eBay is like a yoyo. Prices were high in April, way down in May, but they completely rebounded in June. In a very big way. So let’s see. Tax rebates in April, nothing in May, Government Stimulus Checks in June. Is it really that obvious? Apparently yes. So if my reckoning is right, prices will tank again in July. Note to self, next year sell stuff in April.
This month’s Baywatch is fueled by Abbott Ale and by the sounds of the 1st Conflict album, “It’s time to see who’s who”. Conflict shared a lot of things with Crass. Both were anarchist punk bands, both very political, both very aggressive. However, there were some major differences too. Crass came from an anarchist collective of like minded souls. Music was only one part of their output. They also put out books, pamphlets, poetry, and artwork. They never set out to be a “rock band”. Conflict on the other hand were much more music centric. The band was their primary mode of expression, and as such they were a lot more direct and focused, unlike Crass, whose albums are all over the place, which was a result of their rotating band members and ideas. “It’s time to see who’s who” is Conflict’s first album, and as such may well be their best. It’s a lot more musical than Crass, more “traditional” if you will. Lyrics bash Thatcher’s Britain, the Falklands War, and animal rights. They’ve got a cause and were very passionate in spreading it. I also like the song “Exploitation”, where the idiot punk band The Exploited come in for some stick. Whenever I think of the Exploited I think of Benny Hill doing a parody of a punk band.
Anyway, enough of my pontificating, let’s get down to it.
60s, 70s, early 80s.
It seems like we start off every month with a Sims Dave Andrecht in the 70s section, and this month is no exception. Last month we had a complete in great condition that went for $1,475. This month we do one better: this S-Ply 11” stinger complete with Tracker Six-Tracks and green Gyro double conicals. He doesn’t say if the Gyros are reissues: I’m guessing that they are. Anyway, the board is super clean, and the seller goes on for paragraphs about how great it is. I guess he was convincing: how does $2,011 grab you?
And from the same seller comes another complete, this time a Powell Peralta “beamer”, complete with Tracker Fultracks (plus coper) and reissue Powell Mini cubics. I guess this is an early, rare 9 ½ inch wide Beamer: most were 10”. That matters to some folks. $1,225.
Here’s a Dogtown Jim “Red dog” Muir complete from 1978. It’s in very nice condition for a deck that is 30 years old, but I find the trucks and wheels the most interesting. The trucks are Gullwing, and were the HPG IV split axle design. If you had these back in the day you were serious. The wheels are mustard yellow Gyros with the original Hoover NSK bearings. Shit, the wheels look gold. How hot is that? Somebody should make gold wheels these days damnit! $833.
OK, I’ve said it here a million times: before Variflex became a joke toy store company in the mid 80s, they were one of the biggest brands out there, and had arguably the best pro team. This is an Eddie Elguera model from 1980, complete with Tracker Extracks and Sims Snakes! Boy is this thing clean: very nice. The Sims sticker on the nose confuses me though. Why put the sticker on upside down? The S still reads as an S, so it looks like it says “SWIS”. That needs to come off, right now! $696.
Does anybody else enjoy looking at these very plain 1960s decks? If not I might stop putting them in here. This is a signed Hobie Super Surfer skateboard from circa 1964. It is signed by the man himself, Hobie Alter, and reads “Hobie, 50 years”. Pretty cool. It has clay wheels with loose bearings. You can’t tell from the image, but the deck is 25” long and about 6” wide. Damn. $960.
Hey Creature Skateboards? You think you were the first ones to put scary monsters on skateboards and have the whole horror vibe? Think again you stoner longhairs. Here we have a vintage Union Surfer “Monster” skateboard from the 60s. This sucker has either rubber or steel wheels: it’s tough to say from the pictures, and the seller isn’t offering up any details. Whatever they are though, riding this would have been a scary proposition, and I’m not talking about the Frankenstein monster! $172.
Here we have a Sims Lonnie Toft 10” deck. Yup, even though the pics show it as a complete with Trackers and Sims Snakes, they are not part of this auction. That’s a little misleading in my opinion, but I guess you have to read the small print. It’s very clean, and is ungripped. Dull but desirable I’d say, much like Winona Ryder. $826.
Slipping out too much at the park? Then what you need is some wider wheels my friend, and what better than these UFO Saucers from the late 70s. Shit, just look at the width of these things!!! Of course, when bigger 10” decks started coming in, the trucks weren’t wide enough to match them yet, so wheels got wider as a way to compensate so the board wouldn’t be tippy. God, you could have put these on a 12” deck! I wonder how many kids had these, and because of overhang put their feet on them while pushing? $299.
