quick fact check as some late posters seem to have missed a few points..

kid gets drums in 1970... black laquer not Panther...

years go buy... in 2012 he meets a guy who tells him he can 'restore them'.. kid (now grown up) sells resto-rick bent orig badges...removes hardware and resto rick allegedly swapps shells, ads RePro Logos....

he lists them for sale...2018 I buy them under impression they are 1970's shells I wasnt aware that Panther was vinyl... I get home... look at my 71' WMP 22" bass drum...then observe this Black 6ply and here I am in the middle is this WTF Shhhyte Storm ...now just trying to see if I can make a conclusion as to what fishhy BS happened .... THANK YOU GUYS for your help and contributions...

Ludwig Dude...I scored a 71' 4 piece WMP in good cond for 140 two weeks ago at a 'cleanout' ...last year a 5 piece 72' Vistalite red kit w a 24" bass for 300... so I dont particularly focus on the impossible..... so really I originally thought I was going to find a suitable 16" tom to make a studio kit w the WMP and the 13 14 18 toms.. plus some parts..... . I am not flipping drums... I figured there was something not right... but I needed lugs, 22" rim misc parts for the WMP... so I went for these... now I am just trying to get to the bottom of this...and whether the creep that switched shells on him is still operating in LA.... honestly before yesterday I never heard of Pro Panther...

Despite all this if they are Ludwig 6 ply shells they probably will sound just fine and you didn't pay a fortune for them. Certainly not as represented but would work for a studio kit which, if I recall, was your ultimate purpose.

Sounds like maybe the seller got took by the restorer although he'd have to be especially clueless not to notice that his small tom got a couple inches deeper (and if he held onto the hardware during the resto you'd expect that he'd notice he was suddenly four lugs short for all the holes drilled in the shell). His story doesn't quite hold up either but then not everyone's life revolves around vintage drums and all the intricacies involved therein.

A bass drum should be either 14 or 16 inches deep if from the early 80's (70's were strictly 14" depth for that size). If the shell truly is 15" from bearing edge to bearing edge that could point to some further hanky panky of some sort.

yeeeup so after scouring Ebay it is pretty much a fact that these shells are 82 83 Classic series seeing several sets w the 16" deep 22" bass drum and the toms... sad to think this poor guy got jacked .... I guess the only final question is... for 350 should I give them back or just build a cool 80's kit... not a bad starting point... Thanks to all you folks who contributed.... case more or less closed...

KO I agree COMPLETELY ...you summed it up...clueless or is he still not coming 100% clean... I will sleep on it and decide tomorrow whether to get a refund... they could be Magic or Misery LOL

I am beginning to think maybe he had someone else do the 'resto' aka painting, badge swap and they very well could have done a switch on him... he probably had these sitting for 30yrs and some charlatan came along.

Or.....

The kid gets them in 1970 ish, and they “are” Black Panther, brings them to get restored and the guy he brings them to finds citrus mod underneath???

If he is offering a refund, run back & get it!

Something doesn't look right about these. Repro badges, painted, date is way off, these may not even be Ludwig. Again, something looks way off.

Steve