Larry: Perhaps a few questions first. What is your relationship to the owner of the store? Did he request this appraisal from you? Did he pay you for your appraisal? If he paid for the appraisal, then your opinion is owned by him, bought and paid for; your only recourse would be to inform the the lady who bought the piano that you provided an appraisal for the seller, and that the information is his to give out or not. If she persisted, perhaps offering to pay you again for an opinion, you would be involved in a flagrant conflict of interest. The store owner needs to be informed that the opinion he bought stands and that you will not misrepresent yourself to anyone else for his sake; that's fraudulent. So the store owner is trying to involve you in either conflict of interest or fraud. Now if there was no payment involved, and the opinion was verbal, conversational and uncontracted, the question really resolves down to who you represent; in this case, you are representing yourself and your own conscience, and your reputation, until one or the other buys your service. I of course would be wary of the seller's beseeching any contractual arrangement in the future. This is clearly a case of caveat emptor. Paul Revenko-Jones
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