I paid a visit to a small local music store today. I'm friendly with the owner. He took in an Aquamarine five piece Premier set from a woman whose late husband owned them for years. She has no idea what they are worth. The drums appear to be mid to late 60s. The finish does have some of the usual black discoloration, but it's not bad, and they will clean up nicely. Some of the tension rods are missing, but the factory tom holders were present. On a 10 scale, I'd give these drums a seven at best.
There's a badly worn fiber trap case, and most of the hardware appeared to be later MIJ pearl or Tama stuff. There were a couple of badly keyholed or cracked Zildjian cymbals, a nice newer Sabian ride, and two sets of hats, one Zildjian and the other, an old set of budget Paistes. The snare was a 70s Ludwig Supra 400 in pretty nice shape. There are also hard fiber cases for all the drums; two 8x12 racks, what appeared to be an 18" floor tom, and a 20" BD. I would have taken photos, but did not have my cell phone with me. They appear to be internationally sized, as there were Remo heads on most of the drums. If they are metric, I want no part of them for obvious reasons; too hard to get heads.
Premier experts, can you give me an idea of their worth? Premier is a brand I have virtually no experience with. The shop owner asked me to come up with an offer. I don't need the MIJ hardware or the cymbals. The store owner could sell those separately. I don't even need the Ludwig Supra, so those could be omitted. I see stupid prices for Premier drums on Reverb, and the sets sit there for months unsold.
I'm going back to the store tomorrow and really look everything over.
