Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Can this Ebay listing be for real?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1860s-Steinway-Grand-Piano/223180804659

This purports to be an offer of an 1865 Steinway for $2,500 (starting bid). The photo checks out for a Large Concert Grand of that year, except the serial number should be stamped in the plate, not the pinblock. The details of the plate, including the 17-note bass section, are the same as the overhead view in the 1881 catalog. The decal is nearly correct -- there should be an underscore between "Patent" and "Grand".

However, I can't believe the price. It is also unlikely that such a museum piece would be in somebody's living room in Rockville, Maryland. Has anybody encountered this before as a scam?

The seller has only positive feedbacks, but only from sellers, not buyers.

Parts of Rockville border on Potomac and Bethesda and are rather posh.

Seller says only local pickup. Presumably then, you are local. Why not ask to see it then?

As you know, condition eventually determines price, except, of course, for those totally unaware. I can't imagine that this would be anything more than a core candidate for a possible rebuild. But would there by any market for a 85-key rebuilt Steinway?

For all we know the seller may have already found out that this piano has little value and is just hoping to get rid of it.

Regards,

It has 88 keys. That's what shows it's a Large instead of Parlor Grand. The photos don't make it look 8 feet 4 inches long. That size may be one reason the general public is not bidding on it. I think the rebuilders here will say even as a carcass it's worth the money.
I'm not in the area, but I can hire a piano tech there to evaluate it. If nobody can say this is a scam, I'll do that and prepare to pony up the moving cost. I kinda like big old Steinways.
And it did occur to me that maybe this instrument was bought by a Washington politician who knew Abe Lincoln and has been moved around the locality ever since.

I do not understand why you think this is particularly unusual. Steinways are all over, and there is very little demand for these old ones, so the asking price seems reasonable. I would not buy it if I wanted a working piano for this price, but who knows? Asking prices and selling prices are not the same.

The pictures show 85 keys.

I agree with BDB. It's a real old banger, and there's nothing unusual about finding an S&S in that condition.

There are always loads in that state at the London piano auction - and they fetch next to nothing, if they're even sold at all. Or they're bought dirt cheap and sent to Poland for a rebuild and then sold for exorbitant amounts - yet usually sound horrific, in my opinion.

It's 85 notes.

Check again. It only goes up to A7, so only 85 keys; an 88-key piano goes up to C.

Regards,

Fooled me. I thought short keyboards left off A0-B0. So you couldn't play the Brahms Third Sonata on this one.
If instruments this old show up at auctions, I suppose this isn't a bargain. Our local tech bought a 1914 Steinway B with "shredded" soundboard for $6,000; a rebuilder in Northern Indiana starts his prices at $20,000 for carcass instruments not rebuilt. So I thought getting one for $4,000, counting in the move, was pretty good.
Thanks for the advice.

It's an 85 note Style 1 Steinway. It has an exposed pinblock. Serial numbers from that era were stamped into the wood. It has the old style rocker action, and if it sells for more than $3000, I'd be surprised. No one has bid on it as of yet.