2007 continues red hot in February. Some really big numbers this month on some really surprising items. One I think has to be a mistake by the buyer, but more of that later. The first thing I want to say this month is I’m not a free advice column. I must get three emails a month from people looking for advice on how to sell their shit on eBay for maximum profit. Why should I help? Give me an incentive and I might, but for right now, the free advice column is CLOSED. The worst thing is, they never even say “I really like your column” or anything like that. It’s always right to business: “I’ve got a 1987 Jeff Grosso in great condition. How much can I get for it, maximum?” Fuck off.
This month, the column is fueled by a Lucerne Peach Smoothie, the sounds of The Lillingtons, and is created on a 20” G5 iMac at 7.30AM on a Saturday morning. This winter has sucked. It was the coldest and snowiest Feb on record here (Chicago). Just when you are getting psyched for spring, BLAM! another snowstorm comes through. Enough already.
60s/70s.
There have been a few 60s decks like this on eBay recently, and I don’t know the deal. It looks so good it could have been made yesterday. The clay wheels and trucks are perfect. The wood is pristine. I don’t get it. Has it been cleaned and polished or is it a redo? Anyway, it’s a Hang Five model from the sixties. $225.
Now this is what I would expect a complete from the 60s to look like. Worn oak, aging “graphics”, stains. This is a 1963 Makaha Phil Edwards model w/ clay wheels. 21” long w/ hand burned logo. Supposedly the first pro model of all time. Talk about vintage. $499
Do I have a hard-on for this. If you’ve been paying attention recently, I’ve been saying how much I love the late 70s Sims pro models. The stinger shape, the insets, the pro name down the middle. Frigging awesome. And this is a real beauty. A Sims Greg Ayres 12×30 pig. Indy 169 stage IIs with copers, and Alva Rocks wheels. The stickers are plentiful, but add to the package because they are all vintage, and because they are all relevant (except for the Gyro sticker). Fantastic. $1,950.
And now let’s get on to some of the real head turners. This could be called the month of the Dogtown Shogo Kubo airbeam, because three of them went off in February, all for big cash. First we have this complete. It is showing some wear, and some yellowing of the white stripes on top. It still looks in pretty fair condition though. $2,247.
Then we have this black model. No complete, just the deck. Black is a rarer color than the white (at least you don’t see it as often on eBay), so this one fetched $2,500.
And then we have this. A white complete in beautiful condition. Clean as can be. With Indys and Yo-yos. $5,300. Yup, $5,300. It was within $701 of being the highest priced skateboard on eBay ever. Man, that’s a lot of cash.
This one just makes it in this category. It’s a 1979 Steve Olson by Santa Cruz. His first pro model I believe. It’s a real collectors item, especially when you throw in the stage II Indy 151s and the red Blackhart wheels! Vintage stickers too. A sweet complete that you may never see again. $635.
You probably can’t see it, but it says Alva embossed on the lip of these wheels. They are the Alva flatback: the very first wheel that Alva skates came out with. $212.
Then we have an original set of Powell Bones. Powell’s first skateboard wheel. Note how it just says Powell on there: Stacy hadn’t come aboard yet. Complete with rusted bearings. $112.
80s
Let’s start with a deck ridden by the nomad himself, Bill Danforth. He says this is the deck he rode at the Surf Ohio pro street contest in 1988 that Randy and I were at (or was it 87 Randy?). We got down on the contest floor to take photos for Skate and Annoy, but fucking Walgreens lost the film. It was immortalized in the Ohio Skateout contest video. If you look real carefully you can see a girls phone number scrawled on the tail. History. $355.
A classic. A mint Santa Cruz Duane Peters from 1986. Nothing more needs to be said. $810.
Now here’s a classic poseur board. Pink and black original Gator with matching colored plastics. White Trackers with pristine copers. It doesn’t look like this one ever touched concrete. Of course, yesterdays poseur is today’s rich man because the boards are always in great condition. $447.
Here’s a case where the owner probably wishes that they had been a poseur. A Grosso “Alice” in mint condition would fetch close to a thousand. This one, skated as it is went for $212. The colors here are a real mishmash: blue plastics, green Gullwings with black baseplates, pink risers, green and red wheels. They all detract from the graphic, and probably the value. The deck on its own would probably have fetched over $300.
