Richard is about the best ebayer around. People are happy paying a premium buying from him.

I bought three Atlas stands from him. They were in excellent condition and he packed better than anyone else I've bought from. Fortunately those auctions didn't get up as high as yours.

Yes, Richard offers some of the best vintage items out there. And, yes, you pay a premium for them! I just won a set of 3 very nice cast Swivo leg brackets for the 12x15 floor tom I'm making. I only wanted brackets in VG+ condition, and these fit the bill. However, others wanted them as well, and I ended paying close to $150, with shipping, to get these! So, yes, quality comes with a price!

-Mark

Hi,

I've bought several items from him. All excellent.

SAZ

I wonder where he gets his items. I'd love to do what he does... except keep it all for myself.

I've also bought some incredible pieces of hardware from him. I'm dumbfounded by the stuff he finds all the time! How & where!!!???

I yell from the computer chair as my wife tells me to keep it down..

Good stuff costs more. The same goes for a vintage set in excellent shape.

I'm happy to spend the money as I'm just glad some of the stuff is actually available & in such good shape.

I think you may need to look at the purchase in a different light...

What can drive the price of an item upward is the scarcity of the item - they don't make 'em any more, so you have to compare to available substitutes - either newly manufactured or high quality used equipment. If you're going for a period piece then the modern substitutes are unacceptable and that high quality used component will be the choice. The next option is to keep looking for a lower priced alternative than the one you mentioned - but then satisfaction is diminished by waiting and you may not find a nicer one or a lower priced one of that quality after all!

Another thing is that the stand may sound like a lot of money but if you compare the 1968 price versus the 2016 inflation adjusted price then it doesn't really seem too out of alignment with reality. [1968 $36.25 = 2017 $250.01] Calculator: http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

Bottom line, if that is the HH stand you want I say make the purchase today. Bird in the hand theory ;-)

I am a member of "Restoring Vintage Drums" on FB,and a member recently purchased a cache of vintage stand parts, which looks to include at least one of those HH stands. Worth a shot...

I was following that same auction and I have to say I was pretty shocked at the final price. I figured it would go for about half the final price. This was my first exposure to the ebay drum auctions. I have to say that it looks like Richard works pretty hard to produce the hardware that he sales. It looks like most people just posts the hardware in the same condition as they find it. It looks like Richard takes the piece apart cleans and polishes everything, than applies repro labels, instruction books and catalog pages. And he of course makes very good photos so everyone can see how good it looks.