I ran into a friend on the beach yesterday and he told me he bought this board fom someone that purchased it in Hawaii and brought it back to the east coast. I havent seen the board up close, so I cant tell if its one of the early "popouts. If anyone has any information on the these boards he would really appreciate it. The other picture I saw was the fin big black “d” style fin fiberglass construction.
Thanks
Bsea
Thanks bsea for getting the ball rolling on info. Since it was originally purchased in Hawaii and having wooden nose and tail block and serial# . Any chance it’s not a pop out. Looking to for inputs as it’s possible value for possibly selling it and or insuring it.
Appears to be a ''pop out surfboard'', abbreviated as P. O. S. ! Kidding aside, actually is a fairly clean example of those early boards.
my first ride was a 10’ Duke K popout, my cousin and I found it collecting dust in the back of his fathers San Francisco auction warehouse in 63’. We talked him into letting us use it, and started riding it at Kellys Cove. Old school gremmies - cut off levis, riding whitewater to the sand, friggin freezing our cojones off.
That board was the tippiest, most unstable ride imaginable. When I got a custom Wardy the following year from Al Giddings at the Bamboo Reef (along with a wetsuit vest from Jack O), it was like going from a junker with the wheels falling off to a new Cadillac.
Loved that Wardy!
Nope. It’s a popout. Lots of popouts had noseblocks, tailblocks, checkerboard fins, etc. Boards like Keokis even had a label that said “Honolulu, Hawaii”…even though they were made in a factory in California, side-by-side with other popout labels of the era.
The Dukes were slightly better than stuff like Healthways, Keoki, Tiki, etc…but they were still pretty bad shapes with half-assed glass jobs. Yours is in decent condition, but still not worth very much. I sure as hell wouldn’t bother to insure it!!
Maybe out of the Butch era.
That's an interesting reference. The board sold for upwards of $4K. But, it was an auction. The appraisers set the value at $750 - $1500. In excellent condition. The o.p.'s board is in good shape above, but the fin looks to have some problems. Condition is a big factor in older collectibles. So, based on the auction appraisal number, I would put the estimated value of the original poster's board probably at around 25-30% of the board you referenced, or around $200 - $450.
If you put it in an auction, anything can happen. Hundred dollar items can go for a thousand (all you need is two bidders with deep pockets and a desire to own it, or maybe just a desire to impress their date, etc.), and vice-versa (which is why they have hidden reserves).
Auction appraisals are generally based on what similar items have sold for in the past. The big difference between the appraisal and the final price indicates that price ($4K) is not a common occurence. Someone got lucky, but like winning the lottery, luck is fickle - you can't bank on it.
If these boards start to regularly bring in prices in the $4K range, then the value of the o.p.'s board gets revised up, toward $1K. Maybe worth hanging onto, and see where the market goes.
Value of older collectibles is always a gray area. In the final analysis, its worth what someone will pay for it.
Thanks. Looks like the auction board most likely had been restored .
[quote="$1"] Thanks. Looks like the auction board most likely had been restored . [/quote]
If it was restored, they clearly lied when they stated "all-original condition", and the buyer would have grounds for a refund or a lawsuit. Any restoration would have to be mentioned in the description, and the value would drop accordingly. It does look like it was polished up, but that's normal when putting something on auction.
The board is in remarkably good shape. There's no hard and fast rule, but condition is usually very very important to the value of an older collectible. Sometimes it can increase the value of a rare item by 10 times over a similar item in lesser condition.
The results listing gives the condition as a “7”. Even via photos on the 'net, it is obvious the board was not ever restored. Chances are, it saw very little use in it’s lifespan and was stored for decades. The foam is as white as you’ll ever find on an old popout. Big clue that it was stored a long time. 60s popouts notoriously turned brown really fast.
However, you must keep in mind that the auction was 5 years ago and the vintage board market has tanked. A popout that sold for $4k in '07 would be hard to unload at $1k, these days.
I also want to point out that not every board in that auction was listed accurately. One board, that fetched quadruple the amount of that Duke, was blatantly misrepresented as “pristine” when it was in fact restored with some major damage covered up. It is normal to see an (r) symbol on a restored board. The one in question had no such designation and was listed as a “9”.
I do not trust anything I read from that auctioneer. Scam artist.
I've had boards a week old in worse shape than that one!
As far as the auctioneer, from my experience (which does not include surf related), most are as you describe. Caveat emptor. The fine print usually states anything you're told is not guaranteed, and all research on the item in question is on the bidder. I didn't notice the auction date, but that's why I mentioned you have to see where the current market is, and where it is headed.
I hope you weren't the one who got stiffed on the mis-represented item, a heartbreak for somebody. I had a friend who paid $54K for a civil war uniform in great shape - turned out to be a band uniform, civil war era, worth about $5K. He almost ended up in a divorce over that one, LOL.
Hell, no. But, I saw the board before it got restored. So, I know it’s true condition before it got re-habbed. It was a “Da Cat” that sold for $16,000. That’s not a typo. The buyer was hoodwinked…bamboozled.
Thanks you guys for commenting on this post! and sharing your insight. I started surfing when I was 12 year old (I made it to 60) and got to see a lot of the changes that occured along the way. Its the feedback and knowlege that comes from “The Swaylocks Family” that constantly enriches my surfing experience.
Thanks!
bsea
I know of two early 1960’s era pop out manufacturers who also offered “hand shapes” as their top of the line.
Titan Plastics in Santa Ana had the Windansea Custom. And Ventura Internationl Plastics had the Ventura.
The way to tell the difference is: The true pop outs had a mat blank. That is the shell of the blank was fibreglass mat. They would knock down the seam and glass the board with one layer of 10 oz. These boards would tan rapidly in the sun and today if you run across one that’s seen a lot of sun it will be dark brown. (One seller tried to pass off a darkly tanned Dextra as a “balsa Dextra”)
If you see a board from a pop out manufacturer that isn’t a mat blank but has regular looking foam then it may be a “hand shape” but in my opinion that doesn’t really mean anything re: collectability since it’s still a board made by a pop out company. And as I remember they didn’t have as good a shape as the popout, for the obvious reason.
But it is amazing to me that people will pay high prices for boards that we considered junk back then. As though the passage of time makes the board a valuable collectable.
When I worked at Keller’s Surf Shop in 1964 Charlie told us to refer to the boards as “production boards” not pop outs. And then of course we had the customs (G&S, Greg Noll, Con…) which of course weren’t usually custom except maybe the color design.
The nose and tailblocks were common on popouts as SammyA said and used primarily to hide the fact that the stringers were routed top and bottom rather than all the way through.
The boards with routed top stringers only would have sold color on the bottom.
[quote="$1"]
But it is amazing to me that people will pay high prices for boards that we considered junk back then. As though the passage of time makes the board a valuable collectable.
[/quote]
Yep, that's the nature of the beast. Nickel comics, baseball cards, movie posters, lotsa stuff that was considered cheap and disposable is worth big bucks today. In the case of stuff like the popouts, I think the reasons they were disliked get lost over time, and new generations can't make the same refined distinctions about things they have so little practical knowledge of. And heck, if its just a wallhanger anyway, probably doesn't matter how badly they surfed =)
Those boards were always worth a little more than a "Tiki" or "Ten Toes" because they had Duke's name on them.
