John, Doing appraisals is time consuming...An easy hour at the piano, an hour on-line and on the phone, and an hour writing up a report.... Come to think of it, each time I do one, I think...I need to charge about double my servicing rate... "... she was surprised it was not worth a lot more." This is a common response...the owner thinks it is worth 2,3, or four times what they actually sell for. As you and I know, It is 'worth' what someone is willing to pay for it...not what we say it is worth, so we need to be cautious. But we are expected to put a value on something...so, this may help... Determine exactly why they want an appraisal... The common reasons are: 1) Resale value..in other words, I want to sell it, and I need to know its value 2) Insurance value...For protecting aganist water / fire damage etc 3) Estate value...for inheritance reason: possible for the proceeds to be distributed after selling, or, frequently, to be assigned a value, to be included in a will along with the rest of the estate, for distribution to next of kin... 4) Donation value, for tax reasons... Each one of these has it's own unique set of standards....and values. In any case... #1) Give a range......''Pianos in this condition, being sold by a private individuals, generally sell from $$$$ to $$$$$. #2) Check out the creditable resources...like Larry Fines book... #3) Try to get some 'comps'...comparable items that have sold recently, like the real estate folks do...Not so easy with an old piano in un-restored condition.......But, if you can find some, your protected...you have hard evidence. 4) Get aquainted with some re-sellers who can quote you some hard numbers...for example, I have a friend at the local Steinway dealership, who I can quote ..they are 'creditable' sources to quote. Dan Dallas, Tx On Aug 18, 2008, at 1:31 PM, John Minor wrote: > I had an elderly private customer with an 1869 8' 5" Steinway with > rosewood case and serpentine legs, etc., in mediocre condition and not > very playable. I appraised it as a piano(around 10K) rather than an > "antique" and she was surprised it was not worth a lot more. I > attempted to explain to her on the phone that pianos need to be event > older than that to have any "antique" value, or be a hard-to-find > instrument. > > Has anyone had this happen? How do you explain to the public that old > pianos are just that...old pianos? > > John Minor > University of Illinois > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2525 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080818/759165fc/attachment.bin
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