I may be buying a baby grand piano and I don't really know anything at all about pianos so thought I should get some advice.

The baby grand piano is a Yamaha G3E Ebony Baby Grand Piano. The serial code is E5301699.

The piano was originally free as the man was moving to another state and wanted to get rid of it quickly. But apparently the removalist company made a mistake (they delivered it to his new home) and now I will have to pay $400 to $600 for them to deliver it to me. To me that still sounds like a great deal for such a nice piano, but I really know nothing about them (My partner is going to take up lessons). He says the piano is in perfect condition for use and the photos he sent me looked good.

What questions should I ask this person? Is this a good investment? Let me know what you think? Does this sound like a scam or could this person sincerely just want to get rid of the piano quickly?

Thanks!!!

There are two rules of thumb, if it's too good to be true, it probably is ... and always use an independent piano technician to inspect the piano.

You think that's a great deal? I just found out I'm going to get 20 million dollars from some guy I never heard of in Nigeria. All I have to do is send him my banking information so he can make the deposit.

1. Why would someone want to give away a $10-12K piano?

2. If the seller wanted to get rid of the piano in preparation for the move, why would he want to give it it's already been delivered to his new location? Why not sell it at something near market value?

3. According to the serial#, the piano was made in 1994. From what I find on the 'net, the G3 production run ended about 1990. Are you certain that serial# belongs to the piano in question?

Be very, very careful.

Charles

Tell them you will gladly pay them the $600 moving fee when they deliver it to your home... otherwise, I'd be really careful.

The piano is supposedly free... most piano movers collect their money after the piano is moved and setup in your home.

Good luck!

Rick

Yes I was definitely going to tell them I wouldn't give the money until the piano is in my home! They sent me a picture of the serial code on the gold plating it has a big G3 and the serial code next to it. Hmmm I guess theres no harm in telling them I'll give them the money when it had been delivered to my home. Thanks everyone!

Even if the piano is delivered and you pay the movers the $600 after you take delivery, how do you know if the piano is in good enough condition to play? If it's not in playable condition and you'd have to spend thousands of dollars more to restore it, would you spend the money? If not, you're still out $600 and now you are stuck with a big old heavy instrument you'd have to pay extra to get rid of.

I remember an old story, which if not true, deserves to be true. A woman advertises a year old Cadillac for sale for the ridiculously low price of $100.

Someone calls, gets the information, and comes out and test drives the car. It's in great shape. The buyer of course wants to know why the car is being offered at such a cheap price. The woman explains, according to her late husband's will, the sale price of that car goes to the man's girl friend.

Stranger things have happened…

Here in my neck of the woods we have a saying, “never look a gift horse in the mouth”… at least in front of the generous giver!

The piano could well be a wonderful find, and for free… here is a suggested strategy to employ: if the deal is legitimate and the giver honest, the piano is probably gone already. If the owner still has the piano, I would contact them and tell them you want it, and thank them in advance for their generosity and you will give it a good home. Contact your own movers and make arrangements to have the movers go get the piano… you could meet the movers there and meet the owner in person; if the owner insists on using his own movers, that will be fine too... meet them there and supervise the move (offering no money in advance). Keep a copy of the ad and ask the owner if they would mind giving you written receipt for the piano, even though it is free.

As far as the condition of the piano, it is probably in decent condition from the sound of it… but you never know. There is a bit of a gamble involved in most anything we do.

Good luck and keep us informed!

Rick

This thread reminds me of Don Novello's book, The Lazlo Letters.

sounds scammy, but i have found a couple wonderful pianos below market value.. and to me that is a miracle.

Hi there. Here's a link to PianoMart's cautions about "too good to be true" scams: https://www.pianomart.com/blog/resources/scam-alerts/

It also offers good advice. I hope it's okay to copy and paste the info here:

"Another scam that we have seen on PianoMart.com is one that involves the use of fake ads. The scammer will copy an existing ad directly from another website. He will remove the real contact information, insert his own email address and represent himself as the owner. Sometimes these scams are easy to spot because the scammer will ask an incredibly low price for a very high quality piano. This insures that their ads will attract alot of attention and interest. The scammer will attempt to convince you to pay, in advance, part of the purchase price or the shipping fee and then will allow you to pay the balance when the piano is delivered to you. Sounds fair, right? Of course, since they don’t really own the piano, it will never arrive and you’ve lost your downpayment. To protect yourself from this scam, follow these precautions:
•if the asking price of the piano sounds too good to be true, BEWARE!
•tell the seller that you will need to send a piano technician to inspect the piano before you send any money. You can then hire a local piano technician to inspect and evaluate the piano for you. They can then confirm the existence of the piano and tell you what condition it is in.
•ask the seller to send you more photos of the piano. If they actually own the piano, this should not be a problem.
•insist on getting a phone number and call them and ask alot of questions about the piano. A legitimate piano seller will be happy to speak with you on the phone.
•use an escrow service to handle the transaction. The escrow service will hold the money until you receive the piano and only then will they release the money to the seller. The popularity of Internet shopping has given birth to many phony escrow services, so use caution when choosing an escrow service. To facilitate a safe and successful transaction, we now offer our own “in house” PianoMart.com Escrow Service at no additional charge."
+++

Good Luck!

STAY AWAY! This exact scam appears on Craigslist all over the country. My own dear hubby started a conversation with this scum: Free Yamaha grand piano ad. but after we asked, several times, to view this piano before committing, the scammer disappeared back into the ether.

I can almost guarantee that this is a scam.

I am thinking tis a scam, with ye being lured into the scam by a scammer, who is a expert vat scamming and being a scammer. It tis a scam, I sink.

(scammer language, with many folts)

;),
LoL

This is a scam - saw it on gumtree melbourne and had others email warnings that they got burnt. ignore it!