A first for me.

[Wimblees@AOL.COM]

I have never run across this. 

This morning I was called to give an appraisal on an old Packard ex player. 
One of my store people had set up the appointment, and when I read what they 
wanted, (estimate the value of the instrument and see if it is worth 
repairing), I thought, why are they bothering me with this. We tell customers 
that old uprights, especially ex -- players, are not worth much, maybe $200 
-- $500, and that because they need a lot of work, it is not worth it to fix 
them.  

But there I was, ready to take a look at this old ex -- player. When I got to 
the porch I noticed the sides, the top, and the bottom board of a piano 
leaning against the wall. And the parts didn't look too bad, other than I 
could see that they had been "rudely" taken off the piano. Just then, the 
home owners drove up. The house was being remodeled, and they were not living 
there. They told me this story. 

They had a fire, which destroyed most of the basement, and caused some smoke 
damage to the rest of the house. In the basement was an old piano, which, 
according to them, was built into the wall. But because of the fire, it was a 
total loss. They also had this Packard ex -- player in the living room. But 
it only suffered minor smoke damage. 

In order to repair the basement, the owners decided to get the old piano out 
of the basement. But the only way to get it out, was to dismantle the piano, 
by taking the sides and keybed off. So they told the contractor to have his 
men take the old piano apart, haul it up the stairs, and dump it outside. 

Well, guess what happened. The workers couldn't find the old upright in the 
basement. All they could see was a piano in the living room. So they busted 
off the sides, tore off the fall board and front panel, ripped off the top 
lid, and dumped those parts out side. They left the back frame and the keys 
in the house. Then the customer came home. 

Needless to say, they will get a nice settlement from the contractor for 
another piano. They will not get much for the actual value of the piano they 
lost, which I estimated to be $750. but they should make a killing for the 
emotional stress the workers put on the customers. 

Willem

PS  Yes, the workers did find the other piano, and it took upstairs. I played 
the Packard. It was in tune, considering what it had gone through, it had a 
complete set of undamaged ivories, and it played and sounded pretty good, for 
an old ex-player. And like I said, the case parts looked pretty nice too. I 
decided the damage to the piano was too much, for me to try to glue it back 
together.