Today we went to a piano dealer not that far from here, my first time visit this shop.

The owner greeted us, and then proceeded to rant about "brandism" (his words) and not leave me alone to play any of his pianos. Too bad too, because he had a few pianos I would have liked to have played for more than two nanoseconds....

Still, most of his inventory was new, and I'm budgeting for used, so it's for the best I guess. But my goodness, the guy was a textbook case example of how not to interact with a customer!

Second hand pianos are like second hand like everything else. They have no value.

If you find one you happen to like make sure you understand that the piano itself has no value. You are going to negotiate moving, set up, voiceing and warranty. Period. The piano itself has no value because it is used; very much like second hand mobile homes.

You can get a great deal this way.

Why didn't you tell him you were there to play and test? I would have. !!!

If you want a (hopefully gently) used piano, I wouldn't spend too much time at a dealership. You'll get a much better deal by going to peoples' homes and bringing a tech once you have found a beast that matches your wants and needs.

Steve, will you come with me when I'm ready to make an offer on a piano? I don't think I can play that kind of hard ball!!

LL, we were kind of running late and hoping to visit one other dealer, to we decided to just leave. We have plans to go visit a friend in that city, so we might go back once more when it's not so close to the end of the day. I think we were both so taken aback by him that we were just like, let's go!

P*D, I don't know what I want. So the value for me in going to a dealer is that I can play multiple instruments/makes/models, compare them etc. And so far I'm not seeing much for sale on CL or FB Marketplace in a reasonable driving distance that isn't obviously crap. Well, except one 5'3" Yamaha that was super nice (we went to see it). If I were going to get a 5'3" piano, I would consider getting that one, but as I've played more pianos, I don't think I want to go that small.

So far I've visited three dealers and played: a Seiler, a Samack, several Kawais, several Yamahas, an Essex (did not like that one), a Boston (loved it), a Feurich (loved it), a Pramberger (didn't like it)... I think that's it. Oh ETA: a Steinway (S? one of the smaller ones, less than 6 feet for sure) that I didn't like at all, and a Steinway from 1917 that was just really neat to play. I don't want an older instrument, even one that (like this one) has had a lot of work on.

I do keep my eye on FB Marketplace and CL, but I see very little of interest.

Encountered a very annoying piano salesman years ago.
Asked him "When is your day off?"
"Tuesday"
"Good, I will be back on Tuesday."

Went back on Tuesday and bought from a nice lady.

I've bought from an individual and from a dealership and felt pretty good about both purchases.

The one bought from an individual was not gently used. It was fifty years old and it had spent time in the owner's bar. I had my tech check it out and make some minor repairs, and I felt like I got a good price. A later tech said that the previous one hadn't done anything but spray paint key parts of its innards gold to make it look good, but that this was going to make the tuning pegs slip and he had essentially ruined it. It lasted for twenty years, so I don't know who the heck was right. I feel like I got the value of my money out of it, and that's what counts.

Based on my experience in buying used from a dealer, I wouldn't discount doing that. My current piano was twenty years old and very lightly used. The dealer said that the owners were trading it in for one just like it with a player system, so it is entirely possible that they considered it a decorative item and never played it. There's not much of a market for a big used grand in a medium-sized college town, so I think the price was fair. As an enticement to help sell it, the dealer had negotiated something with Yamaha to include a warranty as if it were new, something they said they'd never done before. Maybe this was a scam. I have no idea, but I have a certificate on Yamaha letterhead. I've never needed it, so it doesn't really matter, but if it was worth something it's not something I could have gotten from an individual. Another thing to remember--the cost of moving a grand is not negligible and I believe it's included in the cost if you buy from a dealer.

As for Steve's suggestion to play hardball, I'm not a hardball person, either, but I unintentionally did so on my piano. There was some question about the bottom line, since I had a piano to trade, so he quoted me $X and said it would be minus the trade. We set up a time for somebody to come look at my trade, neither of us remembering that it was Memorial Day. The person didn't show up and the store wasn't open for me to call and reschedule. I was peeved, but I still wanted the piano.

I was leaving for Europe early the next day, so I called from the airport and left a message saying we were going to have to put things on hold for three weeks until I got home.

When I got to the Atlanta airport, I had a message saying, "We don't need to come look at the piano. Here's a price based on your description of it, if we can do the deal now." And he quoted me $X, the exact same price that he'd quoted for the piano alone.

I said, "You're giving me zero for the trade????"

He stammered and said that the price I'd seen just a week before on the piano had been for a limited time sale and that it had now gone up...conveniently by the exact same amount he wanted to give me for my trade.

I said, "That's ridiculous. I'm getting on a plane and we can talk about this when I get home in three weeks."

While I was flying to New York, he had time to think about how bad he wanted to sell that piano. When I got off the plane, I had a message adjusting his offer to include an offer for my trade that was probably reasonable.

I said,"Yeah, fine," and put the deposit down over the phone, then I got on a plane and flew away.

quote:

Encountered a very annoying piano salesman years ago.
Asked him "When is your day off?"
"Tuesday"
"Good, I will be back on Tuesday."

Wow MA, that's quite a story!!

In terms of the benefits of buying from a dealer, there are several reasons: the value of my upright as a trade in, as well as the ease of having the grand delivered and upright removed in one go; the delivery itself, which will be included at the dealers I've visited so far; the ease of the payment and avoiding worry about a scam and other problems with a private seller; the warranty for after-care etc.

So, the question is, what's a monetary value for those benefits, and would buying from a private seller be significantly cheaper to offset not having access to those dealer-benefits.

I think it depends on the piano. If a private seller has a piano I want, I'll consider it seriously. I just haven't seen anything yet.

But I'm not in a hurry, so that's in my favor.