The price of vintage practice pads is officially stupid.

I began collecting practice pads in earnest over a decade ago.

I got into pads because they were easier to store than vintage drums, and they were more affordable by far.

They were also more challenging — more fun — to research, because so little was known about various companies and makers in detail.

Then, during the pandemic, I started writing about my research, and my collection.

People began taking notice, and I was invited to be a guest on a drum podcast. 

Somewhere between my beginning to go down the serious pad rabbit hole and the time I spoke on that podcast, more people got into collecting pads. A serious subgroup got into collecting marching-specific pads from the 1990s and early 2000s.

Predictably, prices began to creep up.

Today, RealFeel tan rubber pads in good condition fetch between $150 and $200 on eBay and Reverb.

Early pads from Xymox — the rubber pads, before they got into laminated pads — can easily go for $100 and up depending on condition and branding.

Today, this showed up on Reverb.

It’s a Xymox pad, licensed and rebranded by Vic Firth and made for a little while in the early 2000s.

Now it’s rare and hard to find, and priced accordingly.

But is this really accordingly? Is it appropriate?

It’s a practice pad. Alan of wood with a slab of rubber on top, something to practice on quietly so you won’t bother the neighbors, and portable so you can take it anywhere.

New, it cost around $25-30.

Now someone wants $300 for one.

And that is where I have to draw the line, and where I wonder what on earth I’m doing in this anymore.

I collect pads because I got into the history of their design and development. I like comparing different pads of a similar design. I didn’t collect pads so I could hang onto them and flip them for astronomical sums two years later. I have bought pads cheap and sold them for a profit, but not at astronomical prices. And usually after I went to the trouble of cleaning them up a bit so they’d be more playable for the next owner. But these sellers are offering used pads for five to ten times what they sold for new.

I have to admit it’s bumming me out to see the market for something almost negligible four years ago into something that’s became as dear as a vintage Ludwig snare drum.

Maybe I’ll feel differently tomorrow. I’m not sure.