eBay Watch: November 2008

November 2008. The economy is even worse if that’s possible, but by the look of eBay in November there are still collectors with deep pockets out there. These shitty economic times have dropped some prices, but the truly rare and desirable decks are still going for big money. Where do some of these guys get their cash? Good question. Another good question is why do so many big money collectors come from Australia and New Zealand? Maybe the recession hasn’t hit down there yet. Maybe in 6 months time there’ll be a massive sell of from down there. Who knows? So to underline the trying times I have a new section this month: Bargains of the Month. Take a look and kick yourself. Maybe I’ll do it again, maybe not.

This month’s Baywatch is fueled by Hobgoblin ale, and by the new book, “Vicious, No one is Innocent” by Alan Parker. Hobgoblin, now in cans and available at Whole Foods! “What’s the matter lagerboy, afraid you might taste something?”. The book is excellent, and sheds new light on the life and death of punk’s biggest icon. I thought I knew most everything about Sid, but I learned a bunch, including the fact that Jerry Only and DGeneration’s Howie Pyro were friends of Sid’s and were at the house the night he died. Also, it’s evident that Sid did not kill Nancy and that the NYPD did a totally half hearted and crappy investigation that never would have gotten a conviction. Alan is not afraid to name the guy that he thinks killed Nancy. I guess he has a documentary coming out in the New Year based on the book. Read it, it’s good.

60s, 70s, early 80s.

First up is this Powell Peralta Jay Smith snub nose from 1982ish. It’s the 6-ply model apparently, and was gripped, setup and ridden. The graphic is all there, but it’s pretty damned rough around the edges. $666 is about right I suppose. Just look at that nose, or absence of one. Now that is amazing.

It’s back! The Frankenstein monster is back in all its glory! I featured this one a few months ago, but here’s another, and this one looks to be in great condition. 1960s for sure, the typeface looks vaguely like that used in The Munsters, so 1966-ish? It’s hysterical whenever it is from. $338.

And here’s a Sims Pure Juice Taperkick deck from 1974. It’s undrilled and perfect. There seems to be a fair few of these floating around though, unless of course the same one keeps changing hands! I love the different wood stripes used in these. There used to be a grand out of England called Benjyboard that made a deck that looked like this. I wanted it really bad, but I was a grom with no money, so I stuck with my polyprop. $500.

And here’s a Caster Chris Strople from the late 70s. It’s in “good but used condition” which I think is a fair assessment. Actually, I think the buyer got a real bargain with this one. He only paid $510. It is in good shape, and this is the model that currently holds the record for most paid on eBay at over $6000. Plus it has Powerflex wheels and Stage I Indy trucks on there. The trucks alone are worth at least $200.Yup, good deal.

But never mind the rare, pro models from the 70s. How about the completes that you could walk into Sears and purchase right from the Sports section? Well here’s one. It’s a Makaha complete, fiberglass deck, urethane wheels. It’s probably from 1975? It’s a step up from a plastic board, so let’s call it middle of the range. It looks to be in great condition, and the colors are still very vibrant. $47? Man, that seems like a deal to me.

Mid 1980s

Now I don’t get something about some collectors. They purchase a great looking deck one month, only to turn it right around and sell it on again the next. I made my feelings clear on this one in September. It’s a G&S Neil Blender “Picasso” from 1987. It’s awesome, so why buy it just to sell it again? The seller certainly didn’t make a big profit, as he bought it for $357. That shit is frustrating. It went for $400, hopefully to somebody who appreciates it this time.

Should we call this the month of NOS Santa Cruz Corey O Brien “Reapers”? At least 3 went off this month, in a rainbow of color stains. Here we have a red, an orange and a green. A wide range of colors and a wide range of prices too. Which is your favorite? The prices give us a really good guide for the worth of a reaper. The red (which has been skated, but it is basically NOS) went for $204, the orange for $481 and the green for $500. I think the guy that bought the red one got the best deal, easily. The blue robe on the reaper is better than the purple IMHO.

Nice deck. It’s a Santa Cruz Eric Dressen “roses” from 1989. Now Eric has had his share of totally crap graphics, but this is amongst his best. The screen job is very intricate and detailed. Great work for sure. Very underrated deck. Of course, I’m not sure why a homeboy from Cali has Saxon/celtic graphics, but there you go. $275.

The Vision Gator “swirl”. It’s a real shame that this great graphic element will be forever linked with a murdering flake. This is a later version of the graphic, maybe the 3rd? It’s a really nice colorway on this one. The yellow and green in the graphic really pop off the green stain. That’s a nice looking deck, but of course you have to get past the connotations if you are going to display it. It has a murderers name on it for heaven’s sakes! Maybe the generic Vision one that they reissued is a better bet if you just want the graphic on your wall. That’s a debate for another time I guess. $485.

