I got some good feedback from the new format I started last week, so I’m going to continue doing it by era. Some of the era choice might not be 100% accurate, but sometimes I’m doing it by feel rather than by historical accuracy. For example, the Variflex Eric Grisham might have come out in 1980 or even 1981, but I’m putting it in the 70s , because to me he feels like a 70s skater. Make sense? And sorry this one has taken so long, but as you can see, I have about twice as many items as usual. Read on.
Alva/Dogtown/Z-Flex etc.
Let’s start off with a really nice Alva. No pics of the bottom, but if it’s as clean as the top, then $698 was a bargain. The die cut grip and fade underneath is a real eye catcher, and of course doesn’t get all torn up after a few months of skating like the graphics underneath. Bulldog was doing this, but I wish more companies today would pay attention to detail like this.
Here’s a real beauty. A mint Sims Brad Bowman "Superman" The full coat baby blue colorway is superb, and I really dig those blocky wheel-wells. It’s just a beautiful deck. $1,913.
A G&S ProLine 500 with Trackers and Kryptonics. It’s supposedly much rarer than the ProLine 300, at least that’s what the seller said. Me, I don’t know. $300 seems pretty cheap to me
I’ve always loved this board, ever since I saw it in Skateboarder back in the day. One of the very first decks with a pronounced shape, and I really like the way they put the logo in the recessed side cuts. Again, it comes with Trackers and yellow Rollerballs. I love this complete. $535. (Yeah, but what is it? – k.ed)
Here’s the Variflex Eric Grisham I was talking about. Once upon a time Variflex was one of the most respected companies, and it had probably the best team out there. Then they sold out and became a toy store brand. This complete is very clean, and comes with the very rare Variflex trucks of the time. Very rare, and ahead of their time: the design was used again by Randall etc. for longboard trucks. I’m not sure about the wheels, but they look like 80s Bullets. They look too narrow for 70s wheels. $500.
A G&S Fiberflex slalom deck. Clean and red. $325. Maybe Kilwag bought it with his newfound slalom interest?
Oooh. Some original, 1st gen Kryptonics, in the very rare orange color. Beautiful wheels and super rare. $305
Sims
Now we come to the Sims section. There’s been a ton of mint Sims decks and wheels on eBay recently. I’m not sure why, but stuff is appearing there that’s never been seen before, and I’m still trying to get to the bottom of it. Some of the stuff has been shilled in a most obvious manner too, but more of the in a minute.
First up is this Sims complete. A Sims Pure Juice deck with ACS trucks and huge Sims Pure Juice wheels. Look at the width of those fuckers! And check out the graphics on the inside of the wheels. It’s a beautiful complete and most unusual with everything mint. $545.
Here’s a Sims Taperkick. Look at the different woods used in the deck. I guess the one above is the same way. Great workmanship. Seems like a shame to ride it! $577.
Here’s a Sims Lonnie Toft complete. I guess Skull Skates weren’t the first ones to put out a shovel-nose! This is an awesome complete: I even love the stickers: Logan Earth Ski and Sims Pure Juice. $405
And here’s another Sims Lonnie Toft, but this one is minty fresh. The block wheels wells are excellent. Not much else to say. $480. (I’m surprised the mint only got $75 extra for this vintage. – k.ed)
And now you’ve seen how much Sims stuff normally fetches, we have 2 of the items that were obviously shill bid up. The Sims Pure Juice complete above went for 545? But this mint Sims Pure Juice was shamelessly shilled up to $1,475. Yes it’s undrilled. But come on. Three times as much as the other mint Sims? I don’t want to call out the usernames, but if you are reading this, hang your heads in shame, and don’t be so fucking obvious. It adds insult to injury if you think we can’t figure it out
The same two, at it again. These Sims Snakes wheels were shilled up to an insane $1,225. Yes they are nice wheels, in a nice color, but that is about 3 times what they are worth. For evidence, see the Sims Pure Juice wheels below them. They went for $222, and I’ve seen other Snakes go off in the $400 range.
These went for $222
80’s
First up in the 80s section we have this Powell Beamer complete. I’m guessing this weighed a ton: hell, the nose guard alone looks heavy. Are those Lazer trucks? I love the way the owner tried to put stickers on the beams and the deck below for a 3-D effect. $559.
And here’s an absolutely beautiful, mint Steve Caballero sidecut. White fullcoat, and as mint as it comes. $1,500. Wow.
The Lance Mountain Future Primitives have really shot up in value recently. It used to be a $350 deck, but now it has doubled. This one went for $700. It is striking in black, but is a relatively common deck. There were a lot of them made. Lance has been in the spotlight a lot recently, what with the demise of The Firm, and there are a lot more collectors out there now I guess.
