<HTML>In a message dated 8/26/01 9:25:44 AM Central Daylight Time, mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">COMPLETELY rebuild an old upright and make a profit selling it for $7,500.</BLOCKQUOTE> Two things First of all, is he finding buyers for the $7500 piano?  I have no doubt that a reconditioned piano like you described might sound like a new Yamaha or Baldwin,. but I doubt if there are many people who are willing to fork over this kind of money for an instrument like that. The other thing is the actual "profit" that this technician is making. Yes, he is able to sell the piano, but after paying for the parts, has he really made a "profit." He will have made money over and above the parts, but is that really a "profit?" I consider a profit only after not only he parts have been paid for, but also my labor, my retirement, my taxes, etc., have bene paid for. Doing a quick calculation, I would charge a customer $6900 to do all the work you mentioned, except replace the pin block and sound board. Since I don't do that on uprights, I don't have a price for that. But with the amount of work involved with that, I would have to add at least $3000 to my price. So in that case, I come with a little less that $10,000. This includes the built in profit for the work I do for customers. I think the technician is "making" money, but not as much as he thinks he is. Willem </HTML>