I have a 1968 Ludwig gold sparkle Hollywood set that, for a variety of reasons, it is time to part with. As I started to research how and where to sell it I came across this site. Being vintage myself I didn't necessarily think of the set as vintage, but alas as it is now an almost 51 year old set I suppose it is. I haven't played this set for over 10 years, and it's always been stored in air conditioned/heated spaces.
I am the second owner, and my parents bought it for me around 1975, near as I can remember. It was purchased from family friends, so I vaguely knew the original owner. The drums have been together as a set since the beginning, and while not perfect, they are in as good a condition as any set of that age that I've seen in my short time browsing this forum. Of course, I'm not biased at all.
The bass drum is the only drum with a legible date stamp of Feb 21, 1968. The snare has a date stamp, but it's not legible, and the toms do not have a stamp on the inside that I could find. The bass drum does have about a 1/4" drilled hole on the bottom. I'm guessing the original owner put a mic inside and ran a mic wire? One of the hoops was cracked when I bought it, so that was replaced in the late 70s. The bass drum hoops are a bit dinged up, but other than that the drums are absolutely gorgeous. Again, not biased at all.
Deciphering the cymbals seems to be difficult, but after much reading I think the 22" Zildjian ride cymbal has a hollow block stamp (large stamp type 1) from the 1950's, and the 14" Zildjian hi-hat has a small stamp A, also from the 1950's. This fits with the original owner telling me he had replaced the original cymbals with "really nice used ones". OK, maybe not a direct quote, but something like that. I added the 16" Zildjian crash cymbal in the late 1990's.
I have the original throne, which doesn't look the greatest but it's still solid (I'm not light). The rest of the hardware was all replaced in the late 80's with Gibraltar.
Here is a link to lots of detailed pictures.
I would appreciate your help in determining the value of this set. Obviously I'd like to get as much as I can, but at the same time I don't want to be unreasonable. Any help is greatly appreciated!