I’d never seen this G&S Jim Gray before, and I’d guess that neither have you. It’s not listed on AOS, and I’m betting from the crappy, simple line graphic it’s his first pro model. 1985ish? Seriously, that graphic looks like it took about 20 minutes to do, start to finish. Was it even a production model? Anybody? The seller calls it “exceedingly rare” which is true, but rarity doesn’t affect value. It can be as rare as rare can be, but if nobody is interested then you basically have a rare turd. Such is life. $92.

But this Santa Cruz Jeff Grosso “demon” from 1987 is both rare and desirable. It’s used obviously, but the graphic is all there, and the colorway is very nice. The green demon look great on the red dip. $500.

And here’s a later Santa Cruz Jeff Grosso, and this one is exploding up the value charts. It’s the “heaven and hell” graphic and was his last for Santa Cruz. Man, if you want this deck this would be the one to have. It is mint as they come, and the colorway is luscious! Look at the depth of that purple stain and the quality of the screen job. This thing is truly awesome. Actually, this could be listed as Jeff Grosso or as a Ross Goodman deck. Yes it has the telltale Grosso graphic elements, and it also says Grosso, but look at where it says Grosso. Take away the G and the O and you have Ross, and beneath it, it says “Goodman Model”: Ross Goodman Model. Was it a joke on Grosso’s part? Or was it a message from Santa Cruz? I’m not sure. What I do know is that it went for $810.

Here is a Powell Peralta Tony Hawk “birdclaw” deck from 1988. It has the forest background. It is on a white dip. It looks very nice and would look good on a colored wall. Don’t put a white deck on a white wall. Then it doesn’t pop and looks silly. This deck sold for $404. That is a lot of money for a used Hawk birdclaw. Yes, used. It has been drilled for rails.

The Hosoi hammerhead has bee issued and reissued so many times that it has lost much of its cool factor. This one is pretty special though. It is the 1986 model that he put out on his own, before Skull or Santa Cruz, and it is in a very rare yellow colorway. Apparently that is why Christian signed it “limited” on the bottom. He signed it in 1998. Some probably questioned the authenticity of the deck, because the selling price of $355 seem rather low, or maybe it’s just that like I said, the Hammerhead has been done to death, and a rare colorway means little when there are thousands of them out there from lots of different companies.

Here’s another Hosoi, this being the Santa Cruz “Picasso” model from 1988. I never thought much about this graphic until I saw this one and some of the detail. It’s actually very, very nice, and the purple stain helps too. Nice deck, plus it’s part of the Blacktop series, which means it was more limited than the regular version. That probably explains the $425 price tag.

And finishing off the Hosoi’s we have this Hosoi collage again from 1988. It’s a super involved and detailed graphic, which when squinted at reveals a picture of Hosoi ripping a pool. Or so I’m told because I could never see that kind of shit. It’s mint and highly desirable. $1,025.

We go from a deck that is well designed and highly desirable to this horror show. It’s the JFA “Don Lincoln” model. It’s truly horrible in every way. The shape is awful, and the graphics are crap. The thing is a monstrosity. I guess if you really like the band? But $490? Damn.

This Schmitt Stix Joe Lopes “bbq” model from 1987 is pretty badass. Neil Blender did the graphic, and this is the one with the ketchup splatters all over it. Most of the time I don’t like the dark wood stain, but on this deck it really seems to work. It must be the ketchup splatters. At $227 this was a great score for somebody.

Here we have a Powell Peralta Mike McGill “jet fighter” 6-ply model from 1982. It’s Mike’s first PP deck. This deck has been set up and used, but the graphic is all there and it would display very nicely: the green wood stain is still very bright. It went for $500, which seems just about right.

This is a Schmitt Stix Chris Miller “faces” deck from 1989, right before he started Planet Earth. It features the “dog” head in the middle of the faces, as well as a lot of others. Chris did the artwork. A lot of his graphics are amazing, but some like this one, are ill conceived and poorly executed. It just doesn’t look right. There’s probably a good idea there, but this is not it. I do like the fact that he refused to stick to the “graphic between the truck holes” idea of deck graphics though. $225.

Aah yes, here’s another Santa Cruz Natas panther, 5th gen. I swear I have one of these every month. There must b a million of them out there. Sweet purple stain on this one, it looks really good. I never thought the Natas font worked on this one though. It looks too middle-earth or something. That is a great looking colorway though, and nice condition. Nice lighting on the photo too. $943.

Hmm. As Santa Cruz Jason Jessee Neptunes go, this one is super dull. The stain is blaah, and the other colors are dull and uninspired. At least that is my opinion. Others obviously felt differently because it went for $1,675. The seller did a really good job of talking up the colorway in the description, and I guess that helped. Maybe it is a rare colorway, but it doesn’t stop it from being fugly, right?

