<HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff">In a message dated 10/9/02 1:29:35 PM Central Daylight Time, Wimblees@aol.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> David This is where the fallacy comes in. You have not "made" $7000 in a year. How much time did you spend working on this piano? That is what you are getting paid for. You spent countless hours working for that money. Time you could have spent working on someone else's piano. Wim </BLOCKQUOTE> Wim, because we were just generalizing figures it may seem like I am making nothing on the investment.  This is how it works for me, I spend $10k on a "M"( if it needs a new soundboard I do not buy it).  I restore the piano and allow $8k toward costs which is approximately what I charge wholesale dealers to restore their pianos. I make money on the restoration the same as if I was restoring a dealers piano but then I sell the piano and pick up another $7k. Get it?  There is another way to look at it, suppose I just take the actual cost of the piano and parts which we can round to about $14k then subtract from $25k which leaves $11k for my work, far more than what I make on a wholesale restoration and still a good bit more than what I make on a retail restoration. The point here though is not what I can make speculating, but how much is it going to cost Gordons customer to replace his piano?  Regardless, if you can make money speculating or not, the price of a Steinway is the price of a Steinway. David Koelzer Vintage Pianos DFW</HTML>