Yes, this deck sucks, but I’d never seen it before. It’s a G&S Micke Alba model from 1981. Minimal, ugly graphics, crap Trackers, coned wheels, poor condition. It doesn’t look like anything really does it? But the rarity and the Alba names drove it up to a respectable $325.
Henry Gutierrez was one of the fringe east coast pros from the late 80s. No disrespect intended, but those guys just didn’t get the coverage that that Cali guys got. So you wouldn’t expect a 1989 Sims Gutierrez to go very high, but those east coast rippers like to support their own guys. Note the crossed forks on the hat. $345 is a surprisingly high price for this.
Everybody take note. This is how you should photograph your decks. You can see the whole thing in one shot, it’s clear as a bell, and the colors pop like crazy. The plain wood stain is awesome for this graphic. It’s a Sims Lester Kasai “splat” model for those who are late to the party. He did the right thing by removing the rails: the holes are far less distracting than badly colored rails would be. Awesome looking complete. Somebody got a real bargain for $204.
And talking of Lester, here’s another. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better example of this graphic. Mint, and explosive in the bright yellow dip. Superb. $936.
This one surprises me. It’s Schmitt Stix Joe Lopes from 1988. Charcoal stain, with the barbecue sauce splatters. Mint. This was a rare deck, or so I thought, but $175 doesn’t support that claim. Maybe everybody who wants a Lopes already has one?
Yada yada yada. Mike McGill skull and snake on bottlenose shape with snakeskin background. Yada yada yada. Long story short, $585.
It seems like there’s lots of Sims decks this month doesn’t it? Well here’s another. The Sims Jeff Phillips tie-dye. Complete with Indys and wheels I can’t identify. Nice condition, but on this one the stickers kill the value because they obscure the graphic. $250.
Go Salba Tiger go!! Up, up, up!! $603.
Now this one surprises me. The Salba voodoo is the holy grail of many collectors, so when a “mint” one comes up, you would think this shit would blow up. This one is even signed by Salba, but that might have hurt the value of it. It went for $1,424, which is still decent money, but voodoos come up so seldom that I was thinking it would go in the 2500 range. Either the color or the signature killed it. People love those painted models. Go figure.
Now this is ridiculous, and just shows that some new collectors just don’t know their shit. There are 2 versions of this SMA Jim Thiebaud. The first, and much rarer has characters from Batman on it, including the joker. They got a Cease and desist when the first movie came out, and reissued it with generic characters. This is that version. You could still get at online shops for around $200 a year or so ago. It’s a $350 deck tops, but this one went for a crazy $810. I assume the buyer thought it was the original??
90s-today
First up is the SMA Tim Brauch from 1994. The artwork was done by the artist Thomas Campbell who was a friend of Tim’s. It is signed by Thomas Campbell on the top. Those are UFOs if you were wondering. $355.
Here’s another artsy deck. This is a Girl Tim Gavin from 1995. The artist is Shawn Cassidy. That is a nice looking deck. $545.
OK. I’ve never really heard of Heroin Skateboards or Pete Fowler. I think they are from the UK. Here we have a Heroin team deck from 2002 with art by Pete Fowler that went for $259, so somebody must like him/them. Anybody want to give me a clue here?
Here’s a Mike Vallely from his personal collection. It’s the “toasterman” model from Television skateboards, the short-lived company he founded with Ed Templeton (TV, get it?). This deck is from 1993 and is hand painted by Ed, and features a short poem written by Mike V near the back truck holes. A true one of a kind deck for a Mike V fan. $406.
And here’s another Vallely from his personal collection. I thought I’d kept notes on this deck, but I can’t find them. I think it’s a very rare pro model from when he went back to Powell in the mid 90s. It features his face morphing into the elephant. It’s not even listed on AOS. $710.
I hate this deck with a passion. It’s the stupid as hell Blind Rudy Johnson “40oz” from 1992. Evidence, if any were needed, that the skates companies were completely devoid of graphic ideas in the early 90s. Talk about disposable. $496? Are you fucking nuts?