And how’s this mint, silver Mike McGill first edition pig? It doesn’t get much more grail than this. $1,699 seems kind of low actually!
Powell has issued the Vallely in 3 different colorways so far, and they still haven’t gotten it right. Piss yellow, poop brown and nasty green. They just don’t get it. Maybe this baby blue one going for $1,405 will give them a clue on colorways that are popular. And oh yeah, screen-print the fucking thing.
Looking at the shape of this mid 80s team model, it actually looks very similar to the Vallely model. It’s the Skull and Sword graphic on a full bleed skeleton graphic. Very nice deck with a ton of detail. $702.
Let’s move onto Santa Cruz. First we have the Corey O’Brien "Reaper". You all know I love this graphic. And it’s held its value over the years very well. $606.
The Jason Jesse "Hotrod". Personally I think it’s overrated, but it always goes high. $566. Update: The seller says that he pulled the auction, so that wasn’t the final price. I never post prices of auctions that aren’t complete, so this one must have slipped through. Sorry about that. He assures me that the price he got was closer to $1000 in cash and trades, so there you are.
And here’s the Jessee sungod. The value is climbing all the time. $740. When his documentary hits, his decks will skyrocket. Maybe even the reissues! (fingers crossed).
The Jeff Kendall graffiti deck. Looks like crapo, but like the Roskopps, it has tremendous value. $751.
The Natas kitten model. Again, this deck has held its value very well throughout the years. This one went for $500.
And here’s another Natas. This one seems to appear every month, but again, remains very popular. $743.
Salba Tiger. Mint. $680.
Salba voodoo. In blue. Not mint, but close. It had about a million bids because every new collector wants one, but only big dogs will win it. $1,125.
Here’s one you don’t see every month. An early H-Street Colby Carter. H-Street collectors are a rabid bunch, and any mint early deck will create a feeding frenzy, even for an "unknown" like this. $360.
I don’t feature Visions too often, Gonz and Gator decks being the exceptions. This is the Gonz third model. Rarer than the first two, probably because there were far fewer of them. $960. It might be signed on the tail, I can’t tell.
The SMA/WI Steve Rocco "Think Crime" deck. Mint and historic. You all know the story behind how Rocco started World Industries, and if you don’t, go buy Disposable. $550.
And here’s another early World Industries deck. The Jeff Hartsel "Globes". Very intricate graphic: screening must have been a nightmare. Beautiful. $540.
Now this one is excellent. A very clean Alva Hosoi complete. The white Trackers and red wheels add to the look. This might be the best looking (and rarest) complete I’ve ever seen, if it wasn’t for the fucking stickers! And they’re not even good stickers. Surf shops, Sex wax? Get that shit out of here. Seriously. It might have fetched an extra $500 if the stickers were cleaned off. $1,226.
And here’s the kind of deck I like to feature here. Not a popular deck, but I remember the graphic, and it’s interesting to see how much these generic team decks fetch. It’s the Sims Buzz deck. It’s an interesting shape, with a complex full graphic of bees and insects. From the similar line as the Sims Pharaoh deck. $255.
I’ve heard a lot about Rick Blackheart and his wheels throughout the years, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen them. It’s tough to tell if they are mint, but who cares. Rare rare rare. $300.
1990s and later
The Black Label Jeff Grosso "Charles Bukowski". An early Black Label old school shape. From 2001 perhaps? $202.
The World Industries Randy Colvin "Colvinetics" deck. It was originally designed for Jason Lee, but he turned it down, for obvious reasons (being a scientologist and all). At least that’s what I heard somewhere. $989 seems very high for this, but hey.
A Blind Gabriel Rodriguez from 1992. Nice graphic, fun. Part of their series of unlicensed tributes to Warner Brothers cartoon characters. I’m sure they got a cease and desist. Super rare, not even shown on Art of Skateboarding. $1,500. Update: A reader has pointed out that this is actually a 101 deck and not that rare, althoughthe $1,500 price tag might argue otherwise.
A Santa Cruz "Sticker" team deck. From early 1991. Rare and very desirable. $417.
And here’s a World Industries Jovontae Turner, again with "negro" graphics. His graphics got to be like a broken record after a while. The Napping Negro was brilliant, but after that, we get it. No need to keep hammering the same graphic theme. Rare though. $810.
And finally we have the Cease and Desist Natas "Satan" deck from a couple of months ago. Cease and Desist is a small company that rips off well known graphics from yesterday, putting them out on generic shapes without the original skaters name. They’ve been moderately successful, with each model selling out, but to me it’s just a cheap rip-off. $217.
See you next month.
-neil
