Do Steinways appreciate?

[David Renaud]

10% should seem clearly exaggerated to the client.
I tell my clients that if they purchase a used piano
at say 50% the new value, and that was correct for the piano,
then it should appreciate at the same inflation rate a new
piano is appreciating at.
It is illogical to think that if a new piano is $20000, and the same
used piano is $12000, and if inflation on specifically the new piano is
3% per year the used one will appreciate at 10% per year.
Compounding the interest it would not take may decades
for the used one to be ten times as expensive as the new one.
It seems to me to be normal that a new piano should be worth
say 60% or so of new one the day it leaves the store.
Then we need to wait 10 years or more for inflation to catch up.
After that it should appreciate at the rate of "piano" inflation,
which perhaps may be a little higher then the general
inflation rate(Is that true??).
Certainly at 10% soon nobody could afford a piano.
If Today= $20000
in 30 years= $348,987--- new one at 3%= $48545
42 years= $1,095,273.30--new one at 3%=$69214
I don't expect inflation to be quite that aggressive,
certainly hope not.

                                 Cheers
                                 Dave Renaud
                                 RPT






Wimblees@AOL.COM wrote:

> Several times now in the past couple of weeks, I have had customers tell me
> that the Steinway dealer in town is saying that Steinways appreciate in
> value. I heard there was even an article which quoted Henry Steinway as
> saying Steinways appreciate in value at a rate of 10% per year.
>
> Last week I appraised a Steinway S for a guy. He told me he paid $20,000 for
> it 15 years ago, being told the piano would appreciate in value. Now he wants
> to sell it to make money. But he told me last week the dealer offered him
> only $13,000. So he called me to get a second opinion. I told him I might be
> able to get $22,000 if I sold it out of my store, and he might be able to
> sell it out of his house for about $20,000, if he advertised it a lot, and
> waited. (Since the dealer offered him $13,000, I will assume he will ask
> $26,000, but probably sell it for about $22,000.)
>
> Doing the math, if Steinways really do appreciate at 10% per year, a Steinway
> S bought 15 years ago for $20,000 would now be worth $82,446.  Obviously it
> is not. Anyone out there wanting to give an answer to this. Do Steinways
> really appreciate in value?  If so, how much? What criteria does Steinway use
> to make this claim? Do Steinways appreciate more than other brands?
>
> Curious minds want to know.
>
> Willem Blees