So here we are again. Another month down, and more old decks to talk about. I want to start off this month though with a couple of clarifications about this column and me. First, I don’t have some magical connection to some magical warehouse that is full of old decks from every era; so stop emailing me asking if I can get you such and such a deck. I can’t. I report what I see on eBay. Nothing more magical than that. If you want to get into collecting old skate decks then more power to you, but it won’t be easy and it won’t be cheap. As little as five years ago there were online stores that still had a lot of old stock, but those have long since sold most of the good stuff, and most of the crap stuff too. EBay is your best bet, but if you are after something popular and rare, then expect to pay big cash. You can also try some of the collector forums, but again, don’t expect to pick up a bargain. Also, I don’t keep track of who bought what, so I can’t tell you the buyers name from some auction 2 years ago. And even if I could I wouldn’t. Finally, I won’t tell you what your deck is worth. I’ve been doing these columns for 6 years now. I’ve done a lot of the research for you, the least you can do is read it. There are other resources too. Be prepared to do a little work yourself.
Rant over.
Late 70s/early80s.
First up, we have this Variflex Mike Hirsch complete from 1981-ish. It’s in pretty fine shape actually for something that is 27 years old. It comes complete with MotoBoard “superwide” trucks and Bones conical wheels. At one time Variflex had the finest team in skateboarding, and Mike Hirsch was one of their pros, along with Eddie Elguera and Allen Losi. Lance Mountain’s first model was a Variflex. The auction ended at $549, which is a steal for a deck of this vintage and condition.
Now this is another nice complete. It’s a Kryptonics K-Beam team deck complete with Lazer trucks and Traknology wheels. The Lazer trucks had the funky shaped baseplate, so they had to make custom riser pads to match. Now, the seller is same dude that sold the Blackhart wheels last month, and he mentions that he had to file these trucks down to fit the Blackharts he owned, so I assume that the Blackharts were on this rig originally. The complete went for $698.
And here’s another Kryptonics deck. This is a Krypstick and is a really fetching deck. Yes it’s a generic team deck, but the routed wheels wells and handrails are a really nice touch, and they really stand out against the rest of the white deck. $843.
In England in the 70s this was the shit. A G&S Stacy Peralta Warptail with Bennett Pro trucks and OJ wheels. Yes, some kids had the cheaper English brands like Pacer and BenjyBoard, but if you had a real G&S you were either really good or really rich. Maybe both. I still think that original G&S logo kicks ass. He says they are OJ wheels, but to me they look like Road Rider 4s. Anyway, $355.
Have you ever seen a cleaner Powell Peralta Alan Gelfand than this? It’s so clean that I thought it was a reissue when I first saw it. It has the “3P” top graphic, not the dragon that really places it early in the production run. It’s 6 ply and comes complete with the factory grip and Indy stage II trucks and PP Bones wheels. There is some slight discoloration on the nose and tail from a removed sticker, and the tail was drilled for a tailbone. But it is still a beautiful piece. $1,450.
And here’s some vintage Gullwings. They are the HPG IV Phoenix models, and are mint and unused, and even have the original mint green bushings. Maybe they are not as famous as the early split axle Gullwings, but still a great early truck. $260.
Mid 1980s
Here’s a Neil Blender “pow pow pow” model from 1989ish. It’s certainly not one of his better-known graphics, but being a G&S Blender it is still very collectible. The color is dull, but I guess the graphics do pop on it. It has the double-drilled nose that was popular for a year or 2 in the late 80s. $310.
Has the reissue of the Corey O Brien “reaper” graphic hurt the price of the original? Obviously not if this auction is any indication. It is a superior example of the deck: the red wood stain is super nice, and the graphic just screams off of it. It went for a Buy It Now of $1,250.
EBay is strange I didn’t see any of these decks on eBay for a long time, but now at least one a month pops up! It’s the G&S Doug Smith. It is not mint, having surface scratches and the original price tag on the nose. I do like the grey dip though. $213.
Yes, it’s a H-Street Eddie “El Gato” Elguera pool model. The graphic is naff, but it’s notable for being his last graphic on H-Street. The street explosion and the death of vert meant the vert pros everywhere had a difficult time, but that was especially true if you were on H-Street, the street skaters mecca. Learn to ride street or starve was the message. It went for $207.
The most famous example of the vert pro who struggled learning street has to be Gator, courtesy of that painful segment in Stoked where he attempt some street stuff but fails miserably. This deck was from a happier time for him: it’s an early example of his first Vision deck from 1985. How do I know it’s an early version? Check the front and rear wheel wells. This graphic was issued for years, but the wheel wells quickly went the way of the dodo. Not mint because of storage marks, but it is ungripped. $750.
