Is this a "Beware"?

[Glenn Grafton]

>List,
>   Found this on rec.music.makers.piano and was wondering if this is one of
>those "beware" type of sales that were discussed in the recent past on the
>list?
snip

>>Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 17:24:13 +0500
>>Subject: Re: Arriving June-Sept, over 100 used Yamaha,Kawai grands-upright
>> pianos
>>
>>rjones8650@aol.com (RJones8650) wrote:
>>
>>You can not and will not find a lower price anywhere in the U.S.  We are
>>piano technicians in a cheap warehouse that have imported used Yamaha and
>>Kawai pianos monthly for 11 years .  We get the largest shipments through
>>the summer months,  and sell them like hotcakes.
>Avery Todd, RPT
>Moores School of Music
>University of Houston
>Houston, TX 77204-4893
>713-743-3226
>atodd@uh.edu
>_____________________________________
These are usually quite old Yamaha or Kawaii grand pianos-often with 2
pedals. The Japanese evidently tend not to re-build their pianos as often
as we do, prefering to get new. When people see "used Yamaha or Kawaii"
they tend to think that the pianos are probably not that old as Yamahas and
Kawaiis have only been imported into the U.S. since the '60's. The bulk
used Japanese importers often have pianos that are older than that since
these pianos were sold in Japan for many years

The posting you made mentions that they do the following:
"All the pianos are fully regulated,
tuned, cleaned out,  and polished prior to delivery,  Most of them look
new inside and out when we are finished with them."

Looking new and performing new are two different things.
You'll notice that they are not doing any significant work at all to the
pianos ie. hammer filing or replacing, re-pinning, etc. Work that often
needs to be done on a 20-40 year old piano. For example: we have a 6'6"
Kawaii grand we took in trade that was made in the early '70's. We're
replacing the pin block, restringing it and regulating the action. We'll
also be doing some re-finishing work as well. (B.T.W.The piano will be for
sale if anyone is interested).

Glenn R. Grafton
Grafton Piano & Organ Co.
1(800)272-5980