And staying with the wheel theme we have this mint set of red 65mm Kryptonics, still in the can. The wheels include the original white Kryptonics bearings, plus stickers and paperwork. Very impressive, but are they worth $1,008? That is madness.
Mid 1980s
I just pulled out an old copy of Poweredge from 1988, and there’s a Neal Blender interview in there. It is all over the place: he never answers any question straight, and talks about whatever is in his mind. It’s entertaining as hell, and gives us a glimpse into the main himself, and why he was such a talented enigma. It’s a far cry from the cookie cutter interviews that most pros of the day gave. Anyway, this is his G&S “faces” deck from 1986. Mint in shrink it went for $610.
You might think that this is the common as hell Powell “bug” team deck that you can get at online stores for $75, but look closer. This is an earlier version of that deck. It’s a completely different shape, more pig like, and the background has an ant pattern instead of the checkerboard that the common one has. This is in shrink, although the shrink is torn. Some scuffs, some nicks, but it still went for $560.
Man, the Powell Steve Cab “Ban this” dragon just keeps going up and up. Of course, this is a sweet colorway of this graphic. The gold and red really pop off of the purple stain. That’s a very handsome deck, but still, it’s not a full Chinese dragon is it, so $780 seems like an awful lot.
Here’s a Vision Gator in an eye-bursting pink and blue. It’s one of the later models: note the modified shape and lack of any wheel wells. Man, they made so many color combinations of this graphic; you could have a complete collection of this graphic alone. The auction ended at $650, BUT the buyer only had 1 piece of feedback, so that could be bogus, because that seems high for a Gator of this period.
Of all the Santa Cruz Grabkes out there, this one might be the most desirable. It’s the “melting clocks” mini model. You seldom see one that hasn’t been thrashed, so this one, although scratched from storage, was a big deal. The bidding ended at $482, which isn’t bad at all for a deck from a European pro, and a mini at that.
This one is the Santa Cruz Jeff Grosso “acid tongue” from 1988. Personally I’ve never liked this graphic, but some love it, plus anything Grosso is very collectible. It’s in a deep purple stain, much like the Cab above, and that really lets the colors in the graphic pop off. The seller says it’s as mint as you will find. $800.
And from as mint as you will find, we go to this, as trashed as you will find. Well not quite, but you get the idea. It’s the original Powell Peralta Tony Hawk graphic from 1983. Actually, the graphic is still pretty much intact, and the blue dip still looks fairly shiny, so it’s not too bad. The vintage stickers even help here I think. The odd part is, the top dragon graphic has been sanded off completely. I guess the owner really hated dragons or something. $274 is an excellent price for this I would say. Let’s all remember that until recently this Hawk graphic was the eBay champion at $6k. Obviously that one was in better shape than this one, but still, this is all there.
This is a nice Santa Cruz Jason Jessee. White dip, mermaid tail, and great condition. Pretty much the classic “Neptune” production model. There’s not much else to say really, other than the price: $1,200.
It seems like I’ve shown a lot of Sims Kamikaze decks recently, so I wasn’t going to show another for awhile, but then this one came up and I had to. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Kamikaze in anything other than white dip before. This yellow one really threw me for a loop. It’s complete with Gullwing trucks and Powell IIIs. It’s in awesome condition, and is very unusual. $315 is a great price for this.
A while ago somebody emailed me and asked if I would please feature a Johnee Kop deck. Well, they hardly ever come up to auction, but here’s one, so that should make you happy, whoever you were. This is the Town and Country Johnee Kop “faces collage” from 1986, and was his first pro deck. I’m guessing this one belonged to a surfer going by the Local Motion and Body Glove stickers. The shape and graphics on this deck just don’t do it for me at all. $207.
This is the Powell Peralta Lance Mountain “crest” deck from 1988. It was his first deck after the Future Primitive, and gets lost in the shuffle sometimes. This is the kind of deck that seems to change based on the colorway. Sometimes I can see this graphic and think it’s total crap, but then on a white or silver dip like this one I think it looks outstanding. This is actually the first time I’ve ever seen this colorway, and it is the best one by far I think. Very, very nice. $464.
Back in the mid 80s Randy and I used to love going through the old Thrashers and Transworlds and finding the ads for the small companies in the back. They’d always feature their “pros” and show some kind of lame graphic. We’d always laugh and wonder if those guys could possibly be any good and wonder whom on earth would buy their decks. Brian Martin and Rob Maggi are the two that come to mind, and look what we have here: an Action Sports Rob Maggi deck! I guess he was the “Street Styler” at least according to the graphic on the tail. The deck is obviously not mint, but it’s all there: the multitude of plastics did their job well here. So how much did this historical artifact sell for? $50. Probably less than it sold for when it was on sale 20 years ago.
