Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Is it true? 2002 Weber=Junk?

It's been awhile... Our basement is almost finished. We're moving the tv stuff to the basement to make room for the grand piano we're going to get- someday. I live in a small town and went to look at a 2002 Weber 5 foot grand today. It was made in 2002. I list my card, but I think it was a wg-150. It seemed like a nice piano. It sounded pretty good. I came home and called my trusty tech. He told me it's a young chang piano and therefore junk. He said $8k was way too much for it anyway. Is it true? I didn't actually have the money for it anyway. My husband's grandfather said he'd help us out with the piano, but not sure what dollar figure he's thinking of for "helping us out". The hailun still looks pretty good even though the music store owner guys tell me they aren't sold. (I don't like the junk they're selling in their stores either.) It would have been nice to find a used piano in town, though.

Junk? Probably not far from the truth. But what disturbs me is that someone is trying to sell it for $8,000. That's outrageous. You can get a brand new Young Chang Y150 for less than that, and although it is still a Young Chang, it is a new, redesigned instrument with impressive musical qualities, and a good tech would be able to accentuate those qualities.

Pianos can be sold as "new" as long as it was not sold.... even if it is from the previous millenium. We've seen this discussion before here.

Back in 2002, the Young Chang/Weber models with three digits in the serial numbers (i.e., 150 vs. 50) were built in Young Chang's Chinese factory as opposed to its Korean factory. The quality of the Chinese built instruments was not as good.

$8K for a Chinese-built ten year old 4'11" baby grand is definitely outrageous. I remember seeing a NEW WG150 being sold here in Phoenix back then for $5K.

As for your Tech's opinion, Young Changs (in general) are not "junk" - particularly their higher end models. But you must do your homework when buying one - which includes knowing WHEN and WHERE it was built, and specifically what the model number implies (since there were different levels of quality and features - even in the Korean produced instruments).

And yes - the new Young Changs as designed by Del Fandrich are very nice instruments in their price point.

This thread makes me think of the old saying "one woman/man's trash/junk is another woman/man's treasure".

I honestly do not think a 2002 model Young Chang/Weber is junk... far from it. I do think $8K is wayyyyyyyyy to high of a price for a 5 footer.

I also think that a lot of members here have the benefit of owning/playing very high quality instruments and tend to turn their noses up at anything less. Not everyone has $30K or even $10K to spend on a piano.

The bottom line is, if you like it and can afford it, that is what prompts the decision... just my .02.

Rick

Yeah, had this discussion with my son the other day when he asked me what I thought of something, and I told him that without knowing the price, it's impossible to form an opinion. If a piano cost $100 and everything is working properly, I'm likely to give it very high praise no matter how it sounds.

Thanks. This piano is not new- just not very used. The seller states that she bought the piano new for $11k. I don't have an abundance of funds, so I'll let this one pass. Just out of curiosity, what do you estimate this piano, used in excellent condition should be priced at?