I want to start off this December Baywatch by thanking a faithful reader who goes by the excellent handle “she was killed by space junk.” Thanks for the stickers, much appreciated. You rule. Now back to business. December was another down month, with some great bargains to be had. I know. I got one. But more of that later. December also saw the sell off of a bunch of 60s decks, and what appears to be some of Mike McGill’s personal collection. Of course, that’s just conjecture on my part, but what isn’t?
This month, this column is fueled by PG Tips, the sounds of The Manges, and is 100% created on a 20” G5 iMac at 7.30AM on a Saturday morning. It’s one of those Chicago mornings where I could maybe skate, but it rained overnight and it’s 30 degrees. Easy to talk yourself out of it.
60’s-70’s
Let’s start off with that 60s stuff I was talking about. A bunch of 60s complete sin great condition surfaced, all from the same seller. Most are in great condition, and are real works of art. This one is the Boss Man model. Simple top graphic, wheels and trucks appear to be in great, rust-free condition. $224.
Here’s another, but this one shows a lot of wear, probably from getting damp in a garage or something. It’s the classic Sidewalk Surfboard model, 22.5” long, and it went for $202. Clay wheels I would imagine, and those trucks are pretty rusted up. That’s OK, because most kids these days don’t use them anyway. Ollie this, biatch.
This one is the best one yet. The “Surfer Sam” model. Nice vertical pin striping. Sam appears to be downing a brew while riding a wave. He also appears to need to lose some weight. $240.
Now this one kicks major ass. It’s the Zipee Sidewalk Surfboard and looks like it could have been made yesterday. Talk about mint condition. I remember something similar to this when I was a kid. It had black rubber wheels and was a fucking death trap. $207.
All Cold War Skateboards fans should recognize this one. It’s the original Nash Shark, in very good condition. A little more width on this bad boy than the typical 60s plank, and those graphics are excellent. It only went for $44 though. I would have bid if I’d have seen it. Next to it is the newest Cold War deck, that has a slight resemblance. OK, call it a tribute. It’s a great deck though: I’m riding one actually. $49 (which includes shipping) will get you one so you can be cool like me!
(Err, tribute? Complete appropriation is more like it. What’s that called? Oh yeah! Rip off! K.ed)
Moving on a little, here’s a good condition Z-Flex Jay Adams model. Yellow, undrilled. I seem to see a couple of these go off monthly, but the price never drops, which is strange, because I would imagine there would be a very small band of collectors into this stuff, and they would all have them by now. $1,200.
80’s
I bet the seller wishes that he’d kept this deck in better condition. It’s a 1st edition Tony Hawk, but pretty beat to hell, with some really odd wear marks. It looks like the rails were glued on, because you can see the paint has come off when they were pulled off. Same for the riser pads. It still fetched $600 though, which says a lot for the power of this graphic. (? more like the power of Tony Hawk! k.ed)
A great looking Gator. It’s the third Gator model (I think), but the fade from orange to yellow with the teal accents works really well here. Great looking board. $365.
Not much to say about this one. Gonz first graphic on Vision. No wheel wells. Ugly colorway. Minty though. $587.
The Santa Cruz Jeff Grosso “acid tongue”. Pretty rare, and this a particularly nice specimen. $341.
This is a deck that has been going up and up. It’s one of the Team Hosoi hammerhead decks. This one features a very intricate collage of all kinds of stuff. Graphics by Jim Phillips. You have to see it close up to really appreciate it. Three went off in the period of a week. The top one went off for $1150, the middle blue one for $1000, and the bottom brown went for $911. That’s pretty consistent, and shows big demand.
You used to see a ton of these on eBay every month, but they were the more common green stain ones. You don’t see this natural wood one very much, especially double-drilled on the nose. It’s the Jason Jessee “Guadalupe” from Santa Cruz of course. $353.
I am sick to death of the Jason Jessee Sungod, so I don’t think I’m going to show it for awhile. This is the last time, so enjoy. $535.
Now here’s a real peach. A Kryptonics complete from the early 80s. It looks like a generic team model, but the graphics are excellent, and it’s in great shape. The stickers add to the whole look. It appears to have early Indys on it, with what looks like homemade copers made out of PVC. The wheels are G&S Rollerballs: very unusual. It’s an awesome complete of the time. $637.
A Schmitt Stix Lucero X2. Nicely color matched with white Trackers, complemented by a white tailbone, and green risers complemented with a green nose bone. He must have been the most color-coordinated skater on the street, but it never appears to have seen any action. The tailbone is even unblemished. Maybe his mommy banned him for taking it outside. Of course he’s thanking her now, because his flawless complete fetched $499.
Now here’s one of those real eBay bargains I was talking about. It’s a Dogtown Lucian Hendricks from 1989. Rare in the teal green stain, and minty fresh. Not the most impressive of graphics, but $41? Yup, the lucky buyer got it for $41. I know because it was me. You can’t buy a blank at the local skate shop for that, and this is a Dogtown. Unreal.
Aaaah. It’s the Nordic hell seller again. Seriously, he really likes his background black doesn’t he? And this time the deck fits really well with the gothic theme. It’s an H-Street Tony Magnusson hanging bat from 1988. Actually, it might have been before H-Street, when he had his own deal going. Either way it’s a nice deck. $430.
Here’s another bargain, and I don’t know how the hell this happened. It’s a G&S Chris Miller mini lizard from 1985. Great condition. No obvious flaws. $81??? That price is just stupid. Add another $200 and it might have been what I expected. But $81? The seller really got shafted on this one.