This is pretty sweet. It’s a Powell Peralta Mike McGill “snakeskin” from 1988/9. The seller says 1985, but that’s when the original skull and snake graphic came out, and this is obviously not that incarnation of the graphic. The full snakeskin background and this shape didn’t come out until later. It’s also a boneite model. It’s a very striking colorway, very bright. A nice example of this classic graphic. $1,193.
Now there had to be a mistake with this deck. There just has to. It’s the Sims Eric Nash “scratch off 2”, probably the most common vintage deck that you can find. There are so many of these floating around that for a while they were being auctioned off on eBay at 3 for $100. You can still find them on the bay for $50 or less. So when this one went for $300? Well, I don’t get it. Is there something fishy going on, or just an uneducated buyer? I’m not sure.
Yup, it’s the classic Santa Cruz Natas panther graphic from 1989. I call this the Natas 5, because to my way of counting it’s the 5th panther graphic. Maybe the most popular one; it always goes high. Nice red wood stain on this one. $1000.
And here’s Santa Cruz Natas number 4. It’s the Was Humpston version from 1987. I actually don’t care for the black dip on this one: the lettering gets lost. This graphic is much better on a light deck in my opinion. But still, it’s very desirable in any colorway I guess. $1,400.
This is a Santa Cruz “Oops 4” team deck from 1989. There were 4 decks total in the Oops series, and this is the last of them. Actually, it’s a very difficult series to complete. Oops 1 is the street creep skull, Oops 2 is the “mucus”, oops 3 is the sticker collage, and this is the 4th. So how much would somebody pay to complete the set? How does $1,225 grab you? Yup. That might be the most ever paid for a Santa Cruz team deck? I’m too lazy to look it up.
And talking of Santa Cruz team decks, here’s another. It’s the “psychotic” from 1986. It’s complete with Indys and unknown wheels. It’s pretty rare actually, and it’s in pretty good shape. Not ridden hard at all. There’s a remarkable lack of grindage on the tucks. $371.
Oh boy. It’s the Santa Cruz Rob Roskopp “face” from 1987. If you’ve been reading this column for any length of time at all, you’ll know that I hate pretty much all of the Roskopp decks, especially the face series. They all look so idiotic to me. Stupid kid’s stuff. But a lot love them apparently, so just to get a gauge on the prices I’ll show a couple. This regular face went for $723, despite the ugly-ass pooh stain.
And this, the “face 2” went for $801. This graphic is even more hideous than the one above, but at least it is on purple stain and not poop brown. By the way, if you ever want a laugh, read some of the questions people ask on some of the auctions. Shit like, “I am super anal and expect that there will be no nicks, rubs or graphical errors and such”. Hey retard, it’s a skateboard deck, screen printed in a crappy factory by underpaid workers who probably couldn’t give a crap. It was designed to be ridden, not inspected by you for flaws. If you want 100% perfection, then take up stamp collecting or something. And the ass that made the seller jump through all those hoops probably didn’t even bid.
Here’s a Santa Cruz Keith Meek “slasher” deck, but an unusual one. This was one of the foam decks that SC experimented with for about 5 minutes. It was another experiment in deck construction. The graphic wasn’t screened; it was actually a big sticker. The foam was supposed to make the deck lighter, but it actually was the opposite, the decks felt heavy and thick. I had one of these in white and I think I ended up breaking it in half and throwing it away. It was a total piece of crap. The only good thing is that because it’s a sticker, the anal dickhead above could rest assured that this one would be perfect! $299.
This is a Dogtown Stonefish team deck from 1985. It’s very rare, and even though this one is very dirty and scuffed, this might be as close to mint as it gets. Never gripped or set up. This one came in a multitude of colorways, but this white one is very simple and effective. It’s one of the first decks from the 2nd wave of Dogtown. By the way, the Possessed to Skate deck used exactly the same shape. $610.
And here’s a SMA Jim Thiebaud “Joker” deck from 1989. This is the original graphic, before the Batman people told them that they couldn’t use the Joker likeness because it looked too similar to the Batman Joker. So in later printings they used a generic looking bad guy. It kind of loses the effect, so this is a much better looking and desirable deck. It’s looking good on natural wood. $900.