Now here’s one that never comes around, in strict contrast to the two decks above. It’s an Airbourne Peanut Brown “witch doctor” from 1989/1990. Airbourne was an offshoot of Zorlac, and they had some good pros like Peanut and Steve Schneer on their team. They had some rad shapes, and some very underrated graphics, the Peanut Brown decks from the early 90s being a case in point. This one is NOS and in a very striking red stain. $650.

I can remember the days when any Sims Pharaoh on eBay would get the collectors jumping in their seats and grabbing their wallets. Those days are gone I guess. Everybody that wants a Pharaoh must already have one, because this one in good condition only went for $372. Yes it was set up and ridden so it has some scratches, but it is still in great shape: no mistaking this one. I never realized before, but the stick figures running vertically down the middle are all skate related. Very clever.

A couple of months ago (August) I featured the Sims version of this graphic, but here is the later, 1988 version of the same graphic, this time for Rocco’s own division of SMA, before he split it off completely and made World Industries. This one is mint, and in a very unusual white dip. Supposedly the wood on these was super weak and would snap very easily, so few of these survived the jump ramp era. This deck had a Buy It Now of $500, which it reached within 10 minutes of being posted. It probably might have reached twice that once people started bidding, so the seller made a mistake here IMHO.

Well, I guess the bubble has officially burst on Santa Cruz Salba tigers. A few months ago they were routinely up to over $1k, but now they are back down to the $600 range. This minty purple dip went for $612, still in shrink. The dip is nice as most tigers you see come on a wood stain of some kind.

This is the month for Schmitt Stix isn’t it? Here we have a Schmitt Stix Reese Simpson “pool cobra” from 1989. The artwork was by Ken Sigafoos. This is a pretty rare board, but this colorway is by far the worst that I’ve ever seen this deck in. It just doesn’t work. For some reason the seller says that it’s an original Alva board when the picture clearly shows Schmitt Stix. Maybe he cut and pasted his boilerplate copy? $480.

Here’s a Powell Peralta skull and sword team deck from 1983. After Ray “Bones” Rodriguez left the team they kept his graphic and put in on a team deck. Good decision, with it being one of the most iconic graphics in skate history and all. Apparently the seller found it in his attic. Nice score! It has never been set up and looks to be in great shape. It’s amazing how great the dip looks on these early 80s Powell decks even after nearly 25 years! It looks brand new. $520.

This is the Powell Peralta Mike McGill “stinger” from 1990. After seeing the aquarium model jump in price recently, I predicted that this one would go up too, and sure enough it has. This great looking purple stain model went for $346. It is a good-looking deck, and I think it will go up to the $400 range, depending on colorway.

And here’s the high priced winner for the month. It’s a Dogtown Skates Suicidal Tendencies “possessed to skate” model from 1986. It looks to be on the same shape deck as the DT Stonefish, which came out at the same time. These decks were produced in very limited quantities and they are very tough to find in NOS shape like this. The black dip is especially desirable. There were 32 bids and the winner was $3,051 poorer by the end of it. So yeah, collectors still have money available, never doubt that.

This one went for big money too, but not like the one above. It’s a World Industries Mike Vallely “elephant II” from 1989. The colorway on this one is superb. The blue elephant and green and yellow sun (?) really pop off of the dark wood stain. It’s mint and awesome. And it’s from Mike’s personal collection no less. That’s a very nice looking deck. $1,425.

And here’s a G&S Danny Webster from 1988. Danny was an English pro, and this graphic shows the time when Danny racked up a $4500 phone bill calling his family from a hotel in Texas. Or something like that. You don’t see Webster’s come up very often, and this one went for $212.

90s-today

Here’s a World Industries Rodney Mullen “sure shot”. It’s a pretty funny idea for a board graphic I suppose. It’s from the very early 90s because the deck still has a modicum of shape to it. Actually, it’s even more apt now than it would have been then, because who knew then that these pieces of wood would become collectible and would be hanging on walls, just like the picture this portrays? Ironic huh? There’s nothing ironic about the price though: $1,495.

As soon as Natas went away from the Panther themed graphics he put out some real cack. This 101 “android” from 1992 is no exception. I’m sure some probably love it, but I think it’s the drivel of the highest order. That’s probably why this went unsold for weeks, with the seller lowering the price every time. It finally went for $475.

Here’s a World Industries Mike Vallely “snake” from 1991. It’s from Mike’s personal collection again. It’s his last deck on World before he moved to New Deal. It’s a sweet top to tail graphic, and like most of his graphics it must tell a story of some kind. Or was it put out without him, and is he the snake, leaving the burning corporation behind him? Who knows? $986.

