Can someone help me with my Bundy serial number?

[SVDL87]

Hi everyone, not sure if this is the correct room to post this question, but here goes..

I’m looking to sell an old trumpet from my youth, bought for my by my father in 1994. It’s a Bundy Selmer Bb trumpet with the “designed by Vincent Bach” engraving. It was sold to us in a modern Bundy case for the time; however, everything I’ve seen online regarding serial number dating tends to suggest it’s older than late 80’s/early 90’s. I can only find serial number dating Classifications for numbers only, but my serial number starts with the letter A - so we disregard the letter and only look at the numbers? As if so, I believe it to be early 1970’s as the serial number is A 80300...or is there a separate dating classification for serial numbers starting with letters?

I have no idea on how much to market this trumpet at. We bought it, it was from new and priced at £350 back in the early 90’s.

Any information is greatly received!

Thank you

[cheiden]

I played a Bundy trumpet in the mid-70s. It served me well enough back then before I moved to a pro horn in high school.

It doesn't really answer your quesiton about serial number or age, but these have always been decent but inexpensive student horns and the vintage ultimately isn't going to influence the resale value. If it's in good repair it would probably be a reasonable horn for a beginner. Hard to imagine it would go for more than a couple hundred USD.
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"I'm an engineer, which means I think I know a whole bunch of stuff I really don't."
Charles J Heiden/So Cal
Bach Strad 180ML43*/43 Bb/Yamaha 731 Flugel/Benge 1X C/Kanstul 920 Picc/Conn 80A Cornet
Bach 3C rim on 1.5C underpart

[OldSchoolEuph]

I cannot help much with a precise date, nut I can tell you that the design was first built in 1962 or 63 and ended in the mid 1980s when Selmer redesigned it and named the result Bach TR-300. 1970s would not be an unreasonable guess.
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Ron Berndt
www.trumpet-history.com

2017 Austin Winds Stage 466
1962 Mt. Vernon Bach 43
1954 Holton 49 Stratodyne
1927 Conn 22B
1957 Holton 27 cornet
1985 Yamaha YEP-621
1975 Yamaha YEP-321 Custom
1965 Besson Baritone
1975 Olds Recording R-20

[Crazy Finn]

There is not a serial number - date list for Bundy brass instruments. The Bach serial list does not apply. The Bundy saxes and woodwinds might get a clue from the Bundy/Buescher lists, but there is no list for the brasses. The series start, stop, add a letter, change a letter, reset, etc. There is no way to accurately date a Bundy brass instrument from the serial.

Many have asked, many times. People have even written to Bach/Selmer and the answer they have gotten is that there are no records.

So, the sad news is you'll likely never know definitively the date. The good news is, it really doesn't matter as it has no discernible impact on the value or the collectibility.

The Bundy trumpet is a student level instrument - not particularly rare, or collectible. It's not a bad instrument to start out a beginner on, and may be better made and play better than some current models (or maybe not, it's hard to say). There are a fair number of them out there as they were produced in great numbers in the 50-70's. It's a solid student instrument, and if in good condition, would sell for between $100-250 or so in my area.
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LA Benge 3X Bb Trumpet
Selmer Radial Bb Trumpet
Yamaha 6335S Bb Trumpet
Besson 709 Bb Trumpet
Bach 184L Bb Cornet
Yamaha 731 Bb Flugelhorn