Claus Grabke. “Picked up a crusty girl in Bradford. Selling pasties on the side. Then swapped the pasties for a crusty barge. Still thinks he’s pro material. Oooh, state of Grabke! How shit is Grabke? Proper shit. Effective but pointless!” You all should know of what I speak, and if you don’t check out this link. Anyway, this is his “melting clocks” model, and it was a mini, while the “holding back time” graphic was the full size. It’s certainly used, but is maybe his rarest graphic. $200.
Ooh look, it’s a Santa Cruz Jeff Grosso “Alice” deck. Yes, you all recognize the centipede smoking from a bong, and the Cheshire cat up the tree, but do you notice the Grosso ragdoll guy running off with Alice in the background? There’s lots of stuff like this in the graphic. It’s pretty intense. This deck obviously has some wear, but it’s still pretty decent. $576.
And here’s a Grosso “acid tongue”. This graphic climbs every month, which I find odd because I think it stinks. I’d put it up there with some of the crap Roskopp graphics personally, but the seller loves it and says it’s a work of art. To each their own. The colorway on this one is nice though: a mellow green stain, and it’s in the original shrink. $660.
This is one of the nicest Powell Peralta Tommy Guerrero’s I’ve ever seen. It’s the 7ply version, not boneite, and it is in a dark blue paint, so dark it almost looks metallic in the picture. The flames really pop on this one. It has factory grip tape on it, and although it might have had trucks mounted at one time, it is super clean. That is one handsome deck $517.
It’s been a few months since I featured a Hawk birdclaw, and they have climbed in value. This one is very nice, being a “dazzling, deep rich midnight black paint dip, with the neon purple trees/forest background. The beautiful neon pink and green main graphics just pop right off the deck”. So says the seller anyway. The photo doesn’t do it justice I guess. It went for a BIN of $1,200.
And here’s the Zorlac Craig Johnson “voodoo doll”. The seller on this one actually comes on too strong. He tells us that he bought this deck on eBay in 2002 for $500 and it must be fetching more than that now! What he doesn’t know is that there just aren’t that many people collecting Craig Johnson decks! It’s never been set up and is still in the original shrink (I didn’t think that Zorlacs back then came in shrink. I had a Gibson and I don’t remember shrink). Anyway, he got his wish, but only by $15, as it went for $515. I always thought this graphic was totally crappy. The fire demon was far superior. The one that Zorlac chose for the reissue was the original version of this I believe and is superior. The head on this one just looks wrong.
You want mid 80s cheese? Here you go. It’s the Kryptonics Art and Steve Godoy model from 1985. They used the same shape that every other Kryptonics/Action Sports deck at the time was using, so it’s totally generic. The brothers have horns for some reason, and the hand is pointing at Texas where they lived at the time. The red, green and blue swashes apparently serve no purpose at all. Awesome and crappy all at the same time. $375.
It seems like I’ve featured this same deck every month for the last 6 months. No more, this is it. It’s a pink Powell Peralta Lance Mountain future primitive. And if you didn’t know that you have no business reading this column! Apparently it “displays beautifully and deserves its own space with a spotlight”. Wow. $732.
Think you’ve seen this Sims Lester Kasai “splat” somewhere before? You have, last month, as a complete. I always say that the sellers should remove stickers, rails etc to increase the value, and that goes for wheels and trucks too. Case in point. As a complete this sold for $260, and I remarked how low that was. Well, the clever buyer removed everything and put the deck back up on its own, and was rewarded by a $215 profit. Yes, that’s right, the deck alone sold for $475. So listen to me folks. Sometimes I know what I’m talking about.
OK, here we go again. I’m not suggesting anything, but the buyer of this Schmitt Stix John Lucero X1 should take a note from above. The deck appears to be in pretty good condition, and this deck alone will sell for far more than the $202 this complete went for. Strip all of the plastics, the Trackers and the worn OJs and this is a very nice deck. It’s also signed on the tail.
And lest you think that Lucero’s aren’t that collectible, consider this Lucero Ltd 12XU model from 1989. It’s in great condition, in a stunning blue dip, and sold with BIN for $500. John had his own company name before he started Black Label, but he used the elephant logo and the backwards type even then.
Sometimes the color of the deck (or the photo) can just kill the value of a deck. This SMA Natas is a perfect case in point. In a better colorway this should be selling for almost a grand. But this crappy dark purple and the blurry, washed out photo have killed any chance this lightly used deck had of reaching half of that. $316. Disappointing. Invest in good cameras lads, or borrow one. The artwork is by Jim Phillips.
