04-106 Mars Emerald SGH exclusive discussion

[SiRacer420]

I did hear many years ago that the letter had something to do with the location where they were sold but how accurate this is I do not know. Thought I'd mention it anyway.

I just asked the guy I got the Emerald from. He got it in 99 in Alaska at SGH in the mall.

 

[Oakley G]

I just asked the guy I got the Emerald from. He got it in 99 in Alaska at SGH in the mall.

Is he sure it was 1999? I was certain they came out in 2001. They certainly came out after the Ruby Juliet.

 

[SiRacer420]

Im really hoping to see more people that have boxed sets chime in. I want to see serial numbers. I've seen a few alleged Emerald Mars with serials in the upper 20000s but those had no box, matching serial or otherwise. I find it too coincidental that @dragonvoi and I have serials so close and are boxed.

Is he sure it was 1999? I was certain they came out in 2001. They certainly came out after the Ruby Juliet.

Yeah, this is what he said:

"I bought them at a sunglasses hut in Dimond Center mall Anchorage, AK. It would have been winter of 1998/1999 in early '99, as I was just out of high school at the time and working at a snowboard/ski shop that sold them and friends had the Romeo or Juliet frames that came out at the time. Im pretty sure it was early 99 as I was the youngest guy in the snowboarding department the time at 19 years old at the time (Dec birthday) and was laid off in the spring as the snowboarding season tapered off and they let the seasonal staff go. Cyclops in the original X-Men movie popularized the Ruby Juliet glasses around that same time while Michael Jordan was somehow tied to advertising for the Mars if my memory serves me. The shop I worked at only had the leather temple/bridge version at the time and being 18 and impatient with cash burning a hole in my pocket, I went to the mall and bought them there rather than waiting a week or more for them to order them in."

I know I got my Ruby Juliet in 99 or 2000, it was that winter, it had just come out and I was on vacation in Hilton Head Island. That was my first year of college, I took a year off after high school. So that jives with what he says.

 

[Oakley G]

I can guarantee the Ruby Juliet didn't hit dealers until April or May 2000.

Similarly, I don't think the Emerald lens was available that early. The Emerald lens was created as a SGH exclusives for a time before the **** hit the fan between them and Oakley, which was then that it filtered out to a non exclusive. That's why you saw the Emerald Juliet and Mars at SGH before everything else.

 

[SiRacer420]

Must have been 2000 when I got it then. I know it was the first year of college. That was a long damn time ago lol

 

[dragonvoi]

factory fresh untampered and super clean a clear box. no chance of label swaps or any funny business.

 

[SiRacer420]

Yep. Exactly like mine and the Ruby's I've seen. I guess some the factory in a matched box and some didn't. Oh well. I still want to see one.

 

[supersharp]

Oh well. I still want to see one.

Me too. I don't think they exist.

 

[Romeo Van Frogskinstein]

Forget about lenses and boxes for a moment, think only of the serial frames for each of the five Mars, and we have the following:-

04-103 X Metal - Black. M######
04-104 X Metal Leather - Gold. M*###### (note the * after the M, unique to this frame)
04-105 X Metal Crater - Black. C######
04-106 X Metal - Emerald. M######
04-107 X Metal - Ruby. M######

Now lets add the lenses. The official lenses were Gold, Black, Ruby, Emerald, and Ice. Ice was a genuine Oakley product with sku 90-453 which you could purchase direct from the company and install in a Mars frame to create a custom piece. Emerald also was available is the US as a 'spare' lens which could be used in the same manor as Ice. In effect then, you could have a 04-103 or a 04-107, take out the Black or Ruby lenses, and install an Emerald 'custom' lens, but if you did this, you DO NOT have an 04-106 SGH, however, such a pair would look EXACT to the SGH, not the slightest difference, all black rubbers, X Metal frame, M serial. So, how can you have a proven, 'stake your life on it SGH Emerald?'..We now need to talk boxes, because that is the ONLY way to prove a genuine 04-106. Take the one shown in this thread, great box showing 04-106, but the serial on the arm is M000173...it doesn't match the P00282 label serial, so there is no way to say the M000173 was not originally a 04-103 or a 04-107 frame, with an Emerald lens installed...it's 'probably' the real deal as you have the labelled box, but for any one of many reasons this pair may not be the 'Real McCoy', it's the M serial on three frames which causes the lack of certainty. So, the label tells us there is a 04-106, X Metal - Emerald, so the question is, do any of that sku have a matching serial? The answer is YES! I HAD IT.. I acquired a REAL 04-106 in November 04, from a top employee at corporate HQ, MINT BOX, inner and outer..no planet strip, text label, SERIAL M008006, the label matching the arm. It is the ONLY pair I have ever known to be ABSOLUTELY 100% SGH 04-106, AND it was all 100% MINT!! Some years later I had a burglary and lost 15 X Metals as a result, almost all of them I have since replaced mostly with improvements regarding condition and serial matching boxes...however the 04-106 sadly was among those stolen, and I have never seen another, and yet I have searched and offered a four figure price and yielded nothing from my efforts. As an aside, I also lost a REAL Black Chrome Romeo 1 in that theft, a beautiful piece that I have never heard another example of. The 04-107 appear to be often not serial matching, indeed my own pair was purchased new and it could not have had a box swap yet the arm/label serial don't match and this pair also has the P on the label. It will of course be a bonus if you have one matching, but it seems the vast majority don't..and some do, and some do not have the planet on the box. I'd suggest if you have a mint non matching 04-107 that's fine, but the 04-106 is a different animal, light years more rare anyway, and in my view the rarest of the official 70 X Metal releases.

 

[SiRacer420]

More good stuff. I knew I tagged you for a reason. I agree it has to be the rarest. Oh well, this one suits me for now, but I will still be on the lookout for a matched one. I am still a bit surprised that mine and Dargonvoi's serials are so close, 177 and 173. Even the boxes are close, relatively speaking.

Thanks for the info!