Nothing super great this month. The highlights is probably the set of Stroker trucks that went for well over $1000, although the hotly disputed Natas 101 deck went for over $2500. Scroll down to see the full story on that.
Powell
First up we have this totally classic Ray “Bones” Rodriguez skull and sword complete. The first Powell pro deck, complete with jumbo taildome. The deck is in great condition, but what’s that on the trucks? I don’t think it’s a coper. Looks like plastic tape?! Anyway, it went for $711.
I’m not sure if there’s ever been a crappier Powell graphic than this General Issue deck. The seller also has crap taste in couch covering, but that’s another story. Any road up, it went for $510, which is about $509 more than I’d have paid for it.
Ever wonder what difference a colorway can make? Well here you go. Here we have two Lance Mountain Future Primitive decks. Both are mint. The top one is a red one, bottom one is pink. Pink must be more popular, because the red went for $305, the pink went for $405. So now you know.
Pink for $405.
Santa Cruz
After the interview in the last Juice, I’ve become a big fan of Claus Grabke. Seems like a very cool, interesting, grounded guy who knows what he wants out of life. So I hunted down his reissue, which is a spot on replica of this one. Actually, you rarely see this “exploding clock” graphic, especially mint like this one. $171.
The Salba tiger. This one used to be at all of the online stores. In fact I bought one for under $100 about 18 months ago. Then they all sold out, and look what happens! Everybody wants it. This one went for $300, and all indications look like it’s going higher.
Here’s a real piece of history. A really early Santa Cruz aluminum deck. Almost looks like a slalom deck. $192 seems fair.
Bulldog/Z-Flex
Seems like we get a mint, undrilled Z-Flex Jay Adams every month. Weird. Anyway, they always hold their value. This blue number went for $1,325. Alright.
Bulldog puts out a lot of quality planks with awesome Humpston graphics. He even signed this one. I’m not sure if this one was limited, but I’m sure it was because it went for $430. It’s nive and all, but $430 for a deck that’s less than a year or so old? Hmm.
Now this one I do understand. Shogo Kubo was a big influence on me, and when this deck was released about 3 years ago I came really close to buying one for $75. Now I wish I had because this signed one went for $535. Now that’s a profit.
Sims/Schmitt Stix/Lucero
With the recent reissue by Punk Rock Skateboards there’s been a lot of interest in Kevin Staab and his decks. Two came up in September. The first is this pirate ship mini, which features a mini version of the famous Staab pirate. Shit, the guys screening this must have got tendonitis. Lots of colors here! $575. Wow.
And then we have this one. It’s a version of the Staab pirate that was reissued, but this one is missing one of the screens, making it an oddity, but not really rare. That’s what makes the $400 price really puzzling to me.
We saw this Lucero Jeff Grosso last month, but that one was red and went for $700. This one is white, and that must make a difference, because this one went for $900. It is striking though.
And just like last month we also have a Schmitt Stix Lucero. This one is a used complete, but is still in very nice condition. $380. Virgin black copers. One black truck, one red, 2 red wheels 2 black. Full plastic. Untouched graphics. Who was the original owner? Can you spell p.o.s.e.u.r.? (Well yeah, but in the US we spell it p.o.s.e.r.)
Zorlac
The Big Boys deck. Classic stuff. Two came up in this period. The top one is a rare orange model that went for $760, while below it is a blue number that went for $611. Times have changed though. When I first started doing the baywatch columns Big Boys decks commonly went in excess of $1,600, so what’s going on? ( Gringo Re-issue! – K-ed )I guess the market is glutted or something. Actually, there is a difference between the two decks here. The orange one has the Zorlac logo centered over the truck holes. The blue one has it to the right. Judging by the wheel wells I’m guessing that the blue is an older model, but I could be dead wrong.
A later Zorlac gargoyle deck, with graphics by Pushead and a very unique shape. But $590? Seems like a reach to me for a team deck.
Miscellaneous
This next complete was sold on ebay for charity. It’s a complete that was actually ridden (and broken) by Tony Hawk himself at the x games (or something like that). A nice collectors item with the money going to a good cause. Everybody wins. $810.
I don’t feature plain wood decks from the 70s very often, but here’s a Bruce Logan Logan Earth Ski deck. It went for $241 if you are interested. Pretty dull really, but I feature it because you don’t see them that often.
Kryptonics put out some goddawful decks in the early/mid 80s. Here’s a case in point. The Josh Marlowe bomb model. For some reason these have proved to be very collectible, maybe because they were so crap. Or maybe it’s an east coast thing. $208.
Stroker trucks don’t come along very often, and when they do it’s always a big deal. This set went for $1,243. I think they were sold by English ex-pro Sean Goff, but I might not be remembering the auction right. If I’m not, sorry Goffy. Whoever sold them made some nice coin.
Here we have this Turner Summer Ski slalom deck. I don’t know if it’s new or old, but I’m guessing at old. 70s vintage. It could have been yours for $180, so there. Then you could have wiggled through the cones with the best of them. .
I’ve saved the best for last. It’s another 101 Natas satan deck. Mint, although there is some questions about this one. An unknown poster came onto Skull and Bones (a collectors site) saying that they had this deck, and is it worth anything. The collectors drooled. Next thing you know it’s up on the bay, but every collector that bid, it was bid up by a buyer with no feedback that hadn’t been active for 6 months. It smelled like shill bidding, so a lot of collectors backed off. It ended up going for $2,550, which although a lot of money, is less than half what a similar deck fetched a couple of months ago. If the buyer was on the level, good for you, you got a real bargain. If not, oops! The seller will have to put it up again and lose a bunch of credibility.
Editor’s Update: I’m not sure how he missed the first time a whole park was auctioned. Of course the building wasn’t for sale, just all the ramps, the sound system, some ending equipment and fans, etc. There is a web link for the park airbornesk8.com, but who know how long it will last. The high bid of just under 70k was not enough to reach the reserve of $99,999. Really, what’s the point of putting a reserve up if you tell everyone what it is? It actually looks like a fun park, it’s got street, mini ramps, a bowl and a vert ramp. – k.ed
More next time.
-Neil
