I began downsizing my vintage drum collection about five years ago when I had thirteen vintage drum sets and enough vintage A Zildjian cymbals, pedals, stands, and other go-withs to augment about a half dozen sets.
I sold off or traded off drum sets until I was left with four sets and all of the other stuff. The trades consisted of trading two good sets for one outstanding drum set. Once the collection consisted of only four drum sets it was easy for me to decide which set would be my forever-keeper outfit. Recent events in the lives of my wife and me convinced me that the time was here to divest myself of everything but the one drum set along with several cymbals and enough hardware to have a backup for each item. I would have been able to put the drum sets on consignment at a friend's music store with a great vintage drum department. He could not help me with the cymbals and the sh*tload of hardware unless I wanted to give them away to his store.
So,I phoned a forum friend in the vintage drum business who has very similar taste to me in the drums he buys and sells. He was interested in meeting me at my house after a three-hour drive. After about an hour of good-natured banter about what each of us thought was a fair price to both of us, we loaded the three drum sets, 3/4 of my cymbal stash, a most of my sh*tload of stands, pedals, and other go-withs into his new spacious Ford Sprinter van for the three-hour drive back to his shop.
Some observations from this experience are : A). The bundled price of all the stuff was lower than I could have gotten by going through a long process of listing everything online, dealing with tire-kickers, low-ballers, and fraudsters. B). Buying packing material, packing up each of the items, shipping them all over the country, and wear and tear on this old guy's body would cost me much more than the possible higher dollar amount I might get if and when all of it was sold off. C) I am content and have no remorse about whittling my vintage drum collection to this one perfect set of 1963 BDP Leedy Shelly Manne outfit consisting of 14x20, 16x16, 9x13, and matching 5x14 Shelly Manne snare drum, I also kept my WMP Radio King 4x13 snare drum, six A Zildjians ranging from 1940s through late 1960s, vintage 60s 14" A Zildjian hi-hat cymbals, period-correct Leedy bass drum and hi-hat pedals with Rogers Swivomatic period stuff for back ups, and a few generic vintage cymbal and snare stands. I also kept a set of vintage 60s Ludwig bongos on which Leedy lugs dropped right into the original mounting holes.
