buying a second hand piano -john broadwood

[jpreston]

I am looking to buy a second hand upright for a small budget of under £2000. I have found a John Broadwood 1931 piano (127320), height 136cm and width 157cm which is unrestored but at the moment in good working order. I don't want to have to spend thousands in a year's time, although I fully accept that I might need to spend some money on basic restoration of strings and hammers in time. The piano is on sale for £1299. Is this a good deal? Thanks

[Colin Nicholson]

Broadwood are a reputable name, and the price sounds reasonable - but I would still get the piano checked out by a qualified piano tuner/technician - you are entitled to do that, rather like an AA inspection on a car. It sounds like the piano is in a shop? by the fact it ends '99' with the price. Also check out warranty - should be about 12 months.

Any old piano will deteriorate, and if unrestored, get a tuner to check out the tightness of the tuning pins - very important. I doubt if strings will need replacing (and this is not a basic restoration!!) - but the internal mechanism (called the 'action') may need some attention, hence reflecting in the somewhat reduced price.

For that price though, the piano should be up to concert pitch A440, and tuned/ regulated & playing nicely.

[vernon]

For that price the piano should not need any further work done to it

[jpreston]

Thank you both - very helpful.

[MarkGoodwinPianos]

For that price I'd save up another grand and get a proper piano

IN MY OPINION, £1299 for an unrestored 1930s Broadwood is a ripoff. The dealer has probably only paid about £50-£200 for it, then dusted it a bit, maybe filled in the odd crack/dent, then tuned it, then maybe regulated it and then waited for someone to come along and buy it without their technician's advice.

Seriously.

£1299

For a 1930s Broadwood upright

That's not right in my opinion

[Colin Nicholson]

I also think that piano prices also depend on location, and whether its a shop that just solely sells piano - nothing else. The shop I worked in recently (sacked it in October last year), JUST sold pianos, and the odd bit of sheet music. The shop was also situated about 5 miles from the city centre - so as you can imagine, piano prices are high.

I sometimes use the term.... "low turn-over = high profit" --- is that true?

This may be the case for the Broadwood piano?

Some shops pay horrendous rental bills, so they often have to 'mark up' the price considerably, even by 100%. Sometimes pianos are worth 'peanuts' - and I even saw a Crane & Son sell - directly under a lady's nose for £995 !!!!!!

Funny world selling pianos! Unless we all know the exact premises, their location, and whether its a just a local guy selling pianos - we'll never know.

Perhaps if new members were to give other details such as:-
1. Town/City where piano shop is located.
2. Do they sell other instruments (woodwind/ brass/ strings/ percussion etc.)
3. How large is the store & how many staff work there?
4. Do they have a workshop, and does the shop carry out restorations?
5. What are warranty/ payment options?

Mmm - then we might get an insight into their turn-over!!

[MarkGoodwinPianos]

Nice post Colin

As the customer never gets to find out the margin, s/he never knows if s/he is getting good value or not. I suspect if most customers who buy from high street shops could see the margin that is typically put on a used acoustic piano, they would arrive with cash in hand and haggle HARD.

From looking at some of the pianos that end up in High St music shop windows I'd say that some margins are often around the 400-500% mark.

A piano that I might scrap or sell within the trade for £50 will be proudly displayed in some shop windows for £1200 after a quick tune & polish. That would be a 2000% margin not taking into account collection costs or any tweaking and cabinet polishing costs.

Have they earned the right to charge such margins by developing a high st presence who attract the sort of customers who don't shop around, or are such margins unethical?

In business terms, they've done very well and have capitalised on their high street position.
In terms of providing honest value to musicians I'd say there is room for debate.