Appraisal and Price Check on Yamaha Recording Customs, late 1990s

Hi Drummers,
Wanted to get the forum's opinion on a kit:


Here are the bullet points:

Yamaha Recording Customs, Black
- 10/12/14/20, looks to be from 1997
- "Kit is in overall great condition minus a few dings here and there. Little bit of rash on the 12 inch tom from rubbing against the snare, on the 14 from rubbing against the kick, and some wear on the batter-side kick hoop.
- Comes with the mounting hardware for the two rack toms, floor tom legs, and the hoop and claws for the front side of the bass drum (but no front BD head)

Seller is asking $2400 CAD (or $1800 USD). This seems a bit high to me given the wear and tear on the kit. What would be a fair price to offer? What would you pay for this kit if you were interested? I like the sound of RC, and never buy a kit to sell it. But always like to keep resale value in mind in case my gear situation changes.

Thanks in advance!
 
Weren’t those made in Japan? Sounds like a decent deal to me. I certainly wouldn’t expect to pay less than $1500 US, depending, of course, on just how bad the damage is.
 
Yes. I think it's a bit high. There's a 22, 10, 12, 14, 16 on eBay right now, for (US) $1850 + $125 shipping. I think $1500-$1600 (US) would be fair.
 
$1700 Cdn might be okay... just remember, any deals are gone within the hour, fair pricing usually last 10 days at the most, and anything past THAT are fishing expeditions

a lot of ads are posted by people looking to only unload if they can get "their price", which means they'll post and re-post every three days for YEARS, and still never sell ANYTHING... and then re-post it again, at the same or higher price

just the way it is
 
It’s definitely a buyer’s market right now. I’m surprised people even buy new kits at all.
And yet I feel like prices on eBay, CL, Reverb, FB Marketplace etc are considerably higher than they were just a year or two ago. Maybe it's just cyclical, but it seemed like you'd run into a bargain every week or so and now it feels more like every few months, maybe.
 
And yet I feel like prices on eBay, CL, Reverb, FB Marketplace etc are considerably higher than they were just a year or two ago. Maybe it's just cyclical, but it seemed like you'd run into a bargain every week or so and now it feels more like every few months, maybe.

What stuff is actually selling for can be really different than the listed price. And some of it just sits there for literally years. There’s a guy who’s been trying to sell an 8-piece steambent Noble & Cooley set on eBay for literally 15 years or so. It comes back up every few months. He asks $10-12K for it. But people who actually need/want to sell are willing to deal.
 
As a point of reference, about 7 years ago I sold my 1984/85 Recording Custom kit: 22, 10, 12, 14, 16 with hardware and bags for 1800. That was the going rate at the time.

They were not in pristine shape, but in extremely good condition.
 
As a point of reference, about 7 years ago I sold my 1984/85 Recording Custom kit: 22, 10, 12, 14, 16 with hardware and bags for 1800. That was the going rate at the time.

They were not in pristine shape, but in extremely good condition.
Is that price USD or CAD?
 
Not sure how the seller determined this was a 1990s RC or the significance of the 97xx numbers handwritten on the badges, but the 2-letter date codes (prefixes to serial numbers) stamped into these badges were predominantly used in the 1980s.

From 1990 through a few years later, there have been numerous documented cases where 2-letter date codes were still used even though Yamaha had changed to their newer 3-letter standard. However, I don’t recall seeing any case where 2-letter codes extended into the late 1990s.

Given the date codes on these drums:

10” : OH = 19x8-01
12” : LM = 19x5-06
14” : LX = 19x5-10
20” : HI = 19x1-02

I believe the actual manufacture dates are:

10” : 1988-01
12” : 1985-06
14” : 1985-10
20” : 1991-02

Which would make this predominantly a 1980s RC. And given it isn’t in pristine condition, I would agree it is overpriced.
 
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