That Penny listing is hilarious! A big part of the Oakley collector chase for me was the thrill of the treasure hunt for those super limited pairs/items, but it's so tough to really know now with custom guys good enough to plate X-Metals, or color match O-Matter finishes, or make trophies, etc. For me it's made me realize that I need to go back to concentrating on the simple enjoyment of actually wearing Oakley instead of chasing the super rare stuff to keep in storage, which is getting faked better and better. I miss the days of laughing at foakleys at the small convenience stores with the dumb lens stickers (I guess Oakley ended up thinking lens stickers weren't so dumb), now foakleys are no laughing matter.

Great writeup and good to see you around, Adrian.

I was watching X2 and thought about Ruby Quartz lenses. This reminded me of a funny story from 2006 that deals with the weird ways fakes can be construed as authentic, and then ultimately passed down to other collectors.

Before I start the story, and though it will become obvious, Member #1 = Seller and Member #2 = Buyer.

In 2006, Member #1 had custom Ruby Quartz lenses developed by a third party using the same techniques the movie lenses used (clear lens dyed deep red, rear mirror coating, front AR coating, etc.).

Member #1 wasn't satisfied with this lens and decided to sell it to Member #2. He told Member #2 it was a custom and nothing to do with Oakley.

Member #2 was very impressed with the lens (remember, this was 2006 when no one yet knew how to replicate the movie lens), so much so that he was convinced it was an Oakley lens even though Member #1 told him the origins of it.

Member #2 contacted the Oakley employee who made the originals and asked if they are Oakley lenses (all communication by e-mail). The Oakley employee, not knowing that anyone had even attempted to replicate the lens, told him it did look like a Ruby Quartz lens that Oakley developed.

Member #2 told Member #1 what the Oakley employee said and that he didn't realize what he had. Member #1 reiterated he knew exactly what he had since he had it developed from the ground up, and that there is no chance it was an Oakley lens. Member #2 didn't want to believe it and kept representing it as the real deal.

Eventually Member #2 sold the lens to someone else. Now another collector has a custom lens thinking its the real deal, and paid out of the ying yang for it.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that there are lots of fakes out there being represented as authentic. Sometimes its intentional, sometimes not. Those who are privy to background information know how rampant this is and protect themselves. Those who are newer should also know this and protect themselves as well.

Back around that time, there was a sunglass store where I got most of my Oakley pairs. They also sold a lot of generic. One of them had this deep red tinted lens with the back mirror, and I toyed with custom cutting them into Juliet lenses, and seeing how the ebay auction would go (or course pulling it at the last moment as to not really take advantage.) Ah 2006...

Be careful in buying hand-painted, 1-of-1 stuff. There have been several instances in the past year where collectors have painted their own pair and claimed it was done by Oakley, only to have been caught and exposed. Even well-known pairs can’t escape. Others, such as some of the Andrew Peterson, have had replicas painted and attempted to be sold to unsuspecting buyers.

These weren’t done by random people on the street. These items were faked by top well-known collectors with huge collections who wanted even bigger collections at the expense of ripping off other collectors. Be careful out there.

It is a shame that one-off items that were meant to be a source of pride for collectors have been tarnished by greed.