6 old upright pianos

[Aaron Bousel]

>Dear Friends on the Pianotech mailing list,
>
>     I currently have 6 old upright pianos collecting dust in a storage
>facility.  Some were given to me, some I traded for, and some I purchased.
>I acquired these fine specimens over the last several years, thinking that I
>could fix them up and sell them at a profit.  (All right, everybody stop
>snickering!)

David,
I can't snicker too loud as I've done the same thing myself.  There's
comfort in not being alone in your mistakes.
What I've done in this situation is to contact my local auctioneer, who has
been willing to stick one of these babies in an estate sale.  You probably
won't see very much return on your investment, and you can only unload one
at a time, but this method has a distinct advantage.  You are severed from
association with the piano.  Make sure the auctioneer understands that the
piano is going as is and that you want  no association with it.  Don't leave
your card in it!  In the unlikely event that the buyer calls you to
repair/tune it, there is no reason to be untruthful about its origin, after
all, they bought it blind at an auction.  The very nature of an auction
offers no guarantees.
The problem with selling it yourself or even giving it away is that no
matter how many times you tell someone the piano is going 'as is', they feel
something about the fact that they bought it from a technician.  I know of
one scenario where a technician sold an old junker 'as is', the buyer had
another technician look at it (after the sale) and the second technician
pronounced it a piece of junk.  None of this was good for the reputation of
the technician  who sold it.
To me, the issue is how to get rid of it without hurting your good name,
something to which no price can ever be attached.  If one at a time is too
slow, I guess you could look into catapault, or whatever.
  Aaron Bousel  - Ormstown, QC
  abousel@rocler.qc.ca