Hello, I am new to this forum and would like introduce myself and give a brief discription of why I am here. I work for a pawn shop in a small town in east Texas, (pop. about 5000)- Now, I can hear some folks groaning, and having been a shopper at pawn shops for years before working at one, I know all too well why. But, the owner of this shop is way different from most- a straight up guy who truly wants everybody to get a fair shake on any transaction, that's why I work for him. By way of example, we had a super clean 1977 Gibson "The Paul" in 100% original condition w/the original hardshell case, our cost was 350.00, he sold the guitar to a local fellow for 600.00. Now on Ebay the guitar could have brought several hundred more, but he felt like he got a good return on his money, and wanted to the customer to get a good deal as well. The reason I'm here is that from time to time we get percussion items in the shop, mostly snares and occasionally cymbals and hardware. We have the usual "blue books" which frankly are just real nice, very expensive paper weights. I am not a drummer, and the owner knows nothing about ANY musical instruments, and therein lies the rub. When we do get something a lot of the time none of us knows anything about the item. I just listed a chrome shell snare drum kit on ebay for the shop. The drum was a 15" X 6"

w/6 lugs. It had a Ludwig Ensemble Med. head on top, a Weathermaster on bottom, a stand, and a Ludwig UFO molded case. There was no badge on the snare although there was a spot on the shell with 2 holes about 3/8" apart at about "6 oclock" on the shell from the snare clamp assy, that looked like it may have been where a badge had been. Now when i listed the drum i stated that there was no badge, along with the other info. The drum sold at about a 100.oo plus shipping, but I had several pretty severe emails from some folks inferring that I was scamming- misrepresenting the drum. I have listed items thru my own ebay sight, and with a 100% rating there is no way that i would even think about misleading anyone, especially in an area in which i have little or no expertise. I just wondered if some of you folks might be able to help me out in this area. I don't want to just pick your brains, and then go off and list on ebay, if there was something of interest to someone on the forum, i think the boss would be fine with offering some of the items right here at this sight. Again, I don't want to be taken advantage of, but I assuredly don't want to take advantage of anyone else. Anyway, my appologies for an overly long post, and I thank you all for your time.