Thanks to your help, I am still shopping. The dream is a baby grand, but the budget is 5K. I found a Kawai Grand Piano 5'6" Serial #16XXXXX (they did not provide the entire serial number) for $5,500. Black Glossy. I could not find more info here on piano world about pricing. 1986? It would be my forever piano. Any thoughts?

Looks like it was made in 1986

http://www.kawaius-tsd.com/pages/serial_manudate.html

I'm not familiar w/older Kawais, but if you tell us the model, maybe someone can say if it's a good deal. Good luck!

From Kawai's technical support page, it does not look like they ever made a 5'6" piano. The model number will tell all.

1986 - lets stretch the memory cells here. The KG 1 at that time was 5'1" and the KG 2 was 5'10". That much is "top of mind" for me. What I don't seem to recall is what model fell between the two.

By the late 1980's, the GE series bad been introduced as a cheaper model and they made a 5'7" GE 2, but not in 1986. Of course I am going by memory and I could be a year or two off in these changes. I will check later today to see how bad my memory really is.

Thank you all for your time. I will just keep looking. It was a GE2. There was something wrong. The person e-mailed me and when I called to find out more, that was the end of it.

I am sorry that it did not turn out to be what you thought. I have heard of three separate buyers who bought pianos over the 'net within the past month who were profoundly disappointed with the purchase.

One case was simply a bad choice, but the other two thought they did their homework. One piano was refinished as said, but the color matching between the parts was horrible and it did not show in the photos. The second had the wrong parts used (in this case hammers) and it plays like a truck.

Bottom line - even with a tech. exam., if you do not see the piano yourself, you are taking a needless risk.

My 2 cents,