Heintzman Upright Value

[Michael Jorgensen]

Hi John,
    I think in US $.  Still your prices are higher in the west.  I
wonder if that is because boomtowns like Calgary, Edmonton, Denver etc.
grew to be huge recently reducing the supply of old pianos relative to
demand.  Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland etc. were all big before the
previous cities existed.  I'll check my almanac, maby I can find a small
city you never heard of which was larger than Calgary in 1910 when alot
of pianos were built.  In this area almost every respectable town had a
piano factory.
      Consequently most old uprights are in the two to five hundred
range except for reconditioned or rebuilt ones, and Steinways etc. Some
high-end pianos don't get the prices they deserve due to lack of name
recognition.  Our deteriorative very damp/very dry climate has reduced
many old uprights to junk making them less valuable meaning the
condition overrides original quality in many evaluations.  So that
decaying old Knabe sits in a sunday school room or closet while the
cheap upright still gets used.  IMHO, a time is coming when the good
oldies will be rebuilt, but not quite yet.  Perhaps a living could be
made trucking them out west, buying at $0-$200., and selling at $500.
-Mike Jorgensen
Michigan,
Deep in the rust belt. where the population grew in the early part of
the century and isn't changing much.


  John Musselwhite wrote:
> 
> $6500 CDN is only about $4K USD just so you're working with the correct
> figures. Here, a "typical" un-rebuilt Heintzman that has 88 notes that all
> play will  bring at the very least $1K CDN  (about $650 US) in a private
> sale and about $2K or so reconditioned in a store.  More if the case is in
> good shape. In Western Canada ANY upright that plays and tunes is going to
> be worth over $500 no matter what it is and absolute junk will sell at
> twice that.
>