Gray Market Yamahas

[Brian Henselman]

Here's why I think that they didn't get such a good deal.

Here in Austin I just inspected a c.1985 "gray-market" Yamaha 7'4" C-7.  I
needed only keybushings, and a good regulation, but that was it.  The dealer
was willing to sell it "as-is" no-warranty wholesale for $12,500.   This
piano was gorgeous, played wonderfully, had a flawless soundboard, was 30
years newer than the c.1955 9 ft bucket of bolt described earlier.  Yeah,
it's not 9 foot long. But it played the pants off of anything less than 9
feet and it cost nearly $5,000.00 less before the additional $6,000 in work.

How much warranty did the church get?  None.  $17k for a nice modern 9 foot
grand is NOT a rip-off.  This piano however, needed a minimum of $6k more in
repairs/rebuilding.  At $23,000 for a 1955 concert grand (we know that this
didn't include a soundboard, pinblock, refinish etc),  they could have done
better with a much newer "gray-market" Yamaha, even if it were only a C-7.

Now, my original point was...I'm still looking for evidence of problems with
the nearly new Yamaha "gray-market" pianos.  Wimblees said that this "gray
market" piano was problematic, and that they paid too much for it.  Although
I just pointed out that I too think that they paid too much, my contention
is that nearly any concert grand from 1955 with heavy use will need $6,000
or more in work in 1999.  Does this make all gray-market Yamaha's bad?

I don't believe so.

-----Original Message-----
From: ETomlinCF3@AOL.COM <ETomlinCF3@AOL.COM>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Saturday, September 18, 1999 1:41 PM
Subject: Re: Gray Market Yamahas


>Why do we assume that they were ripped off?  $17000 for the Concert grand
>plus $6000 of a good techs work makes a good concert grand for less than
>$25000, in my book that is reasonable.
>
>Ed Tomlinson
>
><< Ok, your point is what?  It's a 1955 piano.  How many 9 foot grands
don't
> need $6,000 or more of work after 44years of use.  Yeah, for $17k they
were
> ripped off.  But why does this disparage "gray-market" pianos?  The dealer
> is at fault here!  Japan is simply one source of used pianos.  This church
> could have been just as easily ripped off with a worn out USA market
Yamaha.
>  >>
>