Ludwig Acrolite Reissue

I know these have been out a few years, but I had no clue they were so expensive. the 5x14 is $430 new. that seems crazy to me. are people actually buying these?
 
Considering the price of the Supraphonic, then the Black Beauties, the Acrolites are priced accordingly. Not sure if people are buying them, but if the price hasn't changed in a year, people must be buying them. Ludwig would've dropped the price if they weren't selling, no?
 
All of the USA-made Ludwig snares have been steadily rising in price. Even prior to the reissue version the Blackrolites had risen in price quite a bit. But I also think that's pro-level snares in general. Looking at comparable snares I think the new Acrolite is priced competitively.

But all of that has had a noticeable effect on the used market too. Vintage Acrolites are nowhere near the bargains they once used to be, and from what I've seen I'd say the average selling price on them has just about doubled over the last five years.
 
Considering the price of the Supraphonic, then the Black Beauties, the Acrolites are priced accordingly. Not sure if people are buying them, but if the price hasn't changed in a year, people must be buying them. Ludwig would've dropped the price if they weren't selling, no?

good points. personally I just couldn't imagine spending that much when you can find 70s/80s ones in excellent condition for much cheaper, but I understand not everyone is into the used market/might prefer the new ones.
 
All of the USA-made Ludwig snares have been steadily rising in price. Even prior to the reissue version the Blackrolites had risen in price quite a bit. But I also think that's pro-level snares in general. Looking at comparable snares I think the new Acrolite is priced competitively.

But all of that has had a noticeable effect on the used market too. Vintage Acrolites are nowhere near the bargains they once used to be, and from what I've seen I'd say the average selling price on them has just about doubled over the last five years.

yeah, I feel like even over the past few months the vintage ones have gotten more expensive. I guess I just don't frequently look into new snares too often to know the retail prices these days.
 
I still see Acrolites for ~$60 at goodwill. Am I missing something?

Example:

Granted, I paid $51 for mine in 2014.....
 
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I purchased the 10-lug 6.5x14 three years ago and I love it!
I'm using Coated Ambassador top with Ambassador hazy snare side.
Snares attached with 5/8" grosgrain ribbon.
One of my faves!
Tune Bot settings: Top C# 277.1 Bottom G 392
 
I bought a Black Galaxy Acrolite brand-new last year and it was worth it. I had been looking for a used one locally for months but only one came up and the guy wanted $400 for it.

I think I paid about $350 CDN at the time which is about $250 USD today. Very reasonable for a "legendary" snare.
 
I still see Acrolites for ~$60 at goodwill. Am I missing something?

Example:

Granted, I paid $51 for mine in 2014.....

well, that's an auction and there's still a few days remaining. and of course there's going to be a few outliers here and there. I just bought one for $65 a few days ago locally.

if you look on ebay and reverb though most of the 70s/80s ones are $200+. there's some auctions that seem to be won cheaper than that, but for a lot of the buy-it-now ones they are listed much higher. when I was on the hunt for one a few months ago it seemed like the 60's ones were the ones fetching between $200-$275 depending on condition.
 
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I purchased the 10-lug 6.5x14 three years ago and I love it!
I'm using Coated Ambassador top with Ambassador hazy snare side.
Snares attached with 5/8" grosgrain ribbon.
One of my faves!
Tune Bot settings: Top C# 277.1 Bottom G 392

cool! see, that makes a bit more sense to me. was that combo even offered for the vintage ones? probably rare if so, right?
 
The retail price of around $429 or whatever has been like this since I actively started searching for them back around 2017, can’t say if they were that much before. This was the gateway snare for my collection (so I thought) I am not sure if anyone’s buying these new at retail as Mr. Wesley accurately stated they are “dime a dozen”.

However I have noticed that used ones in the musical instrument market, have went up I can’t say an average of how much. But $250 is common to see which is not that much, but considering patience and effective searching: you can find for way less and make you a happy camper.

Be diligent and ready to pull when you can find one, hell, I found my blacrolite for $80 at EZ pawn late last year (almost 2 years after searching and not wanting to pay $175-$225 for one) and it still was fairly new according to its aging schedule that EZ pawn allocated. I knew if I was to wait another 2 months or so for the price to lower let’s say 10-15 dollars, that snare would have been yanked off just like I did.
 
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I still see Acrolites for ~$60 at goodwill. Am I missing something?

