Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum What do dealers do with really old trade-ins?

I recently got a new upright and traded in a 1920s Milton upright (about 53" high) for it. I asked for $200 for the Milton, and the dealer agreed, and his movers carted the Milton away after bringing the new upright (a 48" Hailun) into the house. The Milton, by the way, looked very crusty - downright ugly on the outside - but it could hold a tune - in fact, we had just tuned it before we bought the new piano. We had used it for about five years and it sounded good enough for our children to practice on; they had started taking lessons shortly before we got the Milton. (They started on a Clavinova, which is an electric Yamaha.)

Here's my question: What do dealers do with these old pianos? I'm guessing the dealer I bought from agreed to give me $200 for the Milton, not because he wanted it, but because that was the only bargaining I did - otherwise I paid his asking price (which was a very attractive price). I sure did not see any really old pianos like the Milton in his showroom, nor could I imagine anyone paying more than a few hundred - maybe $600 max - for it, unless it was made much more attractive cosmetically. (My sister-in-law originally got the Milton from a piano tuner/mover for $100 - and he told her not to put any money into it beyond tuning.)

I'm guessing the dealer could give it to a charitable organization for a tax write-off. Or maybe he has a back room with really old stock in it for folks who want a very cheap starter piano. (He does have a large place with two floor above the main showroom floor.)

What do you dealers do in cases like this? Give the big, hulking thing to charity? Toss it in a landfill? Turn it into a condo for squirrels?

Brad

Are you beginning to miss the Milton because
you now realize that the new one is not
much better? You should have stayed with
it. They don't make them like that anymore.

A dealer here runs a charity where old pianos are repaired a bit, then donated to needy kids. Many dealers have warehouses where old pianos sit till someone cleans them out. One dealer paid the garbage man to haul old uprights away, and the same dealer paid us to do a fairly good prep on used pianos and made $$$ selling them. That dealer paid finders fees for used pianos at the time - he sold so many of them. (he sold many new pianos as well)(back in the old days......)

That's Gyro—always a ray of sunshine (but the bizarro kind that darkens the spirit and doesn't quite manage to illuminate the topic at hand)!

Steven

For the most part, old uprights like this are taken to the landfill. They cannot be given away to charities, as the charities are wise to them now and wont take them for free. You got an excellent trade. Not only $200, but you didn't have to pay the price of moving it to the landfill and disposing of it, both of which cost money.

Watch at your own risk:

Where do old pianos go?

It isn't very pretty.

I thought that at least some of them could be used for piano tech/tuner teaching and practicing vehicles. The OP said that his oldie holds a tune. Could be useful for tuning practice, no? Same for regulation practice, restringing practice, refinishing practice, rebuilding in general, no?

Rich - that video is hilarious. I kinda thought that might be the fate of old pianos.

Gyro - I thought the old Milton sounded OK - but the new Hailun has a"singing" quality that I really like - so no, I am not missing the Milton.

Doremi - that's a great idea, to use an old piano that holds tune as a training piano for novice tuners. But my dealer is a high volume, low margin kind of dealer who does probably does not have apprentice technicians training there.

Keith - that's what I thought too, that I was lucky he took it away, let alone gave me some cash for it. (We sent the cash to my sister-in-law.) He suggested he might be able to sell it, but not with conviction - I think he did not want to risk that I or my wife might be nutcases who would nix a deal if we thought some quasi-family heirloom was heading for the dump.

Bob - I don't see this dealer expending a lot of effort on behalf of needy kids. That's not meant as a knock on him - but he definitely seems like a profit-seeking businessman first, and piano lover/humanitarian a distant second.

Another place where old pianos go.

Where bad pianos go.

Ken

One better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJzG7CSYg3U

I would hope that good parts of old cases would get salvaged.

I'm still looking for a nice top for a wide shelf, curved leg supports for the same and a fancy front just because I love carvings and fretwork.

And I really really want a rosewood music stand to actually use! (to match my rosewood fallboard)

Hint, hint!!!

Its almost like the "Brave Little Toaster", but with no happy ending......oh, the humanity....

I would think that a shop that makes custom furniture might like tops, top boards, bottom boards, etc. That is usually good wood in them. Sometimes the core is chestnut, a wood that no longer grows commercially, due to the blight.

Maybe Norm Abrams can make a coffee table out of it

That guy can build anything.

Horowitzian, do you feel stupid all the
time, or just when you try to express yourself?

Ahhhh, unintentional irony...


So, Gierow. Do you feel
stupid all the time? Or is it only
when you make pathetically
puerile attempts to express
yourself in stilted copied-and-pasted
English all the while eschewing
word wrap?

By the way, I mentioned that I got a really good price (based on Larry Fine's latest figures) for the new Hailun, plus the extra $200 for the Milton. The dealer had everything in his store marked "liquidation price" although he did not seem to be going out of business. (His dad started the business in the 1940s.) So I think the "liquidation prices" may have indicated a cash-flow issue - that the dealer needed to raise some cash in a hurry. In this economy, I bet a lot of dealers are seeing their sales go down, since pianos are not exactly necessities. One reason I wanted to make a 3k+ purchase in early January is I felt it was one way I could do my (tiny) part to stimulate our faltering economy.

Rich:

Don't you guys have the top floor of your factory building filled with old tradeins? I thought I remember seeing them. Maybe you cleaned house...

Sometimes the pianos take revenge .