I hate martinis, actually. Except on one occasion I had some chocolate martinis that were good. Real good. I like liquor in the form of girlie drinks. Cosmos, lemon drops, anything sweet. I wish I could say I had a few in me when I bought this “vintage” cocktail napkin off eBay. It was staring at me. Mocking me. If iwas in AA it would be mocktail-ing me. Still, it was a $2 “buy it now.” Right now there’s an unopened pack of 16 for $13. It says right in the damn listing that “This package of napkins is very collectible.” So it has to be. I mean, I collected one, so they aren’t exactly lying. I’d like to think this vintage napkin was of the vintage from when the office Christmas party was a punchline for a gag involving some poor schmuck with a lampshade over his head, and that would mean 60’s or 70’s if I had my druthers. Coincidentally, that was about the last time someone used the phrase “if I had my druthers.”

So October 2009 was a big one. If this was anything to go by, then we can say that the downtown is over, at least in regards to the pocketbooks of serious skate collectors! Lots of stuff went for over $1000, and some went far higher than that. What do some of our big spenders do for a living I wonder? And are they even skaters? Or do we have art collectors out there who are starting to expand into old skateboards? Or do we have famous/rich folk who used to skate and who know want to recapture a piece of their youth and they don’t care what it costs to reclaim it? And just who the fuck has $5,000 discretionary income burning a hole in their pocket these days anyway? Just some interesting thoughts to ponder. Check out eBay Watch: October 2009

Another month has flown by and here we have another installment of Baywatch. There’s lost more goodies this month, and hopefully some that you have never seen before. The longer I do this the less inclined I am to keep on featuring the same decks from the same companies, high ticket items though they might be. There’s only so many ways to describe a Hawk birdclaw without it being repetitive, so I’ll choose something else instead. It might not be as iconic, or go for as much money, but that’s not what this column is about. It’s not a price guide, more a sampling of what I find interesting, and hopefully you do too. So, variety is the key for me at the moment.

It’s Woodstock on a skateboard. Celebrating random eBay finds that I forgot to document, but at least managed to drag an image into a folder and save it.

Let me start off by thanking all those who sent in links to auctions that finished in August. Like I said last month, I missed 2 weeks of auctions because I was out of the country, and consequently I didn’t have very many decks to highlight. Well you all came though and sent in tons of links, so thanks for that. Thanks to you, this month features about the same amount of decks as usual! And to think, I was looking forward to doing a shorter one this month! Now, unfortunately I lost all of the links to the featured auctions this month. I normally keep the auction link in the Spotlight Comments field of the file, but I ran some maintenance utilities on my MacBook Pro a few days ago, and it appears to have cleaned out all of the metadata in the files. So I have no original auction info to check back on for things like trucks and wheels on completes etc. If some details seem scarce this month, that’s why. Check out eBay Watch: August 2009 EDITOR’S NOTE: We seem to get a constant trickle of emails from people asking Neil to appraise a skateboards that…

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

Yes, they did make trucks (baseplates) for rollerskates too. There’s a vintage set up on eBay right now, currently up to $400, with a buy it now of $500. Hell, you can still buy Powell Roller Bones wheels at your local rollerskating rink. – Thanks to Colin for the tip.

HouseofNeil hates the band Sublime and their skateboards. But Sublimegman doesn’t. He’s got a more than a handful and he’s been doling them out on eBay: You seen it here first! This thing is major old school and you just couldn’t ask for a more awesome piece of “sublime” history. Just a thing of beauty……PERIOD! Do what you have to do,……beg, borrow and steal to get this baby…..Sh*t,….If you need to sell one of your organs to benefit science and your sublime collection,….so be it!!!! Scars will heal, Bro,…another chance to get one of these skate decks may not come around again! Call the “organ donor hotline” quick,…You’ve got an auction to win!! I don’t really need to promote this thing,……It sells itself….. An insanely RARE, OOP, 100 MADE, completely key “40 oz. to Freedom” skateboards… Don’t get all high and let this auction pass you by. Put this sucka under your watch list, add it to your “favorites”,…whateva….just don’t be late when the bell rings on this one! The band had 100 of these things made and somehow this guy has at least 10 of them. Hang on, is that Diamond Dave? – Thanks to Dutch Guy for the…

This is an old decal, you know, the kind you put in water and slide it off onto a plastic model. I found it on eBay, but there wasn’t any information on it other than “vintage”. I would have guessed 60’s but The name Aaron Loyd turned up a surfboard shaper who was in business in Pismo beach in the early 70’s. Whenever it was, it’s pretty obvious this came from a different time. I don’t think this type of racial stereotype would fly nowadays. Loyd Surf is now a father-son operation. I’ve got an email into them to see if that was the case, and maybe find out a little more.

Jay Adams is selling a Jay Adams SMA deck on eBay. I don’t know if this is/was a production model or a one off. He gives no details on the deck auction except to say he will personalize an autograph if you want. Just looking at the picture makes me feel intimidated into bidding. Less than five hours left. UPDATE: It’s over.