The kit that got away

RickP

RickP

Gold Member
We all have tales of fantastic drum sets that you just missed out on . Come on folks fess up and tell us your regretful tale.

The tale for me involves a Noble and Cooley Star series kit . The toms on the kit were all steambent maple and short stack style toms . The bass drums were regular multiply maple shells . This particular kit was for sale at Songbird Music in Toronto . It was up for sale for $1650 Canadian . Unfortunately for me at the time I was married to an extremely frugal Woman that threw nickels around like manhole covers and had a death grip on our bank accounts . It took me a couple days to convince her to let me buy the kit and when I got back to Songbird the kit was gone . It has bothered me all these years as these kits are very rare and collectible .
 

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1967 Silver Sparkle Ludwig Super Classic, got mugged off by some cretin with an eBay sniping account.
 
when I first discovered facebook marketplace I came across a listing for a vintage round-badge Gretsch kit with the snare in midnight blue pearl. it had a bunch of vintage hardware and cymbals all for $200. it was about an hour and a half away from me. the kit was still available when I inquired, but I wasn't able to make it there at that moment. it sold shortly after.

recently on eBay there was a listing for a burgundy sparkle Ludwig set with the matching snare in extremely good condition- just needed a few lugs/tension rods. it was only $800, but was local pick up only in Michigan. I tried getting the guy to ship, but he wouldn't. in hindsight I should have offered extra for the set on top of shipping costs. he mentioned if it didn't sell in 30 days he would consider it- it sold minutes later. I have a cousin who I hadn't spoken to in many years that moved to Michigan. I considered asking, but she was about 40 minutes away from the seller. later that evening I was on instagram and saw she posted a picture and she was actually in the same town the drums were being sold in... total bummer. the kit is now relisted on eBay by someone else for $1,700 and the snare sold separately for $500 I think.
 
RickP said:
We all have tales of fantastic drum sets that you just missed out on . Come on folks fess up and tell us your regretful tale.

The tale for me involves a Noble and Cooley Star series kit . The toms on the kit were all steambent maple and short stack style toms . The bass drums were regular multiply maple shells . This particular kit was for sale at Songbird Music in Toronto . It was up for sale for $1650 Canadian . Unfortunately for me at the time I was married to an extremely frugal Woman that threw nickels around like manhole covers and had a death grip on our bank accounts . It took me a couple days to convince her to let me buy the kit and when I got back to Songbird the kit was gone . It has bothered me all these years as these kits are very rare and collectible .
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Brother..

I don't know if this counts:

After years of not having my OWN FIRST KIT was a Pearl Session series (1993) in Mirror Chrome. 6 piece. Stunning. I worked hard to be worthy of it, and had fun doing it. Totally decent cymbals, too..not ZBT's.

She wasn't "frugal"..just mean.
I sold it to make $ to try to appease her. Because that's what men do (?).

My current wife (the actual forever one) would insist I buy two kits to heal my pain..cuz she's the BEST.

I was young and the 1/3 of the problem. Not half though..
 
This is in the same vein:

When I was in high school - they had one of these Yamaha C-2000 Golden Dragon Kits in absolute mint condition hidden away in storage. When the moved the band rooms they had an auction for a lot of stuff and I picked this kit up.

One day I had a trombonist helping me move it (It was an ice cold colorado morning and I was 17 and didn't take ANY of the precautions I should have with this kit) and he dropped the floor tom and the wrap shatter some.

So I stashed this kit tucked away at my moms for yearsssss and I was going to try to figure out how to repair it or what to do when I had some....well she's the exact opposite of a hoarder/packrat....and I came home one day from being on tour with a band called Cold Fusion and my kit was GONE.

She said "Oh - it looked beat up so I donated it to the Goodwill a few weeks ago". I was totally crushed.

So I'm still on the lookout for one of these....one came up not too long ago at Revival - but I wasn't in a place to pick up a new kit...however I did befriend the guy that bought it haha - so I at least have an eye on one of these that exists.
 

