do you have any pics of the sizzle ride? is it signed on the inside of the bell? and what does the stamp say? pics would be better:)

i have a sizzle, 20" that was signed , and i emailed some pics to the company, and surprisingly i found out it was worth about $1500, its early 40's though.

Hi,

Avedis Zildjian cymbals vary in value based on when they were manufactured, among other things. If you bought the cymbals in the 70s then my guess would be that the value would not be unusually high. 18" crash cymbalsmight be worth $85-$95, a 20 ride maybe $125-$150, a set of 14" New Beat HHs $125-$150. This assumes no cracks and no keyholing. High values for Avedis Zildjians would really be associated more with the cymbals from the 50s or earlier (and maybe the early 60s to some degree). The thin A Zildjians from the 40s and 50s are sought after by jazz players, so the 20" and 22" thin rides can bring a few hundred dollars each, depending on how nice they are. Also, larger, thin rides such as 24s are popular with jazz players also. Those larger cymbals might bring $500-$600.

K. Zildjians are another story altogether. The Ks from the 30s, 40s, 50s are selling for quite a lot, especially the thin rides and the hats. Even some of the 60s Ks sell for a fairly good premium. These are going to be significantly more expensive than As.

A good friend of ours, Bill Hartrick, has a website titled cymbalholic.com

Bill knows more about A and K Zildjians than I will ever know, and he has a lot of folks posting up on his forum there, and they have a great deal of excellent information. I would recommend that you scope it out.

Steve

What Steve has indicated is right on the money. Also monitoring eBay and other online sources can help you discover the current market values...in general.

Steve pointed out Cymbalholic.com (thanks Steve!), a website I established/created back in 2001 after many email exchanges with Bill Hartrick (vintage Zildjian trademark stamp guru/expert) in order to initially showcase Bill's research into dating vintage Zildjian cymbals as well as to showcase some of his extensive collection. It has grown into a much larger knowledge base thanks to many other contributors now. Contacting Bill would be an excellent start in terms of valuing your cymbals. Studying your cymbal's trademark stamps and comparing them to the trademark stamp timeline/chronology that Bill has allowed us to put on cymbalholic.com, this may better help you in researching the values as well.

Best of luck...and sounds like you have a nice set of cymbals there.

Chad Anderson

www.cymbalholic.com

There is also a downloadable PDF file in the archives of Classic Drummer on dating Zils.