Are you looking for its value as a musical instrument, or how much some uniformed piano shopper might be willing to pay? Its musical value most likely is near zero. How much will someone pay? It mostly depends on the case and keytops and whether all the keys "function". If it looks reasonably acceptable, some moron might be willing to waste $1K on it. You might want to ask the seller if they have a conscience..... This sounds to me like the piano that I jut ran across (actually, several recently.....) - someone donated it to a small church - now the church has the expense of paying to have it moved to the dump. From 25 cents flat to 12 cents flat? Did you only charge them half your normal pitch raising fee? Rust on strings increases the chance some will break while bringing the piano up to A-440, it does not dictate tuning the piano flat (well, unless a whole bunch of them start breaking!). IMHO, hell or high water, bring the darn thing up to A-440 and be done with it! And then take it to the dump. ;-) Terry Farrell On Mar 19, 2010, at 2:51 AM, Rob McCall wrote: > Greetings list, > > I went to a tuning today with a new client who had a 1925 Wurlitzer, > 4'-10" Grand. I couldn't find the model number anywhere. Her kids > don't play and she wants to sell it. I told her I'd help her find an > appropriate value. > > Being in the beginnings of my second year on the job, I don't do > many appraisals. Is there a standard method(s) of determining > value? How does one go about finding the value of a piano such as > this? Aside from looking on eBay, Craigslist, etc... Also, does > anyone have any experience with this model and an idea of what the > range in value may be for this piano? > > It tuned nicely, although I left it about 12 cents flat due to the > condition of the strings (appeared to be in the rusting stage!) and > the fact that it hasn't been tuned in at least 4-5 years. It was > about 25-30 cents flat to begin with so I brought it up halfway to > see how it does. > > The case is in very good shape, although the insides need a good > cleaning, which I have scheduled for next week. The dowels (outer > ones) that hold the screws which hold the lyre in place are loose > and need to be fixed. I've attached a photo of that plus an overall > shot. > > She doesn't want to spend any extra money fixing it up or I would've > recommended a restringing, the lyre work, and the deep cleaning, > plus some minor key finishing work and key leveling. She wants the > tuning, the lyre work and the cleaning to make it salable. > > Any input would be appreciated. Thanks... > > Regards, > > Rob McCall > > McCall Piano Service, LLC > www.mccallpiano.com > Murrieta, CA > 951-698-1875 > > > <IMG_0760.jpg><IMG_0761.jpg> > >
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