Snake America's best auctions of the year slash gift guide
only 0.75 shopping days left until Christmas
Here’s my year-end list. The best auctions of the year. I noticed in re-editing these newsletters to collect in a book that sometimes I send out newsletters the day after bad stuff happens in my life. I don’t know why. Probably because I like writing this newsletter. I don’t mean actual horrible things like what happened this summer and fall, but odd newsletters about transitory subjects that I seem to send out when shit hits the fan. Shit hits the fan, I go to my room and write a newsletter. Not that shit has hit the fan in a while. It’s just something I did a few years ago. Anyways here’s one. The best auctions I saw this year, completed then active:
V̶i̶n̶t̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶R̶e̶e̶b̶o̶k̶ ̶v̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶—̶ ̶N̶i̶c̶o̶l̶e̶ ̶M̶c̶L̶a̶u̶g̶h̶l̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶R̶e̶e̶b̶o̶k̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶i̶g̶n̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶g̶e̶n̶e̶r̶a̶l̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶t̶a̶l̶e̶n̶t̶e̶d̶/̶s̶t̶y̶l̶i̶s̶h̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶s̶ ̶v̶e̶s̶t̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶s̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶I̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶s̶e̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶i̶m̶i̶l̶a̶r̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶D̶e̶p̶o̶p̶,̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶w̶e̶a̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶.̶ ̶I̶D̶K̶.̶ ̶S̶o̶ ̶I̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶a̶t̶c̶h̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶l̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶s̶e̶l̶l̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶a̶m̶ ̶a̶s̶s̶u̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶p̶o̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶ ̶b̶o̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶r̶e̶p̶l̶i̶c̶a̶t̶e̶.̶ ̶M̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶H̶e̶l̶m̶u̶t̶ ̶L̶a̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶e̶.̶ ̶I̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶u̶t̶ ̶n...e̶c̶a̶l̶l̶s̶ ̶P̶r̶a̶d̶a̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶b̶e̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶I̶ ̶a̶l̶w̶a̶y̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶u̶p̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶f̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶i̶g̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶ ̶l̶a̶t̶e̶r̶.̶ ̶O̶r̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶H̶e̶l̶m̶u̶t̶ ̶L̶a̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶l̶a̶k̶ ̶j̶a̶c̶k̶e̶t̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶p̶i̶e̶c̶e̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶s̶e̶,̶ ̶$̶5̶0̶ ̶t̶a̶c̶t̶i̶c̶a̶l̶ ̶v̶e̶s̶t̶s̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶s̶p̶o̶r̶t̶s̶w̶e̶a̶r̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶a̶n̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶d̶i̶g̶i̶t̶a̶l̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶f̶i̶l̶e̶,̶ ̶b̶a̶r̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶u̶n̶e̶a̶r̶t̶h̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶s̶i̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶o̶p̶e̶n̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶d̶o̶o̶r̶s̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶n̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶…̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶e̶l̶s̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶s̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶e̶ ̶m̶i̶s̶s̶i̶n̶g̶?̶ ̶I̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶i̶n̶,̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶l̶i̶v̶e̶l̶y̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶,̶ ̶p̶u̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶l̶v̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶t̶o̶-̶d̶o̶?̶ ̶A̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶s̶k̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶n̶e̶g̶a̶t̶i̶v̶e̶…̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶o̶u̶b̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶.̶ ̶ ̶
This auction was relisted.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mountain-Equipment-Annapurna-Down-Jacket-Mens-Blue-Orange/154136443131
Annapurnas, the British Steep Techs of 1992…. have to my knowledge never been retroed and rarely if ever come online. There is little trace of them online and so when they sell they don’t go for very much money. No one is into these. (Not that the rarity makes them better. They just happen to slip through the cracks.) Produced by Mountain Equipment, whatever that is, it’s as good a parka as the Kara Koram (any era); maybe better. It’s nice because it’s not too old looking. There’s a Canadian outdoors outfitter named Mountain Equipment Co-op to which you had to pay an annual membership if you wanted to buy their backpacks. All the older kids in high school had them. So I bought one. In 10th grade I put a Number of the Beast patch over the logo. There’s also Mountain Records, a bad hard-core record label in the 1990s, which at the end of the decade changed its name to Mountain Coop, and proceeded to become even worse than MR. One of their bands was from Staten Island and broke up after a controversy that set my small but important world ablaze for three months in 1998. It was all I could think about, child that I was, and I collected information on it like a sieve. I don’t remember why they broke up now. Anyways, great jacket.
