This is a very odd thread. I thought it was one mans take on cats at first. Now I'm leaning towards said man is bent due to having an uncataloged set. Is that what this is all about?
If it's only about the cats then just play a different game. No big deal. You can't argue someone elses rules.
If it's about a custom old kit then just roll with it. It's sometimes a harsh world where no justice can lite. It is what it is.
I can't imagine another scenario that fits this diatribe.
Agreed. I am hungry to discuss this subject but I have found it to be a touchy one at times....maybe for some of those very reasons. There's room at the table for everyone, but it's a fact that most games have some kinds of rules.
Catalog references...It's like building a banana split and then having the maraschino cherry to top it off.
.......And now, I am hungry for a banana split! lol!
No, I was just discussing the usefulness of the catalog, not the "rules of the vintage drum or (fill in the blank) other collectibles game" per se.
I don't have a non-cataloged set I'm trying to trump up the value of or anything.
I just see, quite often, catalogs being used for beyond their reasonable use. Collectors will find them very useful, but if you want to be detailed about determining dates and such, maybe they are being over-used, or used beyond their accuracy, which was limited to being a marketing device. I agree completely with O-lugs, and it is true, the catalog is really like icing on the cake, having that picture to show the item was sold back then, and they are used to a great extent for all types of collectibles in the modern and not-so-modern era..
It's all good..
One of the points of this thread, as I see it, is that the catalogs are/were, set up months, and sometimes even a year or so in advance. This is called "lead-time" and within that lead time there is plenty of fluidity that can, and does, occur. So to say that they are absolutes to the real world and that a catlog is the be all, end all, is not fair to all collectors.
Having been in manufacturing, from a management standpoint, we always had to make sure our disclaimer was in place before the printer got the final say on the materials. Even in the manufactured home industry, where home specs remained fairly constant, still there could be regulatory changes that would make certain specs obsolete. Having a retail base to maintain, they will hoard printed materials and re-print them and many times could be years out of date. In the drum industry, marketing is not everything, it is the only thing that gets top billing. Without marketing materials for people to read, they go from music store to music store and get very confused when each retail outlet has different display models, in different colors and prices....
Yes, that's right. The greater percentage of drum buyers in those days wanted to buy the model. Very little discussion was had about the bearing edge profile or the type of woods in the shell layup. It was mostly a matter of brand + model + color. People were very brand-oriented as well as catalog-oriented back then. Our parents shopped from Sears, Ward's, Spiegal catalogs. We stared at the pictures every time there was one to see. Drum catalogs were the big thing to many a young boy who had to wait to get his first set. It was the only thing to carry him through the wait! That may be why there is such power in the catalog images to this day.
For whatever it's worth...to this day, when I see the 1975 Ludwig drum catalog and the Octa-Plus kit in Walnut Cortex, I suddenly start remembering weird things -like being at my cousin's house and how my house looked in the winter, people's cars, the way they smelled -like I say, strange things are recollected when I see certain images that I once deemed VERY important. It's like a time machine (yes, pun intended). ;) I remember treating the catalogs as if they were the drums themselves. No kidding!
Mark my words, those catalogs are going to command some big bucks one day!
I liked looking at the pages when I was younger. You may be right. It was a special time.