Two Natas decks, back to back. The top one is the “crazy cat” the bottom one is the classic panther. Both by SMA by way of Santa Cruz. The top one went for $370, and the bottom one went for $616. So there. That’s the going rate for two of the most popular Natas decks.
Uggh. Complete crap on this Rob Roskopp. Sub-Nash “gross-out” graphics by Jimbo Phillips. But somebody liked it I guess, because it went for $520. And I’m not buying the shrink-wrap either. It looks like it is a home wrap job, not factory.
And here’s my detective work for the day. Suddenly all of these McGill decks hit the bay, one mint, the others all used and stickered up, but no stickers from a sponsor that Mike didn’t have. They were all listed by one of those 3rd party “we’ll sell your stuff on eBay so you don’t have to because you’re too lazy” places. So my guess is that McGill needed some quick cash so he sold some of his old stuff. I could be completely wrong of course, but that’s my guess and I’m sticking to it. Oh yeah, the gold one sold for $177, the used red for $305, and the mint red went for $676. That’s over $1150 in Mike’s wallet.
90’s-today
First up is the first Bam pro model from Toy Machine. It’s the mullet model, and by all accounts it’s pretty rare. Like everything Bam does I think it’s lame as fuck, but what do I know. I’m sitting here doing this and he’s making millions. Anyways, $338.
And how much would you pay for Bam’s autograph? He’d have to pay you? Well, I agree, but somebody disagrees, and that somebody paid $380 to get Bam’s John Hancock on this element deck. Wow. All I can guess is that it was a Xmas present for their kid. I hope.
Talking about autographs, how about the autographs of all the Birdhouse team on this splendid gold deck from 1997? It’s a “reissue” of Hawk’s most famous graphic, the chicken skull, from Birdhouse. It is a striking deck, but $550? That’s a lot of scratch for some sharpie marks.
Below it is another Tony Hawk piece. This was ridden by Tony in a TV show or something. $502. Actually, here’s the guy’s babble, so you know the score:
“TONY HAWK?AUTOGRAPHED PERSONAL SKATEBOARD- Tony’s ACTUAL, PERSONAL Skateboard- Used on the television show “What I Like About You” Great one of a kind item! . . . . set up and ridden by Tony himself! The skateboard was given to the shows’ star Amanda Bynes after it was autographed boldly in Sharpie pen.”
So now you know.
Jason Lee fans. They are a crazy bunch. How crazy? Crazy enough to drop $2,500 on this Blind deck from the early 90s. It’s in great shape, but $2500 is a lot of money, and let’s face it, this is one ugly deck in an ugly colorway.
I’m not sure why I’m throwing this in here, but I am. Tracker do a much better job with the reissues than most companies, even drilling with the old truck mounting pattern, and doing wheel wells etc. They are exact replicas of the 80s decks. A few months back they released a reissue of the Lester Kasai “oak leaf” in yellow. It was very limited, 250 decks I believe. They sold out very fast, and Tracker has now released it in red too. The yellow is a far superior colorway IMHO. This one is signed by Lester. Look for these to go up. $83.
This Mike Vallely came from Mike’s personal collection. It’s a Powell skateboards barnyard deck. I know, I know. The barnyard is a WI deck, but after Mike went back to Powell for a short time in the early 90s, he had them remake this graphic. Only a few were made, so this is a very rare deck. The graphics do vary a little from the WI version. $712.
I know very little about this deck. It’s a Plan B Rick Howard from 1992. Mint, and very rare apparently. $400. So now you know as much as I do.
Jeff Koons. Who is Jeff Koons? Fuck if I know. I guess he’s some kind of artist? He must draw monkeys a lot I guess, because his artwork is on this series of 3 decks from Supreme. The series is called “Monkey Train”. They look totally naff to me, like something you’d see from a company selling $49 completes on eBay. But I guess his art is highly sought after, so these went for $1,025. It’s a strange world.
(Jeff Koons is the artist that married porn star/member of Italian parliament Cicciolina – k.ed)
Weird / Stupid Shit
Flashback to 1985. Champaign-Urbana Illinois. We had our crew of skaters, and we thought we were pretty down. Pretty damned cool. The local shop threw its first contest, and out-of-towners showed up. We go down to the shop the day before the contest, and there’s a crew of skaters from Springfield, all wearing these Bones jackets. They looked like a gang, and were good skaters as well. We were suitably jealous. Ever since then I’ve always drooled over these simple Bones jackets. It’d be pretty useless in Chicago in the winter, but I’d still like one. Problem is, like this one, they only seem to come up in XS size. That’s no good for anyone. $109 and this tiny jacket could have been yours. So if you’re a skating midget, I would be mighty envious of you.
A Jeff Grosso “ragdoll in the garbage” t-shirt. Used but not abused. A very rare graphic. How rare? $312 for the t-shirt. Wowza.
“Hey Neil, how much would a Skateboarder magazine in perfect condition from September 1977 set me back?” Well let me tell ya. About $102. Give or take. Great cover by the way. Best skateboard magazine ever.
And finally this month we have this. Most of us dream about going to a garage sale and finding a mint Salba voodoo for $5, and subsequently selling it for $1000. Something like that. However, the guy that found this would laugh at your good fortune. In 2002 at a New York sidewalk sale he found this Velvet Underground acetate. Being a fan he bought it for 75 cents. Little did he know this was possibly the sole remaining recording of the first takes of the first Velvet Underground album. Different versions of the songs, completely different order. Never heard since that day in April 1966. This acetate, possibly the only surviving copy, represents the first Velvet Underground album as Andy Warhol intended it to be released. Unbelievably rare. How rare? His 75 cent purchase sold for $155,401 on December 8th. Stunned.
See ya next month. And by the way, I did go skating, and it was freezing.
-Neil