I think Randy asked about Simon Woodstock on S&A recently. Well here’s his infamous Sonic “Revenge” deck from 1997. It features Simon blowing up the World Industries Satan stick figure as a result of his feud with Rocco. Steve got the final word though when he sued Sonic for copyright infringement, which is very ironic considering his whole career was built on purloining other the graphics of other companies. He was totally morally bankrupt by the end wasn’t he? $425.

I think Kilwag just featured this deck in last week’s Friday T&A section, so this is a lucky coincidence I guess. It’s the very limited (500 pieces) Zoo York Jenna Jameson deck! I guess Zoo York and Jenna both started their careers in the same year (1993), so this is the 15-year anniversary of both. That’s a good reason to release a deck like this, right? Of course not, it’s blatant commercialism, but it worked I guess because it went for $380. Insanity.

Assorted Crap!

So why am I featuring a hockey helmet, and a crappy Cooper SK100 at that? Because the Cooper SK100 was THE helmet for groms in the 1970s. Everybody had one. Shit, I had one. It was vaguely adjustable with that screw on the side, and the padding was around 1/8” of Styrofoam, which wouldn’t protect you from a pebble, but we all had them anyway, along with our volleyball knee and elbow pads. So here it is in all of its nostalgic glory. Plenty of people must have recognized it, because it went for $196, and I don’t think that was for it’s protective abilities!

Now I must be missing something here. You can buy Skate hitops for around $70 from all of the major skate brands. But why do that when you can spend $1,025 on these hideous Supra Chad Muska shoes? Yes sir, that is correct. Over $1k. On these things. Now I could see that kind of price for some mint Air Jordan Mark 1s from 1985, but this? Stop, seriously, stop.

Aah yes, the famous Powell Peralta Team tour jacket from 1989. Only given to team members, this fine looking jacket with graphics down the sleeves is always a big hit. Who knew that the Powell team was filled with hobbits, because the jackets are always size small. Every one I’ve ever seen, size small. What is up with that? I wonder if it’s signed by Mr. Frodo?

This issue of Skateboarder from December 1976 really surprised me. These often go for a $100 or so, but this one that features Jay Adams on the cover went for $365. Now that is a lot of bread, especially when it looks to be pretty beat up. I think I’ve seen a complete collection of Skateboarders go for just a little bit more than that.

How cool is this? It’s a Vision Street Wear “psycho stick” banner from 1989. It really does kick ass and would look “dope” in any garage. Isn’t that what you kids say these days? Is that Olga from the Toy Dolls? $36.

And here’s a total hunk of 1980s. It’s a “genuine” Valterra splatter skateboard like the one used by Marty McFly in Back to the Future. It has the original trucks and wheels, even though the wheels were removed and the bearings taken out, probably when the original owner realized it was a total piece of shit and put together a real board. Anyway, here it is for all of the Back to the Future collectors out there. $242.

Bargains!

OK, so you want to be really, really sick? Well cast your eyes on some of these faves that could have been yours for next to nothing. First up is this Schmitt Stix Steve Douglas from 1989. It’s NOS in a pretty rare black dip. How does $57 grab you?

OK, so you don’t want the deck of a lesser known pro, you want a big star. Is Tony Hawk big enough for ya? First we have a Hawk birdclaw in pink. Yes it’s lightly used with rails, but those can be removed as can the crap sticker, leaving a virtually new looking birdclaw. $50? Are you kidding me?

Below that we have a Hawk screaming skull in red dip. Again, it’s not NOS: it has scratches and has been drilled for rails, but the wear is minimal and the graphic is all there. This went for $88.

This one you see pretty often but it’s still a Santa Cruz John Lucero from 1989, and it’s interesting because even though it predates Black label, it has a lot of the graphic elements that he carried over to his new company. The shape is awesome and it is super clean. I dig the grey wood stain. It could have been yours for $51.

You want a Powell Peralta Mike McGill skull and snake with snakeskin background, but don’t want to pay $500 and up? Well get this lightly used complete with Indys and Powell T-Bones. The graphic is all there, so remove the trucks, rails and stickers and you have a really sharp looking Mike McGill deck for $96.

Remember this one? It is a Tracker “street specimen” team deck from round about 1985. It is mint and although the graphic isn’t that great, it’s a still a mint deck from over 20 years ago. 47? Wow.

And here’s a similar bargain. It’s a Z-Flex Z-Pig from 1987. Again it’s a team model, but the shape is great, and the blue wood stain is deep and rich. The graphic is blaah, but it’s typical Z-Flex. This would make a nice rider if you wanted it to be, and for $51 you couldn’t go wrong.

And this one takes the cake for me. It’s a Blockhead Sam Cunningham “Good Sam” deck from 1988. This one says Limited Edition, and I’m not sure what that is all about, but this is the very deck featured on AOS. Never gripped or assembled. I would have guessed around $350 for this deck, but it went for $112. Damnit.