[pianotech] help with Baldwin L appraisal value

William Truitt surfdog at metrocast.net
Tue Feb 2 15:32:05 MST 2010


NO, we hadn't noticed and were enjoying the peace and quiet.  Now it's like
a radio whose dial was on 10 getting plugged back into the wall and suddenly
going on!!!

 

It says ON BEHALF OF Terry Farrell.

 

Who's on behalfing?  Does your manservant write for you while you sip your
mint juleps and nurse your shark bites?  Where do you get that kind of
income tunin' pie-annas?  You tuning for the Columbian Cartel?

 

Wally Tirebiter

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Terry Farrell
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 12:12 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] help with Baldwin L appraisal value

 

You're welcome John. Not eaten by a shark, but thrashed a bit by my bandsaw
- 30-some-odd stitches fixed that just fine. No, the email address that I
had associated with Pianotech List delivery fizzled out somehow and I tried
and tried to get my subscription fixed, but couldn't figure out how to do
it. I got my monthly reminder a couple days ago and tried it again and it
worked somehow. All's well that ends well I guess.

 

I was beginning to wonder if ANYONE had noticed that I might have fallen off
a cliff (oops, no cliffs in Florida) - well then, eaten by a shark or
something. Thanks for noticing!!! 

 

I'm here for the foreseeable future to harass and annoy whomever I can!  ;-)
And hopefully to learn much of what this List has to offer.

 

Terry Farrell

 

 

On Feb 2, 2010, at 9:27 AM, John Formsma wrote:





Thanks for this real-world example, Terry. And nice to see you back on the
list! I was wondering if you'd let yourself be eaten by a shark. :-)

 

--

JF

On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 5:57 AM, Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>
wrote:

Hi John! I might be able to give you a little help. This past spring I sold
my personal piano, a 1992 Boston GP-178 (5' 10") grand. I think the Baldwin
L is 6' 4"? My Boston was in absolute showroom condition - well, better than
showroom because it was finely regulated, etc. and I sold it for $9K. I was
happy with the sale price because of the poor sales market then. I know they
were happy with the price because they got a good deal on a fabulous piano.
When I went to tune it a few weeks after the sale, the pastor walked up to
me and said (he didn't know I was the one who sold it to them) "why did they
sell it - it's like new?"

With that in mind, your piano is a bit larger, but a few years older, and
clearly from your description of condition, it's way down the road from what
mine was. I'd say your estimate of a realistic market value is something
pretty close to the mark - or maybe even a little less.

Hope this helps.

Terry Farrell




On Feb 1, 2010, at 11:02 PM, John Formsma wrote:

List,

I'm writing up a market value appraisal for a 1985 satin ebony Baldwin L
grand. Would appreciate any input on the following.

It's in reasonably good mechanical condition. No obvious problems, other
than what we've come to expect as features on Baldwin grands.

There are some finish issues, which I think might cost up to $800 to repair
to look fairly nice. Small chips and some cracking developing on the top of
the stretcher.

1 mm of crown at the longest rib; none elsewhere. Positive bearing.

Bridges OK, some minor checking in places. Sound is typical Baldwin, with
sustain of 7 seconds at C6, 3-4 seconds at C7,

Tuning pins tight, as expected. Most steel strings are coated lightly with
rust, more at the bass end, less at the treble. All string coils are lightly
rusted, except in the very treble section. This is the kind of rust that
looks bad, but wouldn't necessarily affect tone or cause string breakage. It
looks like it was in a damp environment for a while (comes from Florida
originally).

The action is in good condition -- not excessive wear. Would benefit from
minor reconditioning (cleaning, polishing key pins, hammer reshaping) and
regulation.

According to Larry Fine's depreciation schedule and a 2008-2009 price of a
new L at $40K, an "Average" Baldwin L would be valued roughly at $13,600.
However, with the rust and finish issues, my "gut" tells me a more realistic
market value would be somewhere between $7-8.5K.

Input?

 

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