Good question,

In my heart, I would say 70s & older..

But I'm getting older...so the usually 25yrs..(to make it a vintage item) really only puts us back to the early 90s..lol

I'm sure the Zen will write a blog on this.

Its more complicated then just age. For many of us, most cymbals made in the past 35 years or so just don't have the same sound quality as cymbals made prior to the '80s. Vintage means more than just old. It refers to special items of high quality or high interest. While technically, a 27 year old 1990 Toyota Corolla would be eligible for Historic plates and may have been a good car, I doubt many people would think of one as vintage.

Thanks for the replies. As an example, I was thinking about one of my older rides, a 20" K Custom Dry I bought new around 1995. There are brand new versions of this model with the newer style Zildjian labelling that looks like calligraphy handwriting. On mine, it's just old style straight forward uppercase letters saying CUSTOM DRY'. I'm not sure if they stopped this model and reintroduced it or if it's always been in production. But if I wanted to sell it (which I don't at the moment as I've reignited some interest in it again), I was wondering if it could be considered as vintage. Maybe the sound quality of mine could be different from the newer one, perhaps better or worse.

When you understand the reason behind a vintage pie it's about aging that's what defines a vintage pie

If I'm understanding you correctly about aging, are you saying a cymbal's sound has to evolve and improve over years like a good wine, due to things like patina to be considered vintage?

I'm quite likely out of touch, but when I think "vintage cymbal," my brain is hard coded to not consider anything past the 70s. Cymbals from the 20s through the 60s are the prime specimens for me, with special emphasis on 40s through 60s.

The word "vintage" is probably one of the most overused terms on ebay, or anywhere for that matter. It's used to refer to something that's just old. To say something is "vintage", it's saying that it's contemporaneous with other things from a particular year or time frame. The word used refer to wine (from whatever year) but has been expanded to mean just about anything.

I am , it is also the material and quality of the craftsman ship ...

That's interesting, I didn't realise that. I just looked up the definition of the word.

'Vintage:

Denoting something from the past of high quality, especially something representing the best of its kind.'