If the seller is claiming expert knowledge, and he knew it was tampered with....... demand 50% or a total refund and return including shipping both ways. You only have 30 days to open a paypal dispute. Better get on it. Once that avenue is exhaused, you are pretty much done.

Whats the ID of this jackass so I can avoid him?

This guy is normally not a drum seller from what I can see--just one of those sorts that buys this and that at garage sales and so forth an flips on ebay. I am more inclined to believe he didn't know that the holes were non original either.

His problem though is that he stated in the listing that the "stock muffler" was not there. He also seemed to know what he was talking about because he said the drum was perfectly round..which is not something your usual amateur would think to state.

Why should he profit from negligent misrepresentation of selling an "original" snare missing a part (meaning it wasn't intentional) when those of us who actually bother to inform ourselves now have to sell this snare "with issues"?

That's the frustrating part.

Given he's not a drum guy no need to pass on his ID. If you see a drum for sale in Bakersfield, CA that you want just be sure to ask a lot of questions!

What's also frustrating is that I wrote him to raise the issue and see if we couldn't work something out, he wrote back and said it was a "legitimate drum" (no s**t Sherlock) and now he's gone mute.

I'd win a refund on paypal but I'd kind of like to hear it vs Gretsch and by the time I have my Gretsch it will be too late. Arrgh. Well I'll have to leave him neg feedback and just sell to someone here or on ebay myself (with an honest description).

There is a guy I have dealt with in Bakersfield. I will not bid any of his auctions because he is not above grossly misrepresenting an item, and he does deal in a lot of Rogers pieces. I also have suspected he has more than one ID. I bought a Rogers Dynasonic shell from him that was touted as being in great shape, no dents, script logo Rogers drum, only one pic. It was a later Big R drum missing the badge, grommet location in second panel to the left of the throw, several caved in dents on lugs. Thing is, based on his past items sold, his experience with Rogers.... the dude knew. I needed the dampener off the drum, and was able to sell the bottom hoom for what I paid for the rest. I fairly broke even. The shell, ended up in the dump. Theres always more than one jackass in every town.

How much did this one cost you?

$185 + $20 for the shipping--which I write here for the archives after ebay pulls the ability to view the completed auction.

And for the moment, here is the link to the auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160359370225&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

185? Great price

You are way ahead here. Contact Jack Lawton, google him, call him.....and then send him some pics of your damage. Get a price for fixing this, git er done, and then enjoy one of the greatest snare drums ever made by anyone anywhere.

Seriously, you are WAY AHEAD. The very minor deflation in value is not all that significant.

And you have a great drum to play with.

Thanks for the encouragement. I didn't mention that the seller didn't advertise the drum properly (e.g. not a mention of "champagne sparkle" and he helpfully took a pic of the label so you could so a 8xxx serial number Cleveland one and he didn't point that out either).

Once I try out that snare vs Gretsch I'll do as you suggest to fix if I think it blows the Gretsch away. Thanks a lot.

One final question--re the muffler you steered me to---

i) does it work in only snares? Which ones?

ii) what era (snare) drum does it work for?

==> now that i have to sell it will be helpful to know this so I can get the listing right. Here are some photos of the muffler.