Buy upright and sell it one year later - would this work?

[berthaschiller]

Hello everyone,

I am thinking of buying a Yamaha upright piano now and selling it in about a year's time. The reason for this is simply budget - I need to get some kind of piano as soon as possible but can't afford a decent grand piano without taking out a loan at the moment. Has anyone had any experiences selling 'very new send hand' pianos? Would anyone have any advice? This is a theoretical question - I do not have the piano yet and am just trying to figure out if this kind of operation would make any sense.  

All best

[hfmadopter]

Hello everyone,

I am thinking of buying a Yamaha upright piano now and selling it in about a year's time. The reason for this is simply budget - I need to get some kind of piano as soon as possible but can't afford a decent grand piano without taking out a loan at the moment. Has anyone had any experiences selling 'very new send hand' pianos? Would anyone have any advice? This is a theoretical question - I do not have the piano yet and am just trying to figure out if this kind of operation would make any sense.  

All best

I'm thinking if you bought a relatively new second hand piano and tried to sell that in a year you may get most of your money back depended on the deals at each end of that time period. However, if you buy new it will depreciate more significantly in that years time. If you think about that it would be like you going out and trying to buy a relatively new second hand piano now, you wouldn't be expecting to pay new piano prices. A piano between 1 and 5 years old will draw similar amounts of money assuming similar condition, IMO.

[berthaschiller]

Thanks, hfmadopter, the reason I am looking into buying a new piano is that I have already been to a lot of different piano shops and looked at pretty much every second hand piano I could find in my area. It seems that the market has changed for the worse because of the financial crisis and the quality of second hand pianos is extremely low at the moment. When the quality is okay a 40-year old upright costs as much as a new one. I was originally going to just rent a piano for a year but it is not happening in the current climate.

[indianajo]

I don't know where you live but I see great pianos one step from the dump all the time.  I saw a 1920's Howard upright 48" at Goodwill last week, $75.  Horribly out of tune, really nothing else wrong I could find.  It even had a sort of modern tone instead of the rinky tink JoAnn Castle type of tone.  I'm trying to figure a way to get it out to my summer trailer without knocking the top off the U-haul truck - or worse the piano mover's van. I need something to practice on out there, I lost a lot of strength last summer hiding out from the city ozone.  
Most of the best old pianos are snapped up by the piano mover that lists in craigslist.  He stows them in some flea market over in the rich part of town, tuned, at 200% markup.  He seems to always have  a Baldwin for $6-700, which if you move fast you can find in CL directly for $200, "Has to MOVE NOW the carpet installers are coming Thursday" etc.    
And quit looking for used pianos at a dealer with a line of new pianos.  They are not in the business of undercutting themselves.  The guys that don't have a line of new pianos are the restorers/undercutters.  There are three such guys near Nashville, TN alone.  Then there is the Steinway restorer in a little town north of Lexington.  he is a craigslist habuitue.  

[hfmadopter]

Thanks, hfmadopter, the reason I am looking into buying a new piano is that I have already been to a lot of different piano shops and looked at pretty much every second hand piano I could find in my area. It seems that the market has changed for the worse because of the financial crisis and the quality of second hand pianos is extremely low at the moment. When the quality is okay a 40-year old upright costs as much as a new one. I was originally going to just rent a piano for a year but it is not happening in the current climate.

Have you looked for used in the private market at all ? I wasn't thinking of dealer purchase on a used piano. The bargains are out in the private market, IMO.

If you buy a new one are you thinking of trading it in later on a grand ?

[berthaschiller]

Have you looked for used in the private market at all ? I wasn't thinking of dealer purchase on a used piano. The bargains are out in the private market, IMO.

If you buy a new one are you thinking of trading it in later on a grand ?

Yes, that's the idea. But trading it in for a grand would not really work through the same dealer because I am not thinking of buying a Yamaha grand next but something else. And yes, I have only very recently developed the idea to look at the private market and auctions - the auctions seem to present mostly very old pianos and I would be much more interested in a piano made after 2007 at the very least. Where do you look for private sellers? In England Ebay is mostly dominated by piano dealers and other websites such as Gumtree just don't have that many instruments.

[berthaschiller]

I don't know where you live but I see great pianos one step from the dump all the time.  I saw a 1920's Howard upright 48" at Goodwill last week, $75.  Horribly out of tune, really nothing else wrong I could find.  It even had a sort of modern tone instead of the rinky tink JoAnn Castle type of tone.  I'm trying to figure a way to get it out to my summer trailer without knocking the top off the U-haul truck - or worse the piano mover's van. I need something to practice on out there, I lost a lot of strength last summer hiding out from the city ozone.  
Most of the best old pianos are snapped up by the piano mover that lists in craigslist.  He stows them in some flea market over in the rich part of town, tuned, at 200% markup.  He seems to always have  a Baldwin for $6-700, which if you move fast you can find in CL directly for $200, "Has to MOVE NOW the carpet installers are coming Thursday" etc.    
And quit looking for used pianos at a dealer with a line of new pianos.  They are not in the business of undercutting themselves.  The guys that don't have a line of new pianos are the restorers/undercutters.  There are three such guys near Nashville, TN alone.  Then there is the Steinway restorer in a little town north of Lexington.  he is a craigslist habuitue.  

Thanks, will try to find some private ads.

[hfmadopter]

Yes, that's the idea. But trading it in for a grand would not really work through the same dealer because I am not thinking of buying a Yamaha grand next but something else. And yes, I have only very recently developed the idea to look at the private market and auctions - the auctions seem to present mostly very old pianos and I would be much more interested in a piano made after 2007 at the very least. Where do you look for private sellers? In England Ebay is mostly dominated by piano dealers and other websites such as Gumtree just don't have that many instruments.

Over here we have some local advertising called The Want Ad and of course the local Craigs List. Also over here (US incidentally) we have Rick Jones Piano who on many purchases has a 10 year warranty and full trade in if you upgrade to a more expensive piano. He has people from all over the country take him up on those offers. So mavbe pay a bit of a premium up front but you get it all back when you trade in for that Steinway Grand you always wanted for instance.

I'm not an Ebay fan. I know people find deals there and all but just not a fan.