Asking prices for vintage drum sets seem to have gone crazy with so many now in the $4-5k plus range. Does anyone have knowledge of whether or not these prices are being realized?

Can't you check the prices that drums sold for on Reverb and Ebay? There are plenty of reasonably priced drums on FB Marketplace. I'm regularly seeing Ludwig, Rogers, Gretsch and Slingerland kits going for anywhere from $900 to $1200 lately. Many of them are player's quality, with perhaps a couple of mods, but if you don't mind those, there are bargains to be had.

And of course, there are the delusional crackpots and crack smokers who think they're sitting on solid gold. You learn to weed them out and blow them off. Eventually, they figure out they've priced themselves out of existence, or they don't.

FB Marketplace tends to level the playing field very quickly when someone puts up a drumset that's priced too high. People flame the seller almost immediately, so badly, that some sellers shut off the comments. Others just take the ads down.

Hi Dan,

If there is something that someone really wants and they have achieved a certain financial position in life to be able to afford it, then they'll pay.
If they are just window shopping and tire kicking with no real intention to buy anything, then they are always going to believe that the prices are too high.
In my opinion, most of the really nice stuff has already been collected and those items don't often (if ever) come up for public auction. Sales for those items are usually private deals, I think. Sky's the limit as far as pricing..

Money is money and anyone can get it. Vintage drums aren't made anymore. Not everyone can get them. Who calls the shots? The "fair" market? Or the seller?