With a gun to my head if Nike ever asked me which shoe had to come back, I think I would have a short-list of three. I love the idea of having to recall sneaker history with a gun pointed at me; it’s a more distilled version of hell than many of the ones I have read about or seen in a movie. My list would be the slip-on Air Max 97 in the original silver and white and red, the silver and gold Air Max BW that came out in Europe in 2005, with a hint of bronze, oh also, the all-silver Finish Line Air Max 95s, or maybe Footaction made them, from about 2001, where everything was 3M, even the backtag, midsole and mudguard. And then if they couldn’t do any of those, or they said, “we’re going to kill you because these are all 1990s Air Maxes, don’t you have any imagination?,” I would then choose another sneaker, and ask for this one to be retroed, which is also a slip-on, and also a 90s Air Max. Pull the trigger. You think I’m scared of a sneaker company? None have been retroed. I don’t know if they will. I don’t know what Nike is doing over there. Not in a bad way, I just don’t know. Why pull out a gun? So I can tell them to reissue Air Zoom Seismics or Conventions? Or the Mayflys that disappear after you run to the store? That seems like a bad reason to end someone’s life. This slip on is a beautiful shoe; when I look at it I want to live in it, and my problems melt away. Few shoes elicit that reaction. But they’re half a size too big, and the air bubbles are rotted so I didn’t buy it. And so the auction remains a distant object of contemplation, like so much else.
These are wild. I don’t like any of the Salomons (Gate) boots or technical sneakers that have come out in the past three years. (Except for the all-white Snowcrosses from a couple years back.) They are everywhere. They’re fine. It feels like Salomons (Gate)(1) went away, and became passé, and then came back as there is nothing else better around. Disappointing but a fine comment on our age. New and expensive and ever-present is a lousy troika. Not that all sartorial choices should be made with individuality in mind. That’s no good either. Anyways these Raichles (great outdoor brand) or are they Mammuts? (great outdoor brand) may be the best hikers of the past decade. If that’s when they were made. This shoe, hard to find, hard to search for, not in production, impossible to get, of the utilitarian genus of clothing that doesn’t stay unworn, and gets destroyed after a few months of wear, is also the same soothing shade of green as the mint chocolate chip ice cream I grew up eating in Ottawa, Ontario in the 1980s.
I like these 1970s Nordic sweaters that were used as design inspiration by The Gap 20 years later. And by Prada a couple dozen years after that, and then a few years ago too. One of the resort collections. Time ticks. Tick tick tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…. and in many ways nothing changes. It’s not stasis, but continuity. Which is reassuring, except when it slips by. But because there is nothing we can do about time slipping by, we should not worry. Bills always get paid, just never on time. So what’s time? Worrying only slows the clock.
This was an incredible deal, a double-thick — reverse weave both sides — glory-era Champion sweatshirt that went for less than $100. With kangaroo pockets (and a titty print). I had this sweatshirt on my watch list for a long time (it was 200 with offers) but since I never wear grey Champion crews I didn’t buy it. As in I have a tub full of grey Champion sweatshirts collecting dust and have sold a dozen more. Add to that the fact that Champion over the past couple years has changed. Maybe they should stay in the tub.
And yet.
A year of watching in silence with no movement culminated in my waking up one morning, summer, spring, I don’t know when, and checking my watch list (one of the first 10 things I do in the morning) and seeing that someone damned me… and spat in my face… Sometime this summer… I felt sick… sick to my stomach…. to see this masterpiece and imagine it in the arms of … Actually, honestly, there was no emotional reaction. I don’t wear grey sweatshirts — I haven’t in a year. I didn’t feel any regret. It’s an academic loss. I don’t think this sweatshirt will come around again soon. It is a very rare and important item. Rare, sure — as rare as any rare Champion (which is rare) — but it more specifically… unfindable, unsearchable. The digital effect that some things are very hard to search for. Taxonomically, I mean. People who have double-thick Champions either know what they’re called or don’t. If they do they’re not selling and if they don’t, how do they list them? That is for buyers to find out. And if they’re not listed correctly, do they exist? “Double thick” is the terminology, but come on. Those are collector words. Who’s going to use that? I learned a lot over the past couple years about how things that you want which you don’t have are not yours. Or maybe I haven’t learned anything. My thinking (my feeling) is if it’s not yours then you can live without it. Or you have to. How important can it be? Only talking about things here. In retrospect, I should have bought this if only to add it to the tub.
