Dear Bill, Currently dealers of pianos around the U.S. are getting the screws put to them. A soft economy has driven the average selling price way down for the first half of this year. One piece of fallout of this is that to survive a slow time you usually lower your prices and margins. People from every segment in the piano industry, manufacturers, retailers, and service personel, as well as people in the periphery business' that surround the sales of a piano, are loosing their jobs and security due the "lean and mean" philosophy needed to survive bad times. Glutting the market now with low-balled Baldwins is the last thing our industry needs. It will certainly give piano technicians who service Baldwins alot of work (and grief), but ultimately will undo any reasonable pricing structure created by the local market. Bill, you said you'd like to see alot of the bottom-of-the-barrel-Baldwins go to Cuba where they could do some good. I agree... we should send them all to Cuba! Sincerely, Eric Frankson
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