on eBay the same time I grabbed the other pics. They were in the same folder and the seller thoughtfully taped the word “eBay” on the actual print before taking a picture of it. He looks like a deer caught in headlights on this shot. The paparazzi must have jumped out from behind the snake run and ambushed him. Do a search for Leif Garrett on eBay and you’ll see that the ladies (or dudes) are still hot for vintage Lief. There are lot’s of references to "cute" "sexy" "shirtless" and even "bulge" in the auction titles.