Hello folks,

I have a 1959 Leedy silver sparkle set (22 inch bass, 13 inch mount tom, and 14 x 5 snare) that I got at a garage sale. It came with the original Leedy throne, Leedy hi hat stand and a fiberboard case that I am not sure whether it is original or not. It came with awesome old Zildjians that I have either sold to friends of mine (crash ride) or used for my high school band program (hi hats). The one hoop on the bass drum required some repair as it had come unglued at the seem. There is some paint missing from both hoops.

I have a "Marvel" snare stand that it came with and on the inside of the bass shell it is stamped with what looks like Feb. 15, 1959 and it is also stamped with P-040.

I am an upright bass/tuba guy who is a high school band director, so I am looking for advice from you folks in the drum world. I am potentially thinking of selling it, but need to know a couple things:

First of all, do I restore the hoops by sanding/painting, or would that decrease it's value/collectibility,etc.?

What should I do or not do to the drums in terms of cleaning them up for sale? Within the vintage drum world, is patina good, or should I be polishing stuff? I had the snares replaced a few years back (still have originals), which put two small new holes in the snare.

Also, it came with a bunch of old broken sticks. The only one still intact is a Jack Sperling Leedy stick. Worth keeping?

Lastly, and I realize without pictures this is hard to answer (some will likely come later) but is there a market for what I have? Any ideas what an appropriate asking price might be?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Steve