My Failed Investment Strategy… Only Crazy Drummers Think Like This (I Hope)…

So, sometime in the spring of 2024, after our usual Smack Dab band practice on a Saturday, Kent the bassist and I decided to stop off at our local Guitar Center in Laguna Hills, CA.  I think I was planning to buy myself another bag of drumsticks (I’m not very particular when it comes to drumsticks, especially for practice); I usually buy the 10 pairs of sticks for thirty bucks per bag, and bang away.  Anyway, as luck would have it, as I walked into the drums section, what do I see but a brand new five-piece SPL drum kit for 99 dollars!!!!!  This was the SPL Velocity Series, which had originally been selling at Walmart for $599.  This was crazy; you never see a beginner kit with a 20-lug 22” bass drum, let alone a 14” x 5.5” 10-lug snare drum, and actually very decent heads to boot. 

The Walmart stock photo.  Of course the kit didn’t come with any hardware or cymbals, but for 99 bucks, how could I resist it?

So, of course I had to have it; never mind the other seven or eight kits I already have at the house, this kinda deal just doesn’t come around very often!  The kit I bought was a nice Patriot Blue, a really nice and tight dark blue sparkle.  So, my original thinking went something like this:  I would play it on gigs, just to say that I’m playing a 99 dollar kit and it sounds very decent (which, surprisingly, it really did), and I could bang around to my heart’s content and not worry about scratches and dings.  If and when I got tired of the kit, I could sell it for at least twice what I paid for it, so it was a no-brainer!  Out the Guitar Center door with CA sales tax, it came to some $107, a mere pittance for such a nice kit!

Sound Percussion Labs (www.soundpercussionlabs.com) specialize in budget kits, usually at the lower end of the scale.  However, from looking at their website, it does appear that their hardware is pretty solid, and for a beginner, SPL could be a good choice.  Guitar Center and Musician’s Friend carry the SPL drums and hardware, so if you are just starting out, SPL could be for you.  They also have some marching drums, in addition to hardware.  However, it seems like SPL never really caught on, especially given all the other budget kits out there (Pearl, anybody?).    

The kit came in two boxes and they were heavy, which to me was an indicator that this was a pretty well-made kit, all things considered.  I brought it home, and immediately ordered some soft cases, since I didn’t have a 16” x 14” case for the floor tom,  a 14” x 5.5” soft case for the snare and a 22” x 16” bass drum case. 

And then my investor (some would say “speculator”) brain kicked in; if I could find another SPL Velocity kit (remember, this being the spring of 2024) for the same deal, I could hoard it until Christmas, and for sure sell it for at least double what I paid for it!  Imagine, buying something for 99 bucks, and then selling it for some $250 (which of course I could), I would be an investor genius!  I called around to a couple of local Guitar Center stores, and as it so happened, the Guitar Center in Fountain Valley claimed that they had the kit I was looking for.  I convinced my wife Kathy that a) I was an investment guru; b) I had found an investment that was guaranteed to at least double my money and c) as with all investments, time was of the essence!  So, we made the drive from San Clemente up to Fountain Valley, a 33-mile drive one way.  Once we got to the store, the store clerk showed me his $100 SPL kit, and it was the wrong kit.  What he showed me was SPLs beginner-beginner kit, which probably cost maybe $200 new.  I was bitterly disappointed; not only had we made the 33-mile drive for nothing, I had now lost out on my “for sure” investment!  Well, the store clerk called the Laguna Hills store (which I had called earlier, only to be told that they were sold out on the $99 SPL Velocity kits), and, like by magic, they found a Candy Apple Red kit, still in its boxes.  We got back in the truck and hurried down to Laguna Hills to pick up the kit, because this was my ticket to my Christmas financial coup!  So, we forked over another $107 (with sales tax), and I probably spent some $25 in gas, but no worries, I was gonna make it all back, and then some!

By the way, I had some experience with “investing” in drums; back in 2010(ish) I had bought an old five-piece Yamaha 9000 (the Yamaha 9000 was the precursor to the Yamaha Recording Custom) kit for $400, including a no-name snare!  Long story short; after driving all the way to Lancaster to pick up the kit and putting in a couple of hundred bucks into new rims and new heads (and of course a bunch of time cleaning and polishing), I was able to sell the Yamaha 9000 for $900!  I was a drum set restoration pro!  (Problem with trying to make “real” money buying and selling drums on Craigslist is the time it takes to hunt, not to mention the driving and fixing, but maybe after I retire…).       

So, I stuffed the Candy Apple Red kit safely in the closet to be held until November, when I was gonna make my fortune!  I still had the plan to play the Patriot Blue kit, but I really didn’t like the SPL tom mount, especially since you couldn’t really play it as a four-piece.  So, I ordered a Yamaha bass drum mount, so I could use the Yamaha modular triple-tom mount (BTW, I really like the Yamaha modular tom mount, since you can mount all kinds of stuff on it), and I also ordered a Gibraltar tom-mount, for my LP Tommy Lee signature cowbell.  (By the way, if you are looking for an indestructible cowbell, the Tommy Lee is for you, with it’s fully welded seam.)  However, I realized that the 10” x 8” mounted tom only had 10 lugs (like the old Gretsch), so I couldn’t use one of my Rims mounts on the tom, which was a bit of a disappointment.  Fear not; I was determined to use at least some of the SPL kit on a gig, so on our next gig a brought my 10”, 12” and 14” Premier toms (which kinda matched the blue), and I played this Frankenstein kit with the SPL bass drum and SPL snare drum.  Again, the SPL bass drum and snare were fine and sounded OK, but when I got home I thought “why am I doing this, I got a really nice DW kit, so why am I playing this $99 kit?  I’m crazy…”  So, I removed the Yamaha tom holder and the Gibraltar mount from the SPL bass drum (to be used on another kit, I’m sure), and decided to put up the Patriot Blue SPL kit for sale on Craigslist.  I wrote an add that I thought for sure would attract a hoard of buyers:        

