Decent? Less than 250. Good less than 200, great? 150 or less.

How about 99 plus 55 shipping?

If it is the older original ones, and has die cast hoops on it, then its a killer deal..

I am not so sure about the newer stuff...

I'd say Jonni's got it nailed..

When did they not use cast hoops on these drums?

^^ Don't remember the years, but they had a 5 & 6.5 versions that came with triple flanges.. Check the History/ catalog page over at Tama... early -mid 80's

That's still a good deal, die cast or no. The drum is a beast, you will likely end up with it as your main snare, if you learn to keep it under control...LoLoLoLo

Well, you have to be careful about "Imperialstar" snares. First off, there really is no such thing as far as Tama was concerned in the 80's.

The 80's chrome snare drums used Imperialstar badges but they were never officially called that in any catalog. Tame made the Mastercraft, KingBeat and Powerline chrome snares. These used the Imperialstar badge. If you are asking about a Powerline then $99 is the going price. You're not getting any deal. It depends on what hardware is on the drum.

The Mastercraft line used the roller system with extended snares. Those can go for $200+ on ebay but if you take some time you can find excellent examples on Craigslist for $125-175. I found a mint one 3 months ago for $100. They usually have the diecast hoops. This and the Kingbeat were the top of the line. I liked the Mastercraft a little better than the Kingbeat as the KB can be a bit finicky as it had lots of parts and could get hung up.

The Kingbeats were also cosidered top of the line and sound just as good. They made several versions of Kingbeats during there run.

The Powerline was the lower line. The shell were the same and they used the lugs found on the 5 inch versions for the 6-1/2, not the high tension lugs. They used a very simple lever system. It used the same lever as the Masetercarft but didn't use the roller system. It also usually did not come with diecast hoops.

People see Imperialstar snare and automatically think they are all the same. And I've seen more than one bidder on ebay spend way too much for the lower line snare.

Another interesting note is that I've seen some of these snares with Superstar badges. Definitely original, just an oddity. I could see someone just picking from the wrong pile of badges at the factory. Or maybe they ran out of Imperialstar badges that day. Who knows. But I've seen them.

Did the Royalstar 10-lug snare use the same shell as the Powerline/Mastercraft/Kingbeat snares? Also, was the Swingstar just the same shell with eight lugs, or was it a thinner shell? I'm assuming the Swingstar flanged hoops were thinner, but perhaps not.

As for the t-flanged hoops, they were all the same thickness, not really a Star or TAMA thing to use too many different hoops at this point in time.

....ten....