Did not know they made brown leather New Balance 993s. Though it’s not like I didn’t think they would. I just didn’t know they were out there. The shoe I have worn more than any other since 2013. I didn’t buy this pair because I have a handful of other 993s in colors other than grey and I never wear them. I only wear my grey ones. Maybe it’s habit, or conservativism, bad access to non-grey shoes in my closet, or maybe it is just working from home, which I have been doing since the onset of the novel coronavirus. I’ve written before against sneaker miscegenation. Upmarket material on downmarket things… a cheap ploy. Design should not point to a shoe’s rarity or that it is an amalgam. It should just be that it’s good. Now I don’t want to sound like Gropius here. There is room for everything. It just feels like a shoe like this has less staying power, that it’s a snapshot. Even as a 993. If the good Lord wanted a New Balance 993 cast in rich brown leather, They’d have made them like that in the first place. Not really, but kind of. This is also how I feel about the McDonald’s menu. When you’re in there, only order the sandwiches that were around when Woodward and Bernstein were working together.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/70s-Lee-Boss-Of-The-Road-77-Jeans-34-X-32/193738428718
Cheapest I’ve ever seen these Boss Of The Roads, and the only pair in the eight years of saved searches I’ve seen listed with a waist measuring under 38 inches. Boss Of The Roads — not related to John “The Man” Reeves — are the best (and coolest) retro work pants ever made. There aren’t many out there and they only seem to have been made in very big sizes. I am a fan of Lee Jeans too. When done right, they have no equal. I had a couple pairs of the old Hair on Hide retros from a decade (and a half) ago, and some half-mustaches too. I sold both, which I regret now. I only wore the half mustaches once, when I got groceries atthe Key Food on Smith that isn’t around anymore (in 2010). I guess I am listing things I didn’t win here. Which makes me look cheap, or academic. “Is this guy just watching clothing and not buying it?” “Does he just like auctions on eBay?” That’s what a bad-faith reader might say. But the other side of the coin says it’s bad taste to show off what I won to people I don’t know. Bragging… who enjoys that? If you buy clothes you don’t need to tell people about it because they’ll eventually see the clothes. Maybe not this year but in general. And even then eventually. If you want to know what I won you can email me.
Active
Over the long and storied history of this newsletter I have yet to write about an active auction I was interested in buying for myself because in those six years I have never felt like adding my personal dynamic into things I am writing about (more than it is, it’s obviously already in there). And, conversely, not a fan either of having the items I would be buying and inviting into my home… and putting on my body… mediated by… a narrative… no thank you. Am I buying this fishing jacket because I like it or because I like the story? Did I buy this pair of safety glasses for the same reason? What about this Lamborghini ashtray? You can’t just tell stories about things. Sometimes the story is better than the thing. And then where does that leave you? Sitting around holding a bunch of stories. Of course, not everything on my 369-active-item-strong watchlist is a thing I’m about to buy. So there are enough to share here for sure.
