Hi all, I'm a very old member, circa 2004/2005. Very shocked to come here after 16 years or so and find that there's still a picture of my teenage self that appears in the footer image :']

I haven't really thought about Oakleys in a very long time, but just finished grad school, have a real job, and can finally afford to buy nostalgic frivolous items from my youth again.

Way back when, I had very many nice pairs of Juliets (though not nearly as many as Rick -- that guy still around? I seem to remember him having every conceivable Juliet colorway that was ever offered!), including an OG boxed + serialed pair of polished/blue iridium Ichiro Suzuki Juliets (SKU 12-164). That was actually the only pair I chose to hold onto beyond my teenage years, but they were eventually stolen from my glovebox when my car was broken into back in 2015 (hurts me deeply to know that they were probably sold for $50 or thrown in the trash).

As much as I loved that pair, there was one other that I had coveted above all else and hunted for the entire two years (2004-2006) that I was in the hobby: The Carbon / OO Blue Iridium Ichiro Juliets (12-676). From what I could tell, these were *extremely* limited in production and I never once found a pair for sale on ebay (which was really all we had at the time), and to my knowledge only one other forum member at the time had a pair in their collection.

I'm curious if, in the last 15 years, these have become any easier to come by? Are there any better places to hunt for these other than ebay, these days? If I found a pair, what would I expect to pay?

Equally curious if any new information ever came to light about these and why they were so insanely hard to find when the other Ichiro Juliets (polished w/ slate/emerald) were ubiquitous (and still seem to be relatively common). I remember one of the things I thought were so cool about the stock image for these was that they were carbon frames that had the hammer style earstems of the polished frames, making them appear to be very one-off stylistically. I remember being very disappointed to find out that this was a marketing error and the actual frames were just ordinary carbon frames with straight earstems. Nonetheless though, I still want them!

Oh jeeze, I just found out that they did end up making a one-off polished carbon juliet frame for the final ichiro juliets, and those *do* have the hammer style earstems. From which the unrealized original Carbon / OO Blue Ichiros as seen in the marketing photo could be created.. by cannibalizing parts from the two rarest and most expensive Juliets out there. Fml.

Hey, good to see OG members pop back in. Hard to believe this place has been going steady for so long (though you experienced the insane days...it's a bit more quiet these days as the social media sites capture the attention of the masses).

Yeah, the Juliets...Ichiros...or any X-Metal has consistently pulled in high prices, moreso after the discontinuation of the titanium plant. Personally I haven't really gotten any new ones for that reason. Can't justify the prices.

And there have certainly been a lot of customs and cannibalizations too. It's hard to watch sometimes as the existing stock dwindles and cheapo lenses are put into them.

Rick's still out there, but haven't seen him since the 10th anniversay meetup.