This one is kind of blurry too, but the colors are better and the graphics pop. It’s also never been gripped, but is later than the version above. $762.
And here’s the model that followed it, the “evil cat”. It is NOS, and is in a lovely red stain. Of course, the red hands kind of blend in with the background here. Still, it’s a nice, clean specimen of a fairly common deck. $350.
I’d put this deck up there with the Blockhead “notch nose” as the most desirable team deck there is. It’s the Sims pharaoh, and to say it’s a grail for a lot of collectors would be putting it mildly. It is gripped and was setup as a shop display, but never ridden. The detail is incredible. Imagine screening that. $1500 seems like a bargain. Amazingly it didn’t sell, and normally I wouldn’t show it, but boy I wanted to feature it.
And here we have a Sims Kevin Staab “pirate” single color pre release deck. Supposedly this deck belonged to Kevin himself and was used in a demo. I’m assuming this was a pre-production model so they could test the shape and the graphic. It’s a nice piece of history anyway, not so great for the average collector who wants the bright graphics, but great for the Staab completeist/fetishist. $406.
Let’s call January the month of Mitsugu Toyoda, Santa Cruz’s Japanese vert pro from the late 80s. This deck is listed on AOS as common, and could be had for as little as $60 18 months ago. Not anymore apparently. Despite the graphics that look like something on a reading book for a 5 year old, this deck has suddenly become desirable. The top model, which is in a dark blue paint, went for $416, and the one below it that is in a “harlequin pearl color shifting paint blue to purple” went for $455. All hail Toyoda.
No real explanation is necessary here. It’s a Powell Peralta Mike Vallely elephant in white dip. Not in shrink, but near mint. You won’t find many better than this. The graphics really pop off of the background. I haven’t featured a Vallely in a while, but this was a good example for you all to see. $1,150.
This one really surprised me. It’s a Vision lobster team deck. It’s NOS but has some chips. I would imagine that there aren’t too many people who would be after this deck, but it still went for $400. I guess some folks love the Visions and need them all.
90s-today
Here we have a Birdhouse Willy Santos “street fighter” slick deck from 1994. I guess it is rare, because despite the totally crap, generic graphic it went for $620.
Ooh, she’s naked with the boobies and the fingers and the thing. Te hee te hee. Actually, looking at this years later, it is horribly done. The woman looks dead, and it looks like it was drawn by a 14 year old who’s actually never seen a naked woman. It also seems like a pretty obvious graphic to put on a deck that you want to start controversy. There’s nothing remotely clever here. It’s still popular though. $577.
Fuck me, graphics were crap in the 90s. Video game characters, Japanese manga, nothing original, all crappy pop culture references. Again, nothing deep or remotely artistic here. $559. Why do I bother?
Natas was at least doing his own graphics, and making his own artistic statement. I’m not sure what that was on this 101 “sock puppet” deck, but there you go. That’s art for ya, and he is a true artist, both on and off the board. $480.
This deck was too controversial for Deathbox to fully issue. It’s the Jay Adams “skate nazi” deck. Is he a real national socialist? I doubt it, but who the fuck knows? Wasn’t he jailed in the mid 80s for being involved in a hate crime where a gay man was beaten to death? Everybody did stupid stuff in their younger years, but going ahead and putting this out in 2002 does not seem like a good idea at all. Draw your own conclusions. $355.
People sometimes ask me if they should be collecting modern decks, and will they be worth money in years to come. The quality of the artwork today, not to mention the shitty heat transfers that are used, is so low that I’d say no, but when a company issues a set of decks with a common theme, acquiring the whole set will make them worth more than they would be worth individually. This set of Black Label classic movie monsters is excellent, and should go up in price. Me likee. $449.
This is a one of a kind hand drawn deck by Wes Humpston. It’s a reproduction of a board that Wes made for Tony Alva in the late 70s. The blank is a NOS Alva Skates blank from the late 70s, and the blank is gripped with original factory die cut Alva griptape. $1,280. I don’t think I’ll feature any more 1-offs though. Decks that are made to be collectible don’t interest me that much.
Assorted Crap
Finally this month we have another outrageous sticker. It’s an original Billy Ruff “chalice” from the early 80s. It went off for $410. Now, the high bidder had zero feedback, and the whole thing might have been a shill or a joke, but the fact is that others were bidding high on this sticker too, and other stickers have gone off for outrageous sums. Just last month a screaming hand sticker went off for $355. So $410 is not out of the realm of possibility. I’m just saying. . . .
More next time.
-Neil</p