Example:

(This is regarding non-reissue Acros).
Yes- you're not considering that the $67 currently shown is just a bid and not "the price." The bidding frenzy on Goodwill usually ups the price to over $100 if the Acro is in decent shape.
I tried the Goodwill bidding route a few times 3 years ago on several Acros- they started at a low price but by the time it ended, the winning bid was around $120-$130. Tack on the $25 shipping fee for the total.
I ended up buying an incredibly beautiful 70s Acro from Guitar Center's used gear inventory for around the same price ($120) but was able to get around their shipping fees through a GC contact that arranged it as a store to store transfer.
Ebay also turned out to be a high priced venue for an Acrolite, just check it out and you'll see beat up Acros for over $100 and more with bids going up. Reverb has some decent Acros usually in the $150+ price range (up to $200).
 
Yes- you're not considering that the $67 currently shown is just a bid and not "the price."

I am indeed considering "the price" that several dozen board members have paid to goodwill over the last five years. All. you need to do is set a $75 max bid and re-visit once a week. Just last Sept/October I had an acquaintance do this and unintentionally end up with two, one for $61 and one for $71 (+~$25 S&H).

A common problem that shoppers have when looking for an Acrolite is that they search for "Acrolite". Any seller that knows that they have an "Acrolite" will know to charge $150 for it. What you want to find is the seller of the "Ludwig Rockers drum" (refers to the OEM head on the Acro) or "Ludwig student drum". These are the people that found Pop's old highschool drum in the closet when cleaning out the old house and don't know what they have.
 
I am indeed considering "the price" that several dozen board members have paid to goodwill over the last five years. All. you need to do is set a $75 max bid and re-visit once a week. Just last Sept/October I had an acquaintance do this and unintentionally end up with two, one for $61 and one for $71 (+~$25 S&H).

A common problem that shoppers have when looking for an Acrolite is that they search for "Acrolite". Any seller that knows that they have an "Acrolite" will know to charge $150 for it. What you want to find is the seller of the "Ludwig Rockers drum" (refers to the OEM head on the Acro) or "Ludwig student drum". These are the people that found Pop's old highschool drum in the closet when cleaning out the old house and don't know what they have.

yup- 'remo weather king drum' is another one. the woman I bought mine locally from last week had it posted as an 'Acrolight'. I imagine shopgoodwill.com is a small portion of the market though. I only learned of it through DW a few months ago. I still think it's fair to say the market value has increased though. just because there's 'tricks' and you can occasionally find someone selling it who has no idea what it is for cheap doesn't mean that's the market value. I saw a post somewhere of a guy who found one of the engraved Leedy's snares from the 1920s in a thrift store for $12- that doesn't mean that everyone should start expecting to find them for cheap.

I'm sure this can be said for lots of vintage drums though.
 
I bought an 80s Acrolite (with case) for $60 off FB Marketplace about 2 months ago. Ever since, I've been watching Reverb closely to get a feel for what I could sell it for. Here's what I've seen...

In the past 2 months, due to the Coronavirus, used Acrolites have been flooding into Reverb. There are currently about 80 used Acrolites. People need money and have been cleaning out their garages and selling old drums. The supply has risen dramatically, but most haven't gotten the memo that the prices should be lowered in response. The cheapest you can find is about $175 right now. Acrolites are still selling on Reverb, but not at the rate that they're coming in.

Contrast that with about 6 months ago when I checked for used Acrolites on Reverb and only found 1 or 2. :oops:
 
Man, I've been looking for an Acrolite on my local CL and FB for two years and haven't seen one for less than $125. (Which is a reasonable price, of course, but when you keep reading stories about people finding them for $75, or even $15, at a thrift shop...)
 
I wanted one to go with my new classic maple kit a year and a half ago, and had no issue with paying the price.

I bought next to new, and paid more than a lot of you seem willing too, but I was only interested in a 6.5x14. I have no regrets, and love the drum.

I’ve thought about a Supraphonic, but I like this enough that my next snare will probably be a matching classic maple, since I already have steel, brass and aluminum covered...
 
Man, I've been looking for an Acrolite on my local CL and FB for two years and haven't seen one for less than $125. (Which is a reasonable price, of course, but when you keep reading stories about people finding them for $75, or even $15, at a thrift shop...)
I think those days are over. I bought two at shopgoodwill.com for less than $100 a few years back but nowadays they get bid up pretty quickly.
 
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