I’m not sure why I’m featuring this one, but here goes. It’s a Foundation “Suicide Girls” deck from 2004 featuring Katie. It’s a Series II deck, which suggests there have been a few of these. Interesting. I guess I’m late to this party. Oh wait, here’s some info: “This is the second limited edition pro series of Suicide Girls (www.suicidegirls.com) decks from Foundation with artwork from renowned artist Nathan Carbrera. This comes from a collaboration between the risqué punk rock pin up masters, Suicide Girls and Foundation that was initiated by Tum Yeto’s former receptionist and Suicide Girls member, Jessica. Series one consisted of some pre existing art from SG while this one the collaboration brought Nathan Carbrera into the picture.” So now you know. $112.
Here’s another artsy deck. It’s a 1996 Ron Whaley by Santa Cruz. Thomas Campbell did the artwork, and Campbell signed it on the top, just like the Brauch above. It’s a graphic of mushrooms I guess. Nice if you like this kind of thing. I don’t but some must because it went for $600.
The early 90s were ridiculous. You want evidence? Take a look at these totally ridiculous World Industries Mike Vallely wheels. Featuring the artwork from the barnyard deck, they look cheap and crappy, like something you’d see at Target. $135. Totally naff.
Reissues
The Powell Peralta Lance Mountain FP reissue was a case of a reissue done correctly. A limited number (1500 I believe) of a highly sought after original graphic. Why reissue a common deck that nobody wants? (Are you listening Santa Cruz?). The reissues sold out within weeks, and they are now up to $312. Yup, $312.
This one surprises me. Again, a very limited run of a very popular deck, and the original shape too. The white is the color of choice for this one, the black sucked ass, so I was very surprised to see it only go for $128. It should have hit $200 easily.
Is this the Roskopp IV or the Roskopp V? Either way they reissued the whole set. $122 for this one. Oh yeah, this is the one where if you look at it upside down there is another monster. Scary.
And this reissue of the Keith Meek slasher was in the 1st round of SC reissues. As such it was more limited and better quality. Still, the white yellowed very easily: I know, I had one for about a week. Again, $128, which seems like a fair price for this one.
Oddball Auctions
I lost the notes on this one, but I think it’s a hand painted cab deck of his car (see January 2007 for the actual car) that was auctioned off for charity. Maybe it’s not hand painted, I don’t recall. It fetched $330 though, I do know that. .
And here’s another wacky Lance Mountain pool tile deal. It features the dough boy graphic from one of his later Powell models. He’s made himself a nice little business with these things. $250.
Here’s something for all of you sticker collectors, especially English sticker collectors. A shitload of 80s stickers, many featuring the logo of the ace British skateboard magazine Read and Destroy (RAD). You also get 2 big Death Box teapot stickers. You don’t know Death Box? It was an excellent English company that produced some killer decks and wheels, and later morphed into Flip. There’s also some Santa Cruz and Vision stickers in there too. $220.
Somebody tell me, what’s the deal with Nixon watches, and how are they affiliated with the skateboard scene? You see pro skaters pimping them, and all skate shops seem to sell them. Why? Also, somebody please tell me why they paid $1,300 for this very plain looking watch.
I know, you’re looking for a way to make some easy money. Well, pay this woman $50,000 and you could own the first production model of this underlit skateboard. Just think how much it will be worth in years to come when everybody is riding them! Actually it’ll probably be worth about $3.50, so scratch that idea and save your $50k. I assume there is some kind of light fixture in the riser pads or something. I have no idea why they think somebody is going to pay fifty thousand dollars for this, but there you have it. eBay is a haven for the odd.
And this one. Well, words fail me. “Neil, it’s in the wrong section” you say. “It should be in the 60s section. It’s awesome!” Well it would be if it were real. It’s not. It’s a movie prop, from “The Lords of Dogtown”, or “Thrashin, the Early Years” as I like to think of it. That’s right, it’s a movie prop. The guy said so in the auction listing. But some knucklehead bid $4,000 for it. I don’t get it. Maybe that movie has some hardcore nutzo fans, or somebody didn’t read the auction listing correctly, and is sitting feeling very stupid (and poor) about now.
And finally this month we have a reappearance of the Cab bearing reissue setup from last month. The hopeful seller wanted $400 for the complete last month, a complete you could put together yourself for around $130. This month she had dropped the price to $280. Guess what, no takers. Maybe she should contact the guy that bought the “Zephyr” above. He might give her $2000 for this. I wonder if it will show up again next month? Stay tuned. . . .
Seeya next month.
-Neil
