There was a time when a skateboard selling for $6,000 at auction would raise eyebrows. I’m not sure what to make of this insanity. The Tony Hawk’s 900 Collection bids closed at Julien’s Auction and some skateboards and related paraphernalia sold for some truly astounding numbers. So astounding that it makes you wonder if Julien’s is a real thing or not, but it is. The deck Tony Hawk landed his first 900 on sold for $1,152,000. That cannot be right. Is it right? How about 57k for a pair of sweaty kneepads? Some of this might make sense conceding the proceeds are going towards Tony’s charity, The Skatepark Project. My first thought was that somebody or some corporation bought these items at knowingly inflated prices with an eye towards deductions, but you can only deduct the amount you overpaid for the items, and the IRS bases this off the items value listed the auction catalog. In the case of the the 900 board, the estimated value was between $500,00-$700,000. That deduction could be worth less than half of what they paid. It’s also worth noting that the auction listings state that “a portion of the proceeds” will go to the charity. Is that auction speak for everything after the auction fees? Are the auction prices accidentally listed in the European style, with commas instead of a decimal point? Is this real?
It seems unlikely that Tony himself was bidding on those items, especially with the way he tends to accumulate divorces. You would think that the estimate would be grossly overinflated, but apparently it wasn’t. Hopefully the Skatepark Project will announce the amount raised, or eventually someone will go through their financials and do the same. If all this money builds a skatepark then all is well. Otherwise the thought of some rich prick hoarding skateboard memorabilia for… for what? An investment? Ego? I still don’t understand this.
Here’s a sample of some of the items that sold for absurd prices.
There’s another skateboard collection with more reasonable bids and expectations called Skate Culture Vintage Grails Of The 70’S And 80’S. At first glance it looks like strictly Powell Peralta gear, but if you manage to scroll past the first 70 items, other brands show up. Eventually you can see some junky Valterra advertising boards, (Hawaiian Punch, Coca Cola, Cheetos) currently going for over $100. You know, that Max Headroom Holy Grail item you’ve been desperately searching for…. They must have been priced by those guys that join a Facebook group for collectors with a pic of something they bought at a yard sale and ask “How much is this worth?”
Of the 338 items in the collection, there are definitely some interesting items. You have to scroll down pretty far to get to some of the 70’s and 60’s boards, and odd mini-collections that include items like stickers, the odd toy, or those lunchboxes. It’s truly interesting that the auction house is even bothering with a lot of these items, especially considering the fact that they are all well photographed.
So this is the landscape we live in now. Are skateboards the new crypto? Stay tuned as I try to talk Neil into starting a Julien’s Watch column.
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