There is a very nice Acrolite, Sept 1971 date, paper label inside on cl in my area, has the case,original key,original stand, and wrenches, he started at $400 Canadian ($305 US)! maybe 6 months ago, he's now at $280($213 US),although it is very nice barely a scratch.

Another(just the complete drum) in same condition 1979 model $300($228 US)

I eBay'ed a 1984 B/O acro in excellent condition about a year ago, a proper 7 day no-reserve auction, got about 10 bids and it ended at $150 which I was happy with. I'm not seeing too many of them anymore on the estate-sale / thrift store scene.

That drum was part of a beat up full starter Percussion Plus wine-red kit that also included a pair of Zildjian A Custom hi hats. The whole pile cost 50 bucks at a Salvation Army store, I flipped the cheapie drums and stands for a hundred in a garage sale, gave the hats to a friend's drummer son, and did okay on the snare.

How many other snare drums can you name that have seamless, beaded, spun metal shell with flanged bearing edges? The Acrolite's shell, alone, is waaaaaaaaaayyyyyy superior to most anything else out there. Even boutique drum builders don't bother trying to replicate anything like that shell because IF they did (or even could), then they'd have to charge you the moon for it. Why bother? The Acrolite already exists!

I cant seem to sell my 1980 for $150.00

This.

Gotta remember: asking prices are not selling prices. Seeing them listed for $325 does in no way indicate that they are "going for" $325. Check the Sold Listings for a better idea.

There are several people in this thread marveling at how much people are asking, but it looks like people who have sold them have sold them for $125-150 in very good condition, which seems pretty sane to me.

I suspect it goes like this: Ludwig jacks up the price of their student drum, then some clueless seller sees that they're over $400 new, and theirs is "vintage" and in great shape, so they list it for $350. Then another clueless seller looks on Reverb or eBay and sees this listing for a comparable drum and prices theirs "to sell" at $300, and then another lists theirs "for about what they're going for" at $325, and then voila! used Acrolites start listing at $300. Except when you actually sell one, they're still $125 drums.

It'll level out as long as there are still plenty of them sitting around out there, and people need money more than they need former student model snares that nobody's using.

I think I paid about $60 for mine a few years ago. Grey anodized, as I wanted. It's sort of a "rat rod." Shell and lugs were in good shape, but a scratch or two, and missing the top hoop, the P85 was missing a part or two, I don't remember, but I just grabbed what I had in my bins and threw it on. Found a parts donor P85 at a local music store. A top hoop of unknown origin that has an etch indicating that it once belonged to a school in Berkeley. Generic butt plate. It sounded so instantly epic that I plan never to touch it. The Platonic ideal snare sound. (see, it's posts like this that drive those prices up!)

Do these seem more like it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/LUDWIG-Acrolite-Snare-Drum-1970s-USA-made-Blue-Olive-Badge-W-CASE-stand/173966007996

https://www.ebay.com/itm/14-LUDWIG-ACROLITE-BLACK-GALAXY-SNARE-DRUM-w-UFO-Case-Pad-Real-Nice/283547462275

I did a search for Sold Listings and they're going for about a hundy. So maybe we should be asking why the market for them is so depressed!

Maybe it just proves that the people at your local GC and MGR are losing it.

The Asian concerns are buying up the keystones

Snares