Appraising follow up

[Conrad Hoffsommer]

Dean May wrote:
> For someone who has been in the business a long time I’m struggling with 
> your comment that appraising is waaay beyond your experience. You don’t 
> really have to be in the business of selling, just be observant. Pay 
> attention to what pianos are selling for in the store. When you get a 
> customer that just bought a piano ask them how much they gave for it. 
> Take note of the piano’s style and condition. After awhile you get a 
> feel for 2 levels of fair market values: store selling prices and 
> private transaction selling prices. And there is one more price you need 
> to worry about: replacement value. When writing an appraisal for sale 
> you worry about the first two. When writing one for insurance you worry 
> about the latter.
>  
> And I’d have to say if you’ve been in the business for awhile and 
> haven’t sold any pianos, you may be missing out on a good additional 
> income stream. At least once or twice a year I’ll come across a piano 
> that has to be moved out right away. You can often pick up a decent 
> console or spinet in the $100-$300 range, sometimes free. Clean it up, 
> give it a pitch raise, slap a one year warranty on it, offer free 
> delivery, and you’ve got a great $950 - $1500 starter piano for someone. 
> All that’s required is the next time someone asks, “Do you buy/sell 
> pianos?” you say, “Sure, sometimes, what do you have/need?”
> 



Fair comments but, for myself and probably Dave Porritt, being a college 
tech means NOT being "in the store" to observe piano prices/conditions. 
  The last time I sold a piano from here it was basically salvage and NO 
money was made.  In fact, the last piano (dormPSO) the college unloaded 
went out on an auction while I was on vacation this summer.  I have no 
idea what they got for it.

I could tell you much of what might be wrong with any given instrument, 
and even what might be right with it. However, I'm so far out of the 
market, I can't even see it.


> I’ve been fascinated with this thread on appraising a piano.  I’ve been 
> in this business for a long time, have the RPT certificate etc.  I do 
> not feel qualified to appraise a piano since I have stayed as far away 
> from piano sales as I could.  I can look at a piano and tell its good 
> points and bad points and what it needs to be better.  However, how much 
> money it would bring on the open market is waaaaay beyond my expertise.  
> When someone asks me how much they should get for their piano I defer to 
> someone who works in a store where used pianos are bought and sold daily.
> David M. Porritt, RPT
> dporritt at smu.edu


-- 
Conrad Hoffsommer - Keyboard Technician
Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah, Iowa 52101-1045
1-(563)-387-1204 // Fax 1-(563)-387-1076

- There comes a time in every man's life and I've had plenty of them.
- Casey Stengel