Okay - lots of good advice here.

But - I'm still confused so please be patient with me....

Looking around I can see why they're appraised at $2200. The appraisal had detailed information on how he came up with this figure - and it makes sense to me - I'm not disputing the findings.

Here's where I'm confused:

If I did decide to have my drums professionally finished how could they be worth less than $2K?

If I did decide to refinish (just for sake of discussion here) & I do find "good wood" under the wrap I would want a lacquer finish.

So what I'm saying is I would be very happy to pay as much for my newly finished 58 Gretsch 3ply (6ply floor tom) as I would for a new USA Custom shellpack - hands down, no question. I was thinking Millennium Maple or Harlequin Maple etc. I think there is no way on earth my drums would sell for less than $2,000 - more likely they'd cost what you'd pay for a 4pc USA Custom shellpack. These are just some thoughts.

Again - I'm just brain-storming & trying to understant how these shells - if professionally done - could end up being under $2K. And - if they were that.....what a deal I'd say = 3ply (mostly) Gretsch, 50yr old wood in Harlequin "Sun Amber" - one of a kind maybe? And - in the end - you still have that beautiful Vintage tone:)

For the record....I guess I could just go out and buy another set of Gretsch USA Custom drums and keep these in Gold Sparkle - but the Customs would not be as nice as these old drums.

Further......I'm saving...and have my order in...for some RAYA drums. So, three sets of drums is my limit for kits.

Earlier this year, there was a 6 ply Gretsch kit that was stripped and stained at one of our favorite online professional music gear joints. The finish job was very nice. They couldn't give the kit away. It ended up going for just over four hundred. I realize that's one example out of many, but it seems pertinent to me.

Yikes & wow!!

What was the finish??

Was it pink&green polkadots? No - just kidding, but that's scary!

My point though...is I've seen some of the Gretsch USA Custom shellpack finishes close up and I can't imagine if my drums had one of those killer finishes on them - combined withe the 50 yr old aged wood that they'd be undesirable - I just don't get it.

Maybe I'd be the first one to have a 58 Gretsch shellpack with 2011 Nitro finish.....sighed by Fred Gretsch and factory workers..haha....dream on Gary.

Gary, I certainly don't want to step on any toes, but I would buy your drums for $2000 all day long, and I only buy when there's room to make profit. I just sold a rewrapped RB 20-12-14-snare for 3K, and it went very fast. Do NOT rewrap them, they're worth a lot as is. Yes, redone edges and repainted interiors hurt the value, but they are worth a minimum of 3K. If they were unaltered and all original a dealer would probably try to get around 5K for them, even more if the floor were 3 ply. As is with the redone edges and interiors I'd probably try to get $3500 for them. For insurance reasons I'd appraise them for at least $4000.

Again, I really don't want to step on any toes, but I've sold many Gretsch sets and my professional opinion is that your drums are worth (to me) quite a bit more than $2000.

Thanks,

Bill

Sometimes you need to step on toes to wake somebody up. Sounds like whoever did the valuation has a very different idea from others who are in the business.

Valuations should be evidence based. Gary, unless the valuer supplied you with a list of 10-20 Gretsch kits in the same sizes, their condition, and what they fetched, I'd be wondering if you got value for money. But then you would need to get somebody to value the value of valuations and that gets a little recursive.

Note also that if you are comparing eBay sales it is unlikely that sellers would always reveal (if they themselves know about) edges being redone and a few replacement parts. That implies that eBay sales which don't mention anything about those kinds of changes are perfectly appropriate to use in working out a range of expected values.

Hey Gary,

DD here from across the Georgia Strait.

Whatever you do, do NOT re-warp them! :) That would be VERY bad.

Now, as for re-wrapping ... I'd vote with everyone else to not re-wrap if your main concern is not losing their value.

Ya - I'm getting that a lot.

I apprecialte all the feedback........I like it. There's a lot of knowledge & experiance here....good Forum.

I'll get another appraisal or two

I just came upstairs after playing these drums and noticing how that Gold Sparkle does just that.......Sparkle....ya they're very nice the way they are. And Gawd....the sound with those calfhide heads - they just sing beautifully.

I agree with this....one appraisal, respected or not, is not enough to get a true value. You only have one person's opinion. And that's all an appraisal really is you know, one person's opinion. I would have them appraised with a couple of different appraisers, and if they are all over the place, take an average and then that's your value.

But like someone else said earlier.....the answer to the question: "How much are they worth?" is this: Whatever someone is willing to pay for them. :Snow Flake:

Thanks LD

I agree with Ploughman as well. I had that in mind all along....a couple of appraisals...It's just I thought I started out with the best - the guy that really knows his stuff & is very well known for it.

In the meantime - I slept on it....the drums on one side of the bed - me on the other haha...Gold Sparkle finish is good. The other think is that someone 50 yrs down the road might appreciate that I did not recover them. Too late for the inside Silver Sealer paint job though. I just wish someone here would have stopped me when I was about to do that. 100% hindsight though.

When I took on the job of restoring these drums...I was completely new at it. Never been on one of these Forums before that. I thought at the time painting the interiors was a good thing. I had no idea....never crossed my mind...that doing this would devalue the drums.

As far as the edges go..my snare was not sounding good. Ray Ayotte, a freind, asked if he could look at the drum...then he said bring all of them over. He said the edges were a little rough and he could fix that. When I picked the drums up he said - and you can see his comments on my Facebook page along with all the edge photos of my drums - this was the most difficult edging job he has ever done. The reason is that he stayed "true to the intensions" of all the edges and Gretsch made different edges for each drum back in the day. He used a router, sanding and elbo grease he said - and was very careful. He did a beautiful job and did not change anything on the edges except make them like they were when the drums were new in 1958. But, it seems, to the Vintage drum person these edges have been tampered with and that may have devalued them. The appraiser did not say Ray's edge work devalued the drums.

This is what the appraiser said on the restored edges - copied directly out of my appraisal:

The bearing edges of the drums have been restored by noted drum expert Ray Ayotte. (According to Ayotte, each of the drums had a different edge. He made a conscious effort to preserve the “original intentions” of all the edges.

Just thank Ray that you had a proper restoration and not some yokel with a router table who would then inscribe his name in sharpie on your edges.