I have lived in atlanta 30 plus years,and lived in NJ before that,and I was only made aware of Camco in 1976 when I saw them in a west coast mail order catalogue,since then I have seen two kits in person,a blue sparkle 60' s era and a cream white LA era.Both in atlanta,both in a drum shop.

I have seen 1 slingerleedy,but sling never had a major dealer here.

They seem to pop up on the west coast,the midwest and west of the Missippi in the south.From what I have seen they are rare in the southeast.

I would guess they never had more than 15 percent of the market.

Great points and even better questions! My guess on rarity is less than 5% of the market sales of American Drum companies. Their market share was so low it's surprising they lasted 17 years. Even 50 years later they are still suffering from the never heard of them syndrome....The L.A. era snare drums are twice as rare as the Roger's maple Dynasonic but are currently valued at less than 25% of a dyna. The sound quality may be purely subjective but when you consider that Camcos (Oaklawns, Chanute, and L.A. era) were the staple at almost every recording studio in the country and the #1 choice of most studio drummers it makes you wonder...They were also the only American drum company that offered a full refund if you were not completely satisfied...

I was always under the impression that Gretsch were the go to for recording. It's just that their hardware was questionable. Mr. Geo. Way was the big deal with Camco (and most of the core designs of drums as we know them today)as far as I'm concerned.

But rarity is king.

I don't think I've ever heard how great Trixon drums sound, only how rare they are.

From what Ive read and been told Camco and Rogers made the best, and still to this day havent been beaten.

Anyone disagree ?

Didn't know about the full refund,...

On Camco's market share, I believe it must have been far less than 5% and counting in Europe, I don't think that they even reached 1%.

About Camcos used in recording studio's, that still counts for today.

In my research I stumbled on maybe a handful of Camco sets in the small part of the world where I live and 2 of them are used in recording studio's.

Camco drums...

I still hate the term 'rare' with anything that's 'generally' available, but no doubt. Camco drums are very scarce.

As I've said before, the biggest problem with Camco was a ridiculous marketing division.

The very first time I remember seeing a Camco kit was a Creedence concert... I thought they were European.

I don't think I saw them again until I saw a kit at 'The Vox Room', a music store in Sacramento. They were used, and small (20, 12, 14 maybe?) and I played rock. On the prodding of a friend that worked there, I did sit down and gave 'em a test drive... wow! But the sizes were out of fashion for the times (1972 maybe). When I saw the 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' one of the drummers is using a walnut stained rock sized kit.

And that's about it.

I still hadn't seen any advertisements for them at that time. Even though I hardly ever use it (once, at a gig last year) I still keep and use mine. The older I get, the smaller the kits I use get, but that big LA Camco rock kit isn't going anywhere. It just sounds... good.

Your research will undoubtedly uncover some or maybe even all of the mistakes that the so called experts have written about Camco drums. It really bothered me...Even the little things like the ITCs, tone control knobs coming from the factory with hex screws? Not! They all had flat tip/single slot screws that were sometimes switched out for the better working hex screws. Some of the info I found was right in their own advertising literature that came from a marketing dept that didn't exist...Lol...I even went so far as to take an ad out in the Los Angeles Times 4 Sundays in a row looking for prior employees of the Camco Drum Company. I am really happy to see that dw embraced their own legacy by designing the Collectors Series Maple with ultra thin shells which was Camcos secret and their claim to fame. That and the fact that the shells were just slightly undersized.

I have had countless kits,and have only had 5 Camco kits..

2-18,12,14 kits with matching snares (Silver Sparkle/Champagne Sparkle)

2-20,12,14,matching snares in Natural Maple/Purple Satin Flame

22,12,12,16 in BDP

a stray Geo Way 22" BD

a few Camco/Geo Way snares..and thats it!

I disagree.