[CAUT] "antique" piano

[Chris Solliday]

There is an antique dealer and autioneer in our area who gives piano
appraisals and has a beautiful appraisal form with blue blotter covers and
fancy paper inside. I sold him a copy of Larry's book and a Pierce Atlas. As
you might imagine he routinely gives appraisals for lots of old and fine
furniture, objects of art, musical instruments, etc. He views pianos as just
another one of these. He has no interest in using a formula like replacement
(new) price minus the cost of remanufacture equals, plus or minus a
percentage, equals the estimated current value. He just looks at it for the
shape and size and quality of finish, with some small consideration to
overall condition (although he doesn't really know), and bang he puts the
official looking parchment forward to the client. I have seen him sell near
junk ( for instance a Steinway B with so much mold rust and powdering
cabinet that you could only totally rebuild it sold for $12,000.00) for too
much and also not get enough for other instruments (a mint Baldwin 243 for
$250.00). But hey that's the wild and wacky world of auctioneering. The
point is he has nowhere near the expertise to put a price on a piano that
any of us do and he charges a minimum of $300.00 per appraisal. If he does a
separate insurance replacement appraisal that's another blue enshrined
parchment and a minimum of $300.00. Did I mention the beautiful font and
logo, etc? The higher the value of the appraisal in his mind the more he
charges. And most don't complain.
As a result of this experience I have raised my price for this kind of work
considerably over the years and will continue to as I think I  provide a
true value. I still haven't made the leap to the pretty paper, but props are
usually worth their weight in gold in this business ( I do like to impress
clients with my measuring tools and weight sets) and I may someday succumb
to their allure in this regard.
The truth is there are no real standards so something that looks good and
sounds good presented with a smile will usually suffice. Not that that is
necessarily a good thing.
Chris Solliday

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Minor" <jminor at illinois.edu>
To: "caut" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 1:59 AM
Subject: [CAUT] "antique" piano


> Thanks for all the comments.
>
> Actually, I was in contact with Bill Shull before I wrote up the
appraisal, and he concurred with my dollar value. He is MOST knowledgeable
about these instruments, and he cautioned me NOT to call it a model D,as
that is a ploy used by some dealers to increase the value of these
instruments that are not true model D's.
>
> I also checked with a local piano rebuilder/dealer who has been in the
area for 30 years. I was just curious what "antique" appraisers actually say
about these older pianos. Has anyone heard first hand what kind of prices
they put on these instruments?
>
> John Minor