I am someone who gets really worked up as I look at adverts for drums on the net when I see the words 'rare'. It is a word that, in my opinion is extremely over used. IMO if something is rare then it means that even if you have the money to buy it, you can only get one on the odd occasion that one comes up for sale. A Picasso is rare. A 1960 Ludwig Pioneer, is not.
I saw a local advert where someone described a Speed King as 'extremely rare' and a 'collector's item'. I was moved to query it with him, thinking it may have been some kind of rare one-off model or something. But no. It was a bog standard Speed King, and not in great condition either. He was highly indignant at my implication that it was not quite as rare as he thought.
I'm not realy sure what the definition of 'rare' is when it comes to vintage drums or hardware but I doubt that anything manufacturered later than say, 1960 (maybe even earlier) could be accurately described as 'rare'. I mean, there must have been tens or even hundreds of thousands of drums, pedals and cymbals mass-produced by the major manufacturers of the period. With the advent of the internet, the marketplace for these items is huge. Even though I live in New Zealand where perhaps there are less vintage drums available, I can still buy them readily over the net from the UK or the US, making them much less of a rarity.
My main gripe with the word 'rare' is that it comes with a huge inflated price tag - mainly one that is entirely unjustified. Rant over (for now)
Bop iT / Til U Drop iT.