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Armor of Light said:
What is a snipping account?
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A sniping account is actually a program where you can set an amount that you would be willing to spend and it will wait until about a minute before the auction closes and bid higher than the highest bid . Usually it is something like $1 so you snipe someone from winning the auction .
 
Armor of Light said:
What is a snipping account?
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It's a program that automatically places a bid on something with a second or two to go so you take the auction right from under someones nose. If you're winning you don't know you've been sniped until the auction is finished so you can't do anything about it.

Really leaves a nasty taste in your mouth. Not as bad as it used to be but I rarely use ebay these days.
 
A semi-famous drummer in the CCM industry who influenced my playing quite a bit sold his old OCDP (USA-made) kit and non-matching snare this past March for a song, and I missed it. I would have loved to have owned that kit b/c I saw it from the audience multiple times.
 
Well, about 6 years ago I had a Sonor Prolite in piano black on order, but after I found out that I had to wait several months for a 14" flortom for it (the rest of the kit was in stock), I decided to cancel the order and get a Mapex Black Panther, Black Widow kit instead. I needed a kit fast after I sold my previous kit. Turned out I didn't like the shallow sizes of the Black Widow kit down the road (about a year), and I decided to sell it. I still feel like if I had just stayed with that original Prolite order, I still would have had that kit today. Maybe I just could have gotten the regular shellpack first and the 14" sent to me later. That was just before Sonor had a big price jump as well, so the price was not too bad at all. Oh well.
 
Late 90s a Ludwig octaplus in black cortex for $900 at music Mann in Amarillo.
I’ve got one now different color and single kick, but that was the one that got away...
 
There was a mid-late 60s Ludwig gold sparkle kit w/ matching canister seat, Zildjian cymbals, and a Rogers Dynasonic snare. It needed a lot of restorative work including replacing missing hardware pieces, bringing two of the shells back into round, and shell delamination issues.

The guy wanted near pristine collector money for it. No one came close to that and I found out later that he got in a pinch and he ended up selling everything for less than $350.
 
petrez said:
Well, about 6 years ago I had a Sonor Prolite in piano black on order, but after I found out that I had to wait several months for a 14" flortom for it (the rest of the kit was in stock), I decided to cancel the order and get a Mapex Black Panther, Black Widow kit instead. I needed a kit fast after I sold my previous kit. Turned out I didn't like the shallow sizes of the Black Widow kit down the road (about a year), and I decided to sell it. I still feel like if I had just stayed with that original Prolite order, I still would have had that kit today. Maybe I just could have gotten the regular shellpack first and the 14" sent to me later. That was just before Sonor had a big price jump as well, so the price was not too bad at all. Oh well.
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I had a similar dilemma, and I've seen a number of other posters with the same. Ordered my dream kit, waited a year. Was about to call it off. Fortunately for me, it came just in the nick of time.
 
ahem

Whilst in my nascent, covetous days, I surely found myself in such preposterous predicaments. Such a conundrum I would never subjugate my person to presently.

Most thankfully, I can re-order my Pearls new -- thus, they are quite the opposite of "getting away." Rather, they are captive to me. To each their own, though.
 
Lee-Bro said:
There was a mid-late 60s Ludwig gold sparkle kit w/ matching canister seat, Zildjian cymbals, and a Rogers Dynasonic snare. It needed a lot of restorative work including replacing missing hardware pieces, bringing two of the shells back into round, and shell delamination issues.

The guy wanted near pristine collector money for it. No one came close to that and I found out later that he got in a pinch and he ended up selling everything for less than $350.
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I’m curious to know what he was originally asking
 
Some local guy listed a 2 up 1 dn DW Collectors 22-10-12-16 in Black diamond pearl wrap for $1300 on craiglist. Some guy from Chicago beat me to it. I wasn't going to keep it but I could have made like $4-500 on that. Excellent condition too. I don't miss too many deals. I'm fast with the scrilla. :cool: (y)
 
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