Help: Grand Piano

Subject: Grand Piano
From: midwest musical mover
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 10:16 AM

Sorry, but I don't know where else to start. My aunt has a house that I need to empty and it has a 1930 baby grand piano in it that I need to sell. Any idea if there's any place on the web that could give me an idea of what it's worth (auction pages were of no help) or of any other discussion group I could pose this questions to? many tks

Subject: RE: Help: Grand Piano
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 10:41 AM

There's a newsgroup called rec.music.makers.piano where someone might be able to help.

Subject: RE: Help: Grand Piano
From: Bert
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 10:50 AM

Try a local piano tuner. You will probably want to have it tuned before you sell it anyway.

I had a friend in a similar situation she wanted to sell me her piano and was asking $200 for it. I went to look at it and said no it's got to be worth a lot more than that. She called her piano tuner and he said that she should get at least $800 for it (which was too much for me).

Subject: RE: Help: Grand Piano
From: lamarca
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 01:17 PM

A tuner will also be able to tell you if it's in good shape or not. We had friends who were trying to GIVE away and old upright that a previous owner had upholstered in white Naugahyde (don't ask). We called a friend who was a piano tuner and paid him a fee to do an evaluation of the piano's condition. He said the soundboard was damaged, and it couldn't be tuned or repaired without sinking a lot of money into it, so as a "Free" piano it wasn't going to be a bargain...

Subject: RE: Help: Grand Piano
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 01:30 PM

Okay, I won't ask....but,uh........OK..............

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help: Grand Piano
From: lamarca
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 01:33 PM

Actually, 'Spaw, I don't know why - maybe the former owners wanted it to coordinate with their Barcalounger. If it had been a playable piano, we would have taken it and tried to remove the offensive covering, but since Jonah said it wasn't fixable (within our budget), I think it wound up on the curbside...

Subject: RE: Help: Grand Piano
From: Bert
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 01:35 PM

"Save the Naughas"

Subject: RE: Help: Grand Piano
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 01:40 PM

Hey mover---are you in the moving business? Just be sure when you negotiate a price for the piano, all parties understand who will do the moving.

Subject: RE: Help: Grand Piano
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 02:15 PM

Especially a grand..baby or otherwise!!! I move a piano around with me for years. Beautiful piano...my Mom's. Just finally got to be too much. NOW of course........

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help: Grand Piano
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 02:29 PM

We bought a baby grand at a moving/yard sale (the piano was in the house), and a local moving company wanted to charge $100 to move it 2 miles! We rounded up some friends to help instead. It helps to get young, (how shall I say this? I'm sure Catspaw can describe the kind of helpers you need) naive, strong men to help. One of the problems is that even after you take the legs off and stand it up on end, only two guys can get it through a door. Same with the horribly heavy upright we moved five times and finally gave to my daughter.

Subject: RE: Help: Grand Piano
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Dec 99 - 06:24 PM

When I finally gave up and sold my HEAVY piano, this year, I called a local store which sold new and used. She came out and gave me an appraisal based on what she thought she could sell it for. The appraisal was free and while I didn't go with her beause her commission seemed a little high, plus she let people make payments, so it would've been a lot more drawn out money-wise, it was a helpful and good way to figure out what it was worth. I also watched the classified to see what others were asking for theirs.

I wound up selling it to a guy who is a tuner and sells used, refurbished ones, as well. He showed up with his little truck; we rounded up an unsuspecting neighbour; and, away it went, after a lot of puffing and tugging, in the snow, on an icy and steep driveway; I was pretty sure, when he asked me to back the truck up under the piano while he and Rog stood it on end and tipped it in, that they and it would be FORD-ed (found on the road dead) at the bottom of the driveway!

Moral of the story: be sure you know the vaue and like someone else said, BE VERY CLEAR WHO HAS TO MOVE IT!