I'm in Canada and I'm looking for a piano I can trade in or resell in 3-5 years. All I have to play right now is a 100+ years old piano so I badly need another one.

I saw a used Yamaha C1 for sale in my area that I'm planning to go see tomorrow. I know the C1 is quite short but again I plan to upgrade in a few years. The guy said it was built in 1996 in Japan. It's been kept in a controlled room (50% humidity, 20C temperature), no scratch, chips, etc, made for the North American market (not the "grey market"), been tuned every year by a registered technician. He said he bought it new from a store I know, he still have the receipt, it was for his sons to take piano lessons (one made it to RCM 6 and the other RCM 9) but now his sons are gone from the house and the piano is just sitting there. He always had his sons wash their hands before practicing. So it seems it was very well maintain. They ask $11,600 CAD for it and it is in my price range. I would have it looked at by a registered technician for sure before I buy. The piano buyer database says MSP $26,398 for the C1 so to me it looks like it's a good price but from other posts I'm not so sure. And I'm not big on buying things made in China. What do you think?

Figuring a real out-the-door new price of vaguely $21K for a new C1 and using the respected calculations quoted elsewhere on this forum (of 12.5% off after the first year, 2.5% off for each of the next 9 years, and 2% each year for the remaining 6 years, I've calculated that at 16 years, the piano should have about 53% of a new out-the-door price, or in this case about $11,300 after 16 years. Given that your dollar is similar to ours in value, the question is do Yamahas originally go for the same discounts in Canada (off MSRP) as in the states? If so, then $11,300 would be considered a fair price if in good shape. If not, then my calculations are probably worthless.

That's not an unreasonable price. You should try
to negotiate a bit if the piano checks out.


Take care,

Steve

For a private sale in top condition, I would consider the price okay. If you were getting from a dealer with some warranty and good service with a piano you like, then the price is very fair. Roughly half the price of new with probably 70%-80% of it's life ahead of it. Seems like very good math to me.

I like the C1, and I believe 1996 was the year they were introduced. However, I think they did tweak the design in the first few years for an even better C1 shortly thereafter.

Before committing to buy a C1, new or used, are you aware that many people choose a C1 only when physical space is very limited? Here's why: the next size up (a 5'8" C2) is a whole lot more piano for very little more money (about 14% more), and is often chosen over a C1 *IF* a 5'8" length works with the size of the room. When 5'8" is too big, then the C1 makes great sense. (The next size up, the 6'1" C3, sounds vastly better even than the C2, but is way more money--over 50% higher than a C1.)

C1's are nice small pianos. Although the C2 sounds better, i think the C1 is very much good enough for your needs at the moment, since you may upgrade in a few years time. The price seems quite decent, although there is some room for a bit of negotiation still.

Thanks for your answers, it's helping me. I agree that the C1 is not exactly what I should get for the long run and yes I have room for bigger. It's just I would prefer not to pay much more for a piano right now. But at the same time I'm really tired of my old one.
Trying to balance quality - size - price...not always easy...
I'm thinking if this one is in great shape like the guy says, I would probably loose less money reselling it later than buying a new right now for the same price.
I'm planning to go to the Yahama dealer after seeing the C1 so I'll be able to compare with the other ones too.
In the end even a C1 should be a huge upgrade to my old 100+ y.o. upright :-)

The fact that it will likely undergo only a small amount of further depreciation in the next few years argues in favor of its purchase.

I'm assuming you live in Ottawa or close by because I happen to check this ad out the other day, but it's out of my price range.

You can contact and hire my technician: Andrew Nicolaev (www.tuningpianos.com). He was trained at Ottawa Pianos (the Yamaha dealer) some years ago and is very knowledgeable with Yamaha, Baldwin and Samick. He charges $65 for an inspection, and will even remove the action and make sure EVERYTHING is working 100% (Assuming this is OK with the seller haha). I just had him inspect a Samick SIG-54 that I was considering buying, but missed out on it as someone else scooped it up. I wrote about the inspection in the thread "2005 Samick SIG-54: Found a great deal???". Best of luck to you.

Well, as an update, the C1 seems in great shape but I didn't like the sound. I thought I could go with a small grand but no. I much prefer a tall upright than a small grand. I visited the Yamaha dealer right after and liked the YSU3. The next morning I went to the Young Chang/Hailun dealer. They only had lower end small upright for the Young Chang (I was disappointed). The Hailun had a nice sound but so badly adjusted, a lot of loose in the keys, he said it's easy to adjust but I think the pianos in their show room should be well adjusted so I didn't like that. So sleeping on it and going back a few times to try it again I just bought a brand new YUS3. I'm going to get it in a week and a half.

Hey, congratulations on your new Yamaha vertical!! How exciting!

I wish you many years of musical enjoyment with it!

And, yes, it is difficult to pay a lot of money for a brand new piano in a dealer’s showroom when it has not been properly prepped. The promise of good prep after the sale doesn't carry a lot of weight with me either.

Please post pictures when you can.

Rick