Hi, we just bought a 2007 Boston upright 118 Ebony polished piano at a local store for $4500+tax, delivery included, so was 2 year warranty from the dealer, and 2 free tunings.

We had 0 experiences on pianos, at totally untrained to music. We were planning to buy one for our 7-yr old to have fun during the summer, and made the purchase in about 15 minutes after we walked into the first store we visited this afternoon.

The price tag was ~$6500, we had no idea how much a fair price would be (heck I wasn't even sure whether we could bargain like in a furniture store), but we agreed on the price after talking for about 1 minute.

My questions are:
1. is this a good piano for our purpose? we really have no expectations on how good our daughter will be, we just hope she can learn and appreciate music. The piano looked pretty new, and seemed in good condition. Also to my untrained ears, sounded a lot better than a Yamaha sitting next to it ;
2. was the price fair? I have no intent to kill the dealer and score a great deal, as long as it's fair, I will be pretty happy.

Any comment is appreciated. Thanks!

Hi Mr C and welcome to the forum! I think you got a pretty good deal on this piano. A Boston piano is made by Kawai with specs from Steinway. A new one in the Piano Buyer's Guide has a list and SMP price of over $11000. Steinway dealers usually sell these as a mid-priced line at their dealerships. I'm not sure how much they may discount the Boston line. A 5-year old piano is not "old" by piano lifespan standards and if it was not abused and at least semi-regularly tuned by the previous owner, your daughter should have many years of enjoyable playing on it. The 2 free tunings (you should do 2 a year as a matter of course!) should bring it up to snuff. Best of luck to you and your daughter and should you have any questions please feel free to peruse the various subforums here, ask questions and someone will usually respond in short order!

Hi mr. C,

There is a 118S that is Indonesian built with a present MSRP of $7300.00 that two years ago was under 7k. These regularly sell for less than retail brand new. Your price still isn't terrible, but it isn't a steal either.

Just curious, what did you compare against the Boston and what made you choose that piano?

Good Luck,

Hi Mr. Clemson - Welcome to Piano World.

Congratulations on the new piano and you are to be commended for deciding to provide a tool to maybe spark your daughter's interest. That is a much better approach than forcing lessons on a kid. The Bostons are very good pianos and I personally agree with your comparison to Yamaha.

So often in this forum, piano searches go on for years. It seems that the buyer must play every piano on the planet before making a decision. I think its great that you made a decision, acted quickly, and you went with the 'there's a piano store, lets get a piano for our daughter' approach.

The model 118 comes in two versions. One is made in the Kawai factory in Japan and the other in Indonesia. They carry different MSRP prices, with the Japanese version being more costly. Since you mentioned that it is polished ebony, that would indicate the Japanese version. The models from Indonesia are only provided with a satin finish.

My opinion? I think you did well. Good piano - Good price. Don't stew about it and let your daughter have some fun with it.

Regards,

Way to read the post, Marty.

Of course, Marty is correct. With that in mind, you did nicely.

Well it's a bit late to ask about the deal since it is already done.

Just to let you know, those of us that know a fair bit about pianos AGONIZE over our search and eventual purchase for months and months at a time.
Many of us find that buying a piano is much harder than buying a car or a house even and we can bicker amongst ourselves here for a long time on whether we got a good deal or not, and there is never a consensus on anything really.

Considering that you bought one in 15 minutes after just walking in a store is like you're speaking a language from a different planet, it does not compute to most of our reality.

But no one is going to say you made a mistake buying a Boston since it should fill your needs nicely and is a better piano than many people have to make due with.

And Rich knows his stuff so if he says you did nicely then you did nicely.

(Considering that you know nothing about pianos and bought this on the spur of the moment you got lucky).

We really appreciate everybody's insightful comments - just like Sparky said, buying a (used) piano is a lot more complicated than buying a car. I actually bought a book "The Piano Book: Buying & Owning a New or Used Piano" on Amazon, but the purchase was made before the book is delivered

We haven't taken the delivery yet, that will happen on the upcoming Friday. I am thinking about revisiting the store just to check out a few details on the piano itself to make sure we're not making a bad purchase. I was reading online today on things to check before buying a used piano, like smoke free etc, I don't remember I smelled any odor, but it doesn't hurt to double check.

Again, thank you for all the help!

While visiting a dealership about ten years ago I saw someone buy two 45K Steinways in half an hour.

Guess that's the 1%, or someone buying for school/church etc.

For us, it didn't matter whether we being there for 15 minutes or 5 hours, we don't know nothing about pianos and prices, so we went with our instinct. The price tag was ~$6500, I started with $4000, and we agreed on $4500. The dealer didn't want to take my Amex card, so I had to pay with my Visa. Initially the dealer wanted $4900 and we were about to leave, and he actually handed over his business card.

Your instinct is very good.

May I take you on a piano shopping trip with me?

I stopped by the dealer this afternoon after work with a friend who plays piano really well. It's indeed a 118E polished Ebony version (thanks Marty!), with an MSRP $11.4K (per pianobuyer.com), so pricewise, it's decent. I also had the chance to listen to a few pianos at $20K range, the Boston sounded more "muddy", not sure whether that's the result of being out of tune or it's just the way it is since Boston is known for less string tension. I was told to wait for 3 months for the piano to settle down in the new environment before have it tuned, which I think makes sense.

Back to the instinct, when I engage a conversation with someone, I usually can sense what's in their mind, and make moves accordingly. Not sure whether that's call EQ

Now need to do some research on teachers ...

Oh-Oh. Don't start second guessing yourself. You did great! Leave it at that.

I take it that it is still at the store. If you sense that it needs a tuning, ask your dealer for a fresh tuning, in the store, before it is delivered to you. This should be at his expense. When it is delivered to your home, let it settle in before it is tuned again.

I don't know the climate you live in, but here is something to consider. If you rely on central heating in the winter, you should have it tuned again after you are running the heating system and the house has again settled into its new mini-climate. It becomes a cyclical proscess. Fall/Spring - Fall/Spring...

Whether you realize it or not, you have just added a new member to your family who needs to be cared for.