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We need to know "how old it is" in order to know "what is it worth", but that is only one ingredient in getting a good estimate of price. In addition you need to know condition, and a few other factors.
I've presented work on pricing of Paiste 602s and Sound Creations and have been collecting data on sales since 2005. I've been collecting sales data on Avedis cymbals (since 2014), and Turkish made K Zildjian cymbals (since mid 2013). Price reports are available for Turkish made K Zildjian cymbals and Avedis cymbals. Since I'm actively updating the price pages, be sure to refresh your browser to get the latest version. All my raw data is freely available to the public.
Scope: I'm interested in the professional lines of Avedis Zildjian cymbals, so I've done very little with student and beginner lines. The Avedis work includes the professional level cymbals manufactured by Avedis Zildjian in North America, so does include Canadian Ks, EAKs, IAKs, and modern Ks as well as those 1970s brilliant finish Avedis Zildjian & Cie Constantinople cymbals. If you don't know what those things mean, then don't worry. We'll get to them in due course, but it will take a time. A's before K's so expect some delays.
I've also created an interactive tool for K Zildjian Istanbul trademarks (aka Old Ks) as an experiment in different ways to help people identify their cymbals. The printed timeline is in the book by Rob Cook called The Gretsch Drum Book. Read the two page section by Bill Hartrick which gives the timeline for the K Zildjian Istanbul cymbals based on his research. That's the official version from the source.
When I started doing pricing research I discovered that the timeline for Avedis Zildjian cymbals was in a bit of a muddle and ten years out of date. Although I was mainly interested in price modeling, I needed a good reference to work out the age of cymbals. I ended up having to do it myself, because I did't see a reference which does a good job of showing photos with annotations which explain just what to look for in the different trademark eras. Although Bill Hartrick (the pioneer in this work for both old Ks and old As) has promised a book which sorts it all out, there isn't anything available now. Last I heard we should expect his book about 2020. I've also noticed that there wasn't any nice online information for the 1970s onwards. And last (but most recent) laser serial numbers began in 1994, and I've got a list of those which I've started annotating with the years when different models came in and out. But that's all recent. Time to begin at the beginning.
Click on the link below to download the original PDF file from Vintage Drummer Vol 3(3):14-15 (July 2003):
Dating Cymbals by Trademark by Bill Hartrick
This gallery is a work in progress and I'm still adding both pictures and content. Use the gallery if you have a cymbal you are trying to identify and you aren't familiar with the different trademarks and ink logos. I'm familiar with the production eras so I tend to use the year by year timeline as my quick index into the gallery.
This is a quick access year by year timeline including which models came in when and were discontinued (as I get to it). For those who are wondering, my inspiration is the now defunct Paiste-Only Wiki which is currently being reconstructed as the Paiste part of Cymbal Wiki (click here for Paiste section). I do intend to provide Model, Series and Type based indexes for Avedis Zildjian, and better cross indexing generally. This quick index is quick because there aren't any images. But they are only a click away.
zenstat aka Steve Black, PhD -- retired statistician and general gatherer of information about cymbals.
site first published 30 August 2014
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