One of the most visited areas on this site is House of Neil’s eBay Watch. You might say it’s beloved, actually. There are two main types of people who read his column; Those who just like seeing all the old and obscure boards, and those that use it as a tool for finding out how much something is worth. A few months back some people in “the collector’s community” got upset with Neil because he reported how much a board sold for at an auction, but the buyer never actually paid for it. Some people felt Neil was practicing irresponsible journalism that would somehow influence the outcome of future auctions. You can probably guess which forum that discussion took place on. As part of an ongoing campaign to keep people from getting their panties in a bunch, Neil does not comment on the value of skateboards that are currently in auction or otherwise for sale, or thinking about being sold. That means you should not ask us how much you think a particular board is worth. We won’t tell you. Not because we are elitist snobs or dicks, (well…) we just can’t do it without pissing someone off. And besides,…

Main I’ve been remiss with this one because it happened before Christmas! Big news! We have a new champion! The $6,000 Hawk is no longer the high price champ! On December 18 2007 a Caster Chris Strople was won at auction for $6,099. It’s a flat deck with 2 layers of fiberglass between the plies. It’s been set up and ridden, and has a Woody space plate on the tail.

Well, March was maybe the best month I’ve seen since I’ve started doing this column. I feature 43 items, of which 13 went for over $1,000. That’s got to be a record, but I’m not going back and looking through all of the old columns to validate. And two decks went for over $3,000. By the way, thanks to everybody who writes in with kind words about the column. I appreciate all of your kind words. The fact that we get so many hits and so much feedback from all over the world is amazing, and it’s what keeps me doing it month after month. Just for Randy, this month’s Baywatch is fueled by Hornsby cider and the rocking punk rock sound of The Carbonas. Have you been missing the Briefs recently? Then give the Carbonas a try. They’ll fix you right up. Their new album is available on iTunes, if you are interested. So let’s get to the meat..

Ha! Made you look! So, save your “Don’t do it” speeches. If you are going to geek out over shoes and skateboard toys, this Reese Forbes Nike SB figure would be your wet dream. He came with extra shoes and shoe boxes. I guess these are hard to come by. I don’t know when they were released, but there’s a set of two on eBay going for $195. That’s a lot of cash for a an upscale Tech Deck Dude. Archived for posterity after the jump. [ Source: Skateboarding Fashion Right images: Sneaker News ]

How was February where you live? Here in Chicago it sucked ass. It has been the worst winter for snow that I can remember, and February was the worst month yet. We’ve hadAbout 60” of snow so far this winter: the average is 40”, making it in the top 5 worst winters in 80 years. And when it gets done dumping snow on us, then the temperature plummets to zero, making it icy and just miserable. Basically what I’m saying is, if you’ve gotten any skating in this winter you’re lucky. Lots of us haven’t. By the way, even though I write this column every month, I want to thank Kilwag for getting it up on Skate and Annoy. I don’t know what all is involved in the back end, but he does a great job on the site and I appreciate all he does or this column. Thanks. Let’s get to it.

So here we are again. Another month down, and more old decks to talk about. Just a quick reminder, you can click on the small images to enlarge them. Sometimes they show the top and bottom of the deck or some other detail that was cropped out for the sake of display in the article. Most times the enlarged versions are vertically oriented as well. Check out eBay Watch for January of 2008

Sorry this has taken so long. I set it out weeks ago, but none of the decks really excited me too much, so it’s been tough building the enthusiasm to actually sit down and do it!! This month the column is brought to you by the sounds of The Jam. All Mod Cons actually. Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler are currently touring with 2 other guys as From The Jam. They play all of The Jam classics, and in Jam style, not the hippy crap style that Weller does these days. From hat I hear they put on a kick ass show. I’ve got a ticket for the Chicago show, so we shall see. eBay Watch: December 2007

Now this, this was a month. Lots of really cool decks came and went on eBay in November. Oh sure there was the usual array of Hawks and McGills etc, but I found some really good tack, some stuff that hardly ever comes up. Some months can feel like a real chore, but I’m excited to do it this month! This month the column is brought to you by the sounds of the Hollywood Blondes and the refreshing taste of Bombardier ale. Good stuff. If you are ever in Chicago, stop by the Globe pub on Irving Park. Lots of great English beers and the food isn’t bad either. Check out: eBay Watch for November 2007.

…great for collectors, or sports bars don’t miss this one NOS or not, $75 (shipping included) is too much for a plastic skateboard. Especially if you are just going to bolt to the wall of the local TGI Fridays knockoff. Still, it looks an awful lot like the first skateboard I ever set foot on. The listing says it’s a Marco Polo brand. That’s a new (old) one to me. I swear there must have been one mold for these yellow boards that a hundred different companies copied outright and made a slight modification for a different brand name.

One of the things on my long list of “eventuallys” for this site is a gallery of dead skateboard magazines. I have a milk crate in my basement with some old skate rags, and I thought I had a few gems that would surprise people. Well I don’t have anything compared to Vintage Skateboard Magazines. It’s a work in progress without a lot of bells and whistles. What it does have are covers of skateboarding magazines from the 60’s to the 80’s from the US, UK, France, Australia and Japan. Some of the UK issues have scans of inside pages as well. There’s a lot of interesting documentation there, my only beef is that the scans aren’t larger. If it were up to me, every page would be available, but then again maybe it’s a good thing it isn’t up to me since our gallery isn’t even up yet. Check out the varied and often wacky past of skateboard magazine publishing at Vintage Skateboard Magazines.