(no more pics, Substack says I’m at the email length limit… bitch shit)
Del Campo (a friend) keeps posting photos of himself in a trenchcoat. He got a new one and looks almost as good in it as Markus Wolf, who was head of the Stasi and who wore the same trenchcoat (with nice glasses) for decades, and whose brother was a very good East German film director. No good to look up to spies, or Stasi members certainly, except aesthetically. Anyways, I’ve never been able to find a good (vintage) trench-coat because the sleeves are always too short. Even the good Burberry ones from the 1970s are cut for jockeys. Brooks Brothers too. Aquascutum. The list goes on. Collared shirts from that era have that problem as well. Maybe it was something in the laundry powder. Or something else. Some keystone wardrobe pieces can take a decade to locate in good vintage, which is why every now and then you have to buy a new belted trenchcoat. Del Campo gets it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/220-NEW-MEN-REEBOK-FURY-BLACK-ORANGE-US-B-GRADE-SZ-10/272250559632
I love this sneaker and this color, and have never seen this pair, in Halloween colors with only a tiny bit of orange, anywhere, not in a Japanese magazine, on anyone’s feet, on Instagram, Yahoo Auctions, etc. They have been on my watchlist for two, three years. eBay purchase history goes back three years, and I remember getting out of Tai Chi at the Brooklyn Heights YMCA and leaning on my cane to check my phone and seeing I won Jackie Chan Furys. The reliance on a cane would place my reemergence at spring 2017. So almost four years. They’re a size small for me. Incidentally, eBay is lousy with unique Pump Fury colorways in size 10, right now and for a while. I haven’t worn my Furys this year. Because of the novel coronavirus, I have been spending a lot of time at home. Additionally, it’s hard to bike in Pump Furys since they have a raised toe.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Reebok-DMX-Liner-Black-Lace-Mens-Golf-Shoes-9M/114425326689
No comment here but wanted to share.
Cool bag made by my friend Adam’s grandfather.
One of the least representative pieces of clothing by a clothing brand. Belstaff has had a strange decade. They make those belted motorcycle jackets. And they always look so small. I have never seen a baggy Belstaff jacket. Are there any? The new ones are styled slim and the old ones never look boxy like so much old vintage outerwear does. Ever seen an old, like 1940s old, army jacket? A showroom pic I mean? It’s a cube. I wonder if riders wore them this skinny in the 1980s. Even Steve McQueen looks poured into his, which is how he did things I guess, but it’s still way too slim. What a shame. This styling has affected Belstaff’s brand equity. They are much too sexy for any feminine-cut jacket with a visible outer belt should be. The pants are fun, though, and different. They’re not really sexy. Of course this pair is size small. But at least they’re not black. They feel like the first step in returning Belstaff to its rightful seat at the head of the table. It’s a British motorcycle racing outfitter company. It should be good.
Cheapest I’ve ever seen these, usually go for three times that. These are military-issue Patagonia from the 2000s, I think, analogous to Arc’teryx LEAF if I remember right, annoying to buy, as they’re not super rare just pretty expensive, and never detailed with good product shots, and never a thing you can try on. They’re only really available in spec colors. What’s interesting about this cross-section of military outdoor company clothing is how co-signed it is by big/good Japanese vintage sellers. I wrote about the political implication of this stuff earlier this year for GQ but didn’t touch on this aspect of vintage. Acorn, the Japanese vintage seller, doesn’t push much clothing produced past the 1980s except Patagonia, and almost nothing past the ‘00s, except tactical Patagonia like these pants here and the odd Arc’teryx… Food for thought and a co-sign that transcends any ethics having to do with this clothing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DIET-COCA-COLA-HAT-CAP-RARE-FROM-ISRAEL-NEVER-USED/122441261846
Silver Coke… the world’s best drink… the world’s best mass-produced item; the greatest organic material, save the polio vaccine, to have been dreamt up in a lab. Diet Coca Cola, a drink so good it crosses political boundaries. A cold can of Diet Coke is the best way to spend a dollar in America, and is so good that one in five cans are bad and have no flavor. A 20% tax, paid in duds. There are lessons to learn. You have to pay to play. If it’s not all good all the time doesn’t mean it’s not all good. And too many Red Cokes make you fat. Those are the lessons I think.
Here is the exact parka former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger wore on the sidelines for Arsenal in 2004. I wrote about him earlier this year for ESPN. I found this auction before the article came out, and a few people emailed me the auction link after the article came out.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/RECINTO-by-Alessandro-Mendini-Alessi-Italian-Design-1980s/254167193457
One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
As for me, I bought a couple dozen things this year I am sure, including these Arc’teryx shorts. They have like 11 pockets. The auction is down now since more than six months have passed. Thanks for reading.
Snake
Other work: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-JLRt0Ec6gZBm50hATYCYmLctnF9GhVijoEbam50JSw/edit
(1) Beherit were so cool, they were like 11 when they recorded their first record.