Condition will be king when determining a good selling price. I would keep at least the three pre-serial number drums together. Do you have any pictures of the full kit? It would help if we could see wrap fade, any extra hardware or holes, etc.

Agree with the above post:

1. Take a picture of the drums as a "set" sounds like the 13,16, bass drum (having size greatly helps) and snare drum could come together as a set.

2. Potential buyers (collectors or drummers in general) will want to know if there have been modifications (say you added a dual tom mount) or drilled any extra holes to mount hardware that did not come from the factory.

3. Condition of wrap and bearing edges - the nicer the better for each

4. Any special history or providence of the set. For example you have the original purchase receipt or they were used by a famous drummer and have proof.

Once you have some of the above gathered you can come up with a good strategy. I would also add that to get the most money - Don't sell to Guitar Center or Sam Ash (they pay pennies on the dollar) and you may end up having to ship the drums to someone willing to pay more versus selling them locally on craigslist as an example.

Hope that helps!

Manny

Is that Maridi graw wrap,?

Here are some pictures after I cleaned up the drums.

Some of the seams are unglued. The hi-hat is missing to top.

Any suggestions on asking price?

Boy this is a tricky one. There are a lot of red flag things wrong with this set. I do believe this could certainly be early 60's on the shells. I have actually seen several early 60's sets with clear interior on the bass drum and white paint in the toms. The first thing that concerns me is where the seams are. Those seams are too far over, and I have rarely seen a seam on a 60's Ludwig lift like that. Those things were glued down like nobody's business. Seam lift was a common problem in the 70's as the glue had changed but the 60's drums were like tanks in that regards. The mounts are indeed Ludwig but they are not the correct version for early 60's. The hole patterns are the same for both but these are the versions from 1965 to present and a pre-serial drum should have the mounts used from 1960-1965. The toms are also backwards unless this set was on the rare chance made for a lefty. The badges should be visible when the toms are set up and I would guess that at least 90% of the Ludwig sets made back then were set up for a right handed player.

Wrap on pre-1968 drums should go directly into the shell and if you remove a head you should be able to see wrap going directly into the plies of the drum. If this is a re-wrap then whatever wrap was on there prior would most like be left wedged into the plies as it would be impossible to remove it out of the shell. Do you have pics of the floor tom badge or pics of the insides of the shells? Do any of the shells have date stamps?

In it's current state I would probably not want to pay much more than $500-600. The snare looks like a legit 1967 supra so I would guess that could be worth between $250-300. It looks like it needs a good cleaning though.

I have a clear interior circa 1962 WMP Super Classic bass drum. Both the matching 13in and 16in tom's we got with it have white Interiors. All three have the same pre-serial number Keystone badges but there are no date stamps in any of the shells. The 1962 date is a guess based on a combination of the shell construction, the shell interiors and the badges. The bass drum also has older style spurs and the tom rail is located near the edge of the drum between two lugs, an older practice which may also support the date. Additionally, we also acquired a WMP Jazz Fest from Bun E Carlos, not too long ago, with a pre-serial number Keystone badge and a clear interior but again no date stamp on the shell. As a result I presume its date of manufacture was somewhere around 1961/1962. Clearly, there were no absolutes. And who knows what took place in the factory. I do not know when they added the badges or if they stored the shells flat after attaching the wraps. My bass drum could be older than my toms I suppose, even if they were all put together as a kit in the factory.

wflkurt- I notice something going on with the grommet on the bass drum. If what I'm seeing here is accurate, that's surely not original. What do you think?

I think more photos are needed. The grommet on the bass drum looks odd as are the other things I mentioned. I had an April 1963 silver sparkle set once with clear interior bass drum and white painted toms. That part seems normal to me. Its the location of the seams on the toms that look off to me.

What additional pictures are needed? I can take more and upload.

Thanks.