Ink stamps..

I'm not a guru, but I believe those are what the chief guru calls "Old Stamps". This site:

http://robscott.net/cymbals/k-istanbul/

"borrowed" the info from Drumaholic (Bill Hartrick) without giving him credit. But it does a pretty good job when I compare it to Bill's latest info as published in a 2 page section included in Rob Cook's The Gretsch Drum Book.

As far as prices go, I'm still collecting data for a study of Istanbul K Zildjian prices. I don't distinguish between different old stamps in my study. Istanbul K Zildjians are just grouped into three eras: Old, Intermediate, and New for statistical purposes. And for general date ranges, these are: Old Stamp 1940?-1958, Intermediate 1959-1966, New Stamp 1967-1978 in broad brush strokes. Others will have more detail about how those years might be estimated, but my focus is more on the larger groupings and pricing. I'm travelling abroad and haven't packed the Rob Cook book so I'm not able to crosscheck Bill's latest dates for the beginnings of Old Stamps with "& Co" rather than "& Cie" and other more detailed chronology matters.

My earlier attempts at expected price ranges (26 July 2014) was:

13" Hi hats $350 - $480

14" Hi hats - $450-$1200 median $580 (skewed) exp range $450 - $750

14" singleton $139 - $295 median $225

15" Hi Hats - I don't know enough to say (let me know if you know)

16" Hi Hats $800 - $1200 (from next iteration 26 Jul 14)

16" singleton $

18" - $500-750 ($700 - $900 old stamp 1476g from Boslover)

20" - $750-1500

22" - $1000-3500

The above ranges were an extension of some initial estimates (for a smaller number of diameters) originally posted by Jeff Shoup. I've added more categories to his (like 13" and 15" hats).

Note the following additional caution/information applies to interpretation (again as at 26 July 2014):

These are for cymbals which don't have any major flaws. Major flaws are: serous keyhole, bell cracks (aka spiders), edge cracks, cracks along the tonal grooves, etc.

These are some of the factors which determine where a cymbal sits in the expected price range:

Small edge dings, tiny bell cracks (which can happen with these given the smaller mounting hole), nicks, scratches, etc. lower the price, but I don't have any data on how much. Signatures under the bell and original paper tags, etc, are a bonus. Higher prices may be expected for those with nice patina which haven't been polished within an inch of their life. Certainly for 18" and bigger, "thin is in" so lighter weights tend to fetch higher prices. But note that weight ranges for Istanbul Ks aren't the same as modern cymbals (that's the translation of a weight in grams to terms like "thin" or "medium" -- which always loses the original weight information).

According to Bill Maley (somebody I trust in these matters since he buys and sells a lot of them thus wouldn't be in business if he couldn't price things correctly to cover his overheads). Old Stamps get prices which are generally higher than Intermediate or New Stamps. Lots more new stamps around relative to Old Stamps.

Note that cymbals will sell for values outside the expected range, but not very often. Think of it as an 80/20 rule where 80% of sales will be in the expected range. Of course there are going to be exceptions. This might be the garage sale where you get one for $25 or it might be the top value achieved for a light Old Stamp 22" (over $4000). That doesn't make the rule of thumb incorrect, or any less useful. What would be great is for somebody to show up with 30 recorded sales for a particular size and stamp era which demonstrates that the expected range should be different. Then we adjust the range accordingly. That would be an advancement and I would welcome it, and I'm always happy to help with any data analysis anybody wants to do.

==end 26 July 2014 and back to the present day==

Nobody has fronted up with any sales data yet so I'm doing it myself. But it takes time to get adequate sample sizes. All I can say for yours is expect the upper end of that range $350 - $480 because yours are:

old stamp

look to be in excellent condition

still have a paper tag

Others (maybe even Bill) might be willing to spend some more time going through which particular old stamps those might be. And yes, I say stamps because they might be two different stamp eras.

Hope this helps. It is still very much a work in progress.

As per Bill Hartrick, specifically, these hats are Type IIb old stamps from 1949-1950. Zenstat is the man to give you their approximate current value.