piano valuation

[jobeth54]

we have a piano and am looking for someone to come and value it, and give us advice on how to sell it.

[Nunhead S]

As someone who sold a piano successfully on here I used ebay as a guide to price. I could not get a local dealer to value or buy my piano even though he sold it to me. He advised me to look on e bay and sell it there. Of course you may have an expensive piano,mine was a small average learn how to play one that cost a few hundred.

[*Bob*]

This thread is bringing back happy memories.

Avoid places that 'do piano valuations' (nice living to be made from turning up and charging you ?75 to tell you your piano is worth ?150, which so many are..) or people who offer to value and buy any pianos.

Best advice is to get a trustworthy piano tuner in who knows his onions, ask him to tune it and play it (if you can't) and ask him his opinion. The make will matter, but the condition of how it plays is just as important. A good make in crap condition might not be worth any more than a bad make in good condition.. you can easily spend ?1-?2k on restoring a piano. It'll need tuning anyway if you're going to sell it and most tuners have seen enough pianos and are honest enough to tell you what you've got, without any agenda.

You can do some digging yourself on the internet to see if the make is decent or not (online resources such as http://www.robertspianos.com/common-piano-makes-in-the-uk), but obvs that won't help with the condition, which is everything.

Most of the time if you can get a couple hundred quid and someone takes the bloody thing away you've probably done ok!

[Nunhead S]

Agree totally Bob. As you say it has to be tuned after it's moved any way so any buyer is thinking of this cost and the cost of transporting it too.