“Drums, SPL Velocity Birch Drums, 5-piece shell pack

SPL Velocity Birch Drums, 5-piece shell pack

Beginner/Intermediate/Student Drums, SPL Velocity Birch Drums, 5-piece shell pack

22” x 16” Bass Drum, 20 lugs; 10” x 8” Mounted Tom, 10 lugs; 12” x 9” Mounted Tom, 12 lugs; 16” x 14” Floor Tom, 16 lugs; 14” x 5.5” Snare Drum, 10 lugs.  Bass drum tom mount and three legs for the floor tom.   

A practically new (only used the bass drum and snare for one gig) 100% birch kit perfect kit for the Beginner/Intermediate/Student player, or even if you are a pro that needs a kit to throw in the back of your pickup truck to take to the local dive bar or back yard gig.  A really nice patriot blue sparkle wrap, all tight.  Some really cool features like the sliding tom mount (like DW and Taye), and the unique quick lock tom mount and floor tom legs, when you need to get out of the biker bar in a hurry at 1:00 AM.  The bass drum even have cast claws, something unheard of at this price point.  Also, no need to re-head this kit, since it already comes with pinstripes on the toms, and a Powerstroke on the bass drum.  You will not be disappointed!   

Note:  There are extra holes drilled in the bass drum, see the pictures.  The holes are filled with automotive cover caps, and the extra holes do not affect the tone in any way, see the pictures of the bass drum. 

Originally sold at Walmart for $599.  First $250 takes them.” 

I added some pictures of the kit:

The five-piece SPL Velocity kit in all its Patriot Blue splendor!  Actually, in my opinion, this is probably one of the best beginner kits out there.  Too bad they are discontinued…

 

I made sure to show the extra holes that I had drilled for the Yamaha bass drum mount.  The large hole was covered by the SPL bass drum mount.

 

 

A picture of the holes I filled where the Gibraltar holder had been mounted.

After the posting on Craigslist, I waited with high hopes, and I expected the phone to ring off the hook.  (By the way, for some of you younger readers, once upon a time phones had handsets that hang on a hook): 

1920s style telephone…

So I waited, and waited, and waited, but my phone was still on the hook…  After a few weeks, I reduced the price down to $200, and still no bites…  Down to $175 it went, but still no action…  After about two months, I reduced the price to $150, and I may have had some interest, but no cash in sight…

Long story short, I eventually reduced the price down to a hundred bucks, and I finally got a buyer.  We met at Denny’s in San Clemente, and after a couple of minutes, I was $100 richer, and one drum set poorer.  So, for all of you investors out there, on this investment I only lost the tax, which amounted to some 7 dollars, not too bad of a loss, but a loss nevertheless.

No worries, I still had the Candy Apple Red kit still sitting in boxes; however, I had been pretty busy during the fall, so I don’t think I got the Craigslist ad up until sometime late November, 2024.  But, again, like any investor (ok, speculator), I had high hopes, and with Christmas just right around the corner, how could the kit not sell? 

I spruced up my ad a bit, and noted that the kit was still in boxes, and I posted the stock picture from Walmart (which, unfortunately, led a few people to believe that the kit actually came with hardware and cymbals, which of course was NOT the case.)

SPL Velocity, still in boxes…  Ready to be wrapped up for Christmas, or so I thought…

I still had it up for the same “First $250 takes them”, and I was sure that it would sell before Christmas.  However, Christmas 2024 came and went and I had no bites, and my phone was still in its hook.  Unfortunately, the Candy Apple Red SPL kit story was pretty much the same as the Patriot Blue kit; I kept lowering the price every few weeks, until it was down to a hundred bucks.  Finally, I got a bite and the hook stayed in.  I met with the buyers at the San Clemente Outlets, and a hunsky and the drum kit changed hands.  This time my loss was a bit bigger; 7 bucks in tax, and about $25 in gas back and forth, so for a total of $32 loss.  Now, add the 7 bucks I had already lost on the Patriot Blue kit, and my total loss on the two kits amounted to almost 40 bucks.  Big Deal?  Of course not; I spend 40 bucks every month on Vans sneakers that I don’t wear at the Vans Outlet in San Clemente, but it was still a loss, and I would rather have at least broken even (I could have bought more sneakers!)  

So, is there moral to the story somewhere, or is this just Peter bellyaching about losing 40 bucks?  Well, if there is a moral, it would probably be this; if you see something heavily discounted, and it is NOT just flying off the shelves, it is probably only worth what the sale price is, no matter how good that price may sound.  Even at $100, the SPL Velocity kits weren’t flying out the door, and I probably should have tried to contain my enthusiasm.  But, as Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff point out in their book “This Time Is Different; Eight Centuries of Financial Folly”:  “More money has been lost because of four words than at the point of a gun.  Those words are “This time is different.””  When I bought those kits, I KNEW that I could make money, it is as simple as that.  And I was proven wrong, to the tune of 40 bucks! 

Now, if you wanna know what it takes to lose one-hundred-and-forty thousand dollars ($140,000), you will have to read my blog post “Working for a living Part Two:  Working like crazy; a tale of despair and redemption…”, and maybe let that be a lesson.  Enjoy!