December 2008. It was much the same as November. Some decks went for really big cash, some were below average, and there were some real bargains to be had if you were lucky enough or vigilant enough to spot them. Normally there’s a spike in December as loved ones bid on decks for collectors I the family. Let’s face it, they make the perfect gift! They are an unabashed luxury, and skaters often won’t pull the trigger themselves, deciding it’s too frivolous. What a nice surprise under the Xmas tree! However, that really didn’t happen this year. I’m wondering what January, February and March will be like. Normally they are big months because of tax refunds, but this year, who knows?
Editor’s note: We’ve made the enlargements pop up in front of the page instead of loading in the same window, thanks to Slimbox 2. This should make for a better reading experience. If it goes over well, I’ll go back and retrofit the past columns. Note to web developers, LightBox 2 doesn’t seem to play nice with long pages. It only took me 2 hours to figure that out. If you experience any errors, please drop an email with the details, including the operating system and browser type.
Check out eBay Watch: December 2008.
24 comments
Bevilacqua
Hi Neil !
I think the “mysterious ” wheels on the RMI slalom deck could be bicolour Emotions – typical for pool or slalom between 1977 and 1979.
Any afterthought ?
Tony T
Neil,
Nice to see you posting some H-St, I love that deck – I had one back in 88/89 back in my Faze 7 days
Francesco
Hi Neil,
I’ve to say you “missed” an incredible auction back last end of November… it was a very well kept Kryptonics Foam-core 10.75 in width from 1978-79 (plain logo “Circle K” graphic, complete with original Indy’s stage I or II and Kryptonics 65 flat-wheels… It was veeeery gooood looking… it went for about 550-600 dollars… I missed the bid, and was bommed for about 4 weeks, telling myself I should have had go for more…
Ciao, Francesco_
James
I too enjoyed and appreciated the asshole of the year award. I think you should try to do one every month. That guy was a real Bozo, and I am glad he got called out.
Dave
Great job as always Neil. The stupidest part of the douchbag trying to pass off the old Powell is that it’s a relative POS McGill, as opposed to a Ray Bones or Vato Rat, which might have made sense. And the blunting of the nose, hillarious.
Some people.
houseofneil
Naah, it’s an original. The reissues were made by Gravity and sport a Gravity logo by the back truck. The reissues also have the logo in black, red and white. Completely different really.
Solboy
er make that “trainspotting”…not “rainspotting”. I just wanted to get that in before the wise-cracks appear…
Solboy
…since this column is all about rainspotting,(and nit-picking) isn’t that Logan a re-issue? From the foto it looks like a laminated model and the print is red, whereas the originals, (I had one in 78) were a solid lump of ash or whatever, with a black print logo. Did any originals come out with red print? This one, like Zed word’s Sims, kinda looks like a re-issue posing as an original complete. Had to get that out, sorry…
Zed-word
Good call on the Asshole of the Year. I too got ripped off last year on a 70s “Sims” complete that looked pretty legit. When I got it, it was had the Sims Pure Juice wheels as advertised but the deck just had a llarge sims sticker. I was pissed. Luckily I only paid $100 or so for it, still I felt like a victim of rape.
Carroll13
Mac,
Yeah, the night it came, I took it out for a spin in the garage, as the driveway was covered with snow at the time.There was laughter, and the spin included some 360s as well.
How the hell did we ride such tiny pieces of plastic?
My Lucero is a longboard by comparison!
DEWEY
thanks neil,love the bargains section.look 4 a great year bro.love from okc
Mac
Hey Carroll 13, that was my first urethane wheel board too (’76). I still have it. Mine had “natural” color wheels, but otherwise identical. Try skating on it. First, you will laugh out loud. This reaction will be followed immediately by a compulsion to attempt 360’s.
brad
Gang Green’s early cuts on the “This is Boston Not L.A.” comp. and the Sold Out 7″ were a far cry from this mid/late ’80’s version of the band that got on the cover of Thrasher one month. Good, credible, and very fast- I think.
Carroll13
PS-I found the injection date on it, I think(a friend who has worked in plastics pretty much confirmed it for me).
March 1977
Carroll13
I made my first ever Ebay bids in December, and now own my first skateboard again:
It’s plastic, it’s tiny, it’s silly, but it stoked me!
handsome jack
i saw them in the late 80s or early 90s. they were scary redfaced micks from boston. they didn’t skate at the show, all the songs were about beer as i recall.
me and a friend went sledding yesterday and wondered aloud if gang green ever snowboarded? could you imagine ‘snowboard to hell hell hell!’?
we couldn’t…..
dave
White trackers on that there Gonz board…….
LP
gang green had a decent album called “I81B4U”, a takeoff on VH’s OU812, and a precursor to that texting thing all the kids do these days.
houseofneil
the seller says Gullwings, I just checked. They do look like Trackers though I agree.
iain
Aren’t those Aggro Trackers on the Gonz complete, not Gullwings? Apart from that: killer stuff, as ever. Ebay watch is the highlight of my month, seriously. Keep it up.
cold ones
“Alcohol” by Gang Green is a pretty classic song
Mac
I think the wheels on the RMI(?) slalom deck are Emotion. They had half urethane/half rubber split down the middle. Don’t think they worked because they disappeared pretty fast, but they did have Alva, among others, riding for them. The Logan would have been better with Road Rider 4’s or OJ’s on it, but pretty nice anyway. Great variety this month, especially cool seeing all the completes.
Kilwag
I was never a fan, great concept, but just sounded like boring metal thrash to me. I probably only ever herad one or two songs, actually. Here’s a Gang Green video with some skating in it.
mc
Didn’t Gang Green actually have skateboarding as part of their shows? I wondered about Neils harsh words, I didn’t mind their stuff on This Is Boston, Not L.A. That’s all I’ve heard from them. The Wikipedia entry on them talks about multiple lineup changes.