90s-today
Now this astounds me. The early 90s Powell Tony Hawk decks are famous for their shitty graphics. Some are among the worst graphics ever committed to wood, while others are just stupid. This falls into the stupid category, rather than the putrid one, but it’s still pretty awful. I was thinking this would be lucky to break $200. Imagine my surprise when it went for $712. Plus, it’s in Europe, so shipping will be around $50. Dude.
OK, hold onto your hats. This is a Powell Peralta Frankie Hill “Eastwood” model from 1992. That’s a great graphic, and you don’t see it very often at all, especially not mint. This was going in the $500 range a few years back, so imagine my shock when this one went for $2,938. Yup, almost $3k. Holy shit. And again, it was shipping from Europe, so you pay high shipping and wait forever. Damn.
OK, how much would you pay for a skateboard deck that looks like it came from Target and was aimed at 6-year-old girls? $20? Yes, that’s about it in my world. But no, not in eBay world! This is a Blind Guy Mariano “dumbo” slick from 1992, and is very rare apparently. I don’t care how rare it is, it still looks like a cheap piece of crap to me, but what do I know. $1,500. Yes, the decimal points are in the right place. Not $15.00, $1,500.
This is a New Deal Ed Templeton “woof cat” deck from 1991. Now normally I don’t care for Templeton graphics, but I really like this one. Actually I like the graphic and the shape. It looks very functional. Actually I believe Toy Machine has reissued this, so maybe I’ll pick one up sometime. What looks like scuffs in the middle of the cat are actually colored in pieces, so this deck is NOS. $701.
Now this deck did not sell, and normally I don’t feature decks that didn’t meet reserve on here, but I’d never seen it before and thought you might enjoy it too. It’s a 101 Jason Dill from 1996. Because 101 was Natas’ company I assume he had all rights to his own graphics, so as you can see, it’s his kitten graphic from Santa Cruz, but give to one of his team members. He did the same thing with the classic panther 3 graphic, giving it to Gino Ianucci, and with the evil cat for Clyde Singleton.
Assorted Crap & Reissues!
Aah yea, skateboard banners. Used to hang at contests, giving a dash of color to the events. This one is the Santa Cruz “screaming hand” in a hot pink. Buy it and put it in your garage! Impress the cat and annoy the wife. $285.
Want to impress your circle of skater friends that you were actually there “back in the day? Then what better than this collection of Skateboarder magazines from the 70s? The collection has 48 issues starting with Vol2 #1 (1975), and going through Vol6#12 (July 1980). That is a pretty impressive collection. He doesn’t post pictures of each mag, but all are in good condition apparently. The $599 they sold for seems like a fair price to me. I’m not sure what the frogs are for though. . . .
Words fail me here. These are a pair of Santa Cruz “street creep” stickers. They are super large, as you can tell y the razor blade next to it. Apparently they were sent to team riders back in the day so they could sticker up their blank test decks. The artwork is exceptional (Jim Phillips), but it is a sticker we are talking about. One sticker sold for $300, while the other sold for $499. Insane? I would say so. You could get the Street Creep deck for that. I wonder if he throws in the razor blade? That way you could slit your fucking wrists when you come to your senses and discover that you just paid almost $500 for A STICKER!!!!
Remember the Swatch watch craze of the 80s? Everybody had to have the dayglo plastic timepieces. Some people even bought multiples, and would wear them all at the same time, right Steve? They even came out with rubber protectors that you would pull over the straps to protect the face while skating. Anyway, a couple of skate companies put out their own watches. Vision never met a fad they didn’t like, so they released one, but so did a more unlikely company, the normally stodgy Tracker trucks. This is a Vision one, and features a skater riding a Gator deck. No. It’s not actually Gator. It’s actually British Pro, then Vision am, Sean Goff. Actually, I like this watch a lot, and $76 isn’t bad at all. I still have one of the Tracker ones, still in the package. The package features GSD. How cool is that?
And to finish up this month we have this. This is a Powell Peralta team jacket that was owned by Steve Saiz. Steve saw how much the Powell team jacket fetched in May ($1,825), so he auctioned off his own. That one was an XS, but did have the Bones Brigade World Tour logo on the back, whereas this one simply has Powell logos all over it. Let’s see, the sleeves have Welinder, Harris, Cab, Lance on one, Hawk, McGill, Mullen and Guerrero on the other. Because it belonged to Steve it is a wearable size, so that makes it more desirable I guess, but the price amazed me. $3,170. Seriously, who has $3k to just throw around on a jacket that probably will just sit in a closet? Despite the shit economy, I guess some folks still have a lot of conspicuous income just burning holes in their pockets.
More next month.
-Neil
