Donn Bennett, as many of you will know, has long been a collector of celebrity drum sets and other gear. Now that he's sold his Bellevue shop and begun selling off his stuff, he has some of Buddy Rich's gear for sale currently on eBay and Reverb.

Buddy's daughter Cathy Rich saw Buddy's cymbals online for $30K and apparently got a hold of Donn recently and asked him to return them to the family, claiming they were stolen after Buddy passed.

Then, she got on Facebook and ranted about Donn and her interactions with him. Here's what she wrote:

"Several weeks ago I contacted Don Bennett who owned a music store in Washington state. He is selling a set of my father's cymbals that were stolen from us after he passed away. I tried to explain that the cymbals belong with my family, not being sold on Ebay for 30k, as he has been trying to do for quite some time. He pretended he didn't understand what I was saying..and I explained further. I was very nice and asked if after he was gone and vultures were selling off his property without permission, how he thought his family would feel? He left me a vm yesterday saying he was not going to give them back, and would continue to try to sell them.....I'm appealing to all of my fb friends to pass the word on this and NOT dignify this blatant disregard of me and my family and most of all Buddy's wishes! Thank you."

Unfortunately, Cathy's FB post is not public, so only her friends can comment on it or like comments in the thread. But Rudy shared it, that's how I heard about all this. The comment section is full of her facebook friends taking her word and her side, calling Donn a greedy scumbag, and oddly saying that God will help get the cymbals back. People are also going to the store's Yelp page and the trouble is spilling over onto Rudy, who now owns the store and has nothing to do with all this.

Now I very much doubt Donn would knowingly buy stolen gear. Cathy not only provided no evidence that the cymbals were stolen (on facebook, at any rate), but she didn't even provide any back story as to how or when they were stolen. She seems to have inherited her father's temper as well.

I don't know about you guys but I'm riveted. It's an interesting case and I'm very curious to see how it all plays out.

Was just reading all this on FB. Those cymbals have been for sale for years. Why would she wait until now to start this? I was reading Donn no longer owns the store. The new owner of the store Rudy has been taking a beating on social media as a result. Guess this is Donn's private sale? But the old EB listing was for Donn's store? Hopefully things can be sorted without tons of legal horsepucky. And resolve things.

I would hope for $30k the seller would have documentation showing the ownership trail. I doubt these cymbals are worth even $10k though.

Actually this has a wider timeline than a few weeks, Cathy has been in talks with Donn for a good while, I'm a facebook friend of hers. Cathy is a Harvard Educated Lawyer, so she has the teeth court is not a problem for her, I had a bud that had a 5 star drum shop in NC it was first named Gene and Buddies She got wind of it and sent Charlie a letter stating to cease and desist all ads with her fathers name on it and any merchandise . He did so knowing of her reputation on all matters with her fathers name and legacy. Charlie changed the shop name to Legends, On the other side of the coin, I have no idea if she has proof of the alleged crime, a police report etc. We'll just have to see how it plays out. ?

I am friends with BOTH Cathy Rich and Donn Bennett, and have chatted with BOTH of them about this very issue... and long before it went "public" on FB. As such, I can't publicly comment .. but .. I will say that I can see BOTH sides plainly here. It is indeed, a sticky wicket. I want to mention that Donn Bennett bought the cymbals and some other items from a guy who was related to a guy that was on Buddy's band back in the day. Buddy DID indeed give away a better than fair amount of stuff over the years... but as to HOW these were acquired by the party that Donn got them from... who knows?! It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

larryz!
The cymbals are WAY over priced/valued at 30K... agreed! The intrinsic value as well as the sentimental value are the REAL drivers on the price here. Still, with that said... DB is just too high on his asking price, which is WHY they have not sold as yet. He has had them for around two years I believe... maybe 18 months now. He also has Buddy's Fibes set from 1967, and the price on those is also WAY too high. As to the "ownership" rights on the drums though... who knows?!

Tommyp

I have no idea what happened with the cymbals, but why would she make up a story that they were stolen? If I were DB, I'd offer them back to her for whatever he paid for them, which I'm sure is nowhere near 30 k. A lot of the vintage drum dealers I've come across are dishonest price gougers.

Originally Posted by Tommyp

I am friends with BOTH Cathy Rich and Donn Bennett, and have chatted with BOTH of them about this very issue... and long before it went "public" on FB. As such, I can't publicly comment .. but .. I will say that I can see BOTH sides plainly here. It is indeed, a sticky wicket. I want to mention that Donn Bennett bought the cymbals and some other items from a guy who was related to a guy that was on Buddy's band back in the day. Buddy DID indeed give away a better than fair amount of stuff over the years... but as to HOW these were acquired by the party that Donn got them from... who knows?! It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

larryz!
The cymbals are WAY over priced/valued at 30K... agreed! The intrinsic value as well as the sentimental value are the REAL drivers on the price here. Still, with that said... DB is just too high on his asking price, which is WHY they have not sold as yet. He has had them for around two years I believe... maybe 18 months now. He also has Buddy's Fibes set from 1967, and the price on those is also WAY too high. As to the "ownership" rights on the drums though... who knows?!

Tommyp

Thanks Tommy! I'd love to see this on a prime time 2 hour Judge Judy special

Originally Posted by johnnyringo

A lot of the vintage drum dealers I've come across are dishonest price gougers.

Sorry to hear that, my experience has been the opposite.

I stole buddys cigs....

Cathy posted a update late last night.