I couldn’t find anything on the Interwebs about what I thought was the product name. And then I realized “Free Wheelie” was a pun on the killer whale motif. Pretty slow on the uptake, huh Kil,wag? Straight from eBay Poland. Turns out these things are called Rat Tailz. A company named Sport Fun made skateboards as far back as 1978, although there’s no way to tell if the they are the same entity. – Thanks to M1CK3Y for the tip.

OK, first of all let me apologize for this being so late. I went to a family wedding in England and was gone for 2 weeks mid-August, and that’s thrown everything completely off for July and August. I was thinking about combining them, but I have so many decks that I didn’t think that would be fair and it wouldn’t make sense. So here’s July, and August should follow in a couple of weeks, but be aware that I missed 2 weeks of auctions, so I don’t have as many auctions as usual for August. SO if you won anything for big dollars, or if you got a huge bargain in August, let me know and send me the eBay link and I’ll include it in August. There will be no music review this month because I’m so behind. Sorry about that. I was going to review Disposable 2, but I may not do that at all because I found it fundamentally flawed on many levels, but I’m sure it was a ton of work, so I’m going to leave it be.

Err…. Wha? I’ve never seen the “Highway Fox” brand, but there’s a Highway Fox “Dolphin” model on eBay that looks like a Jason Jesse Neptune “tribute.”Also amusing, the seller claims the board has “has great vintage 60’s 70’s graphics.” And now I’ve officially gone over the limit for using quotations in a post. Check it out. – Thanks to Dennis Dreiling for the tip.

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…

Let me just nip this in the bud, don’t send me an email asking me to highlight your auction, because I won’t do it, unless it’s a collection of 23 NOS Sims boards from the 70’s and early 80’s, like this one. Wow. 9 days to go and $4k, but it hasn’t reached the minimum yet. I would have thought you could make more money by parting these decks out, but The Skateboard Pimp must be in a hurry. Nice, big photos of the entire collection. Check it out. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip. P.S.: Did you guys forget about the May eBay Watch?

Something odd happened this month. I was sorting through the images of the decks, putting them in categories, when I noticed something odd: I didn’t have any 90s decks. That has never happened before, and I could have gone back through and looked for 90s decks, but that would have been forcing it. I normally go with whatever catches my eye, and either there were no interesting (to me) 90s decks this month, or there were some but the pictures just sucked so I didn’t consider them. That happens a lot actually. A blurry, postage stamp sized image of the deck on a crappy background. If I can’t see the deck, then you can’t see the deck, and I’m basically describing it blind. The best ones are where they actually put a huge blow up of the deck in the auction. That is the image I grab, scaling it down for the main display, but if you click on it you see it full sized. You all knew that, right? That if you click on the deck image you see it the size it was originally displayed. So, no 90s section this month, but there’s a very long 80s section…

First off this month I want to thank all of the folks who email in to tell me how much they enjoy the column, whether it be to the email address here or on skullandbones. I’m glad that so many people all around the world seem to enjoy my pontificating and nonsense. Also for those that send in links to auctions etc, that is much appreciated too. I may not use them because I don’t feature decks on price alone anymore. The photos have to be good, and something has to appeal to me aesthetically. But still, keep sending them in, especially if you see a bargain. They are difficult to spot. Check out eBay Watch: April 2009

March 2009. OK ok, I know I’m weeks late with this. Shit, I could be doing the April one! But hey stuff happens; sometimes you just don’t feel like sitting down in front of a computer for 6 hours on a weekend. I had contemplated not doing this anymore, but I do enjoy it, and it seems from some of the comments I’ve gotten, you guys like it too. Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement, by the way. I’m always open to complements and to bribes too if need be, so send your old decks along! And I know that you all want me to make these longer, but realistically I have to shorten them. They started off with about 15 decks, but every month they get longer and longer. This month is the longest yet, clocking in at 62 items and over 5,600 words. These are starting to feel like college term papers! So I might settle on about 40 items in the future. That should allow them to come out in a more timely fashion too.

February 2009. Much as in January, the economy might suck, but you wouldn’t know it on eBay. There were some BIG auctions that went off this month, and a lot of cash thrown around. Tax refunds really come to bear at this time of month, with collectors throwing their “free money” at any grails that happen to come up. And there’s something else I want to repeat from my January column, and this is dedicated to 2 sellers in particular: “classicadsfromthepast” and “vintagogaga”. ENOUGH ALREADY! Stop cutting up old mags and selling the individual pages on eBay for $10! Nobody is buying your crap, so just stop! Your crap is overrunning EBay! Do a search fro Steve Douglas. You might find one deck, but I can guarantee that you will get about 5 ads come up in the search; all ripped out of 80s skate magazines. One of the sellers has very little feedback, and all that there is is from the same buyer that apparently can’t get enough of Tony Hawk ads, and who hasn’t figured out that he could buy the original mags and do the cutting out himself. Fuck me! This is as lame as all of…

January 2009. The economy might be in the toilet, but you wouldn’t know it on eBay. There were some BIG auctions that went off this month, and a lot of cash thrown around. Maybe it was early tax refunds; maybe it was just a case of right place, right time, but whatever the case, it was an exciting month. Let me just say something though, something that is really starting to bug me. Sellers, please do a modicum of research before you set your prices. I’m really getting tired of seeing the same decks up, month in month out with the same ridiculous prices. Hello, McFly, your Lance Mountain “family” deck is not going to sell for $200, it doesn’t matter how many times you keep putting it up there. If you did 5 minutes of research you’d see that about 5 family decks went off in the last 2 weeks, all selling in the $50 range. So why you think people are going to pony up 4 times what it’s worth is a freaking mystery. Also, if I see that red Chris Miller “dog” at $500 again I’ll scream. It’s been up for like 3 months. Nobody is going…