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Patriots:

Now is the time to come to the aid of your country. Our economy needs stimulus. Now you can make a difference.

Go to your local piano emporium and buy a new piano. Not tomorrow...now! And take money out of savings to pay for it.

A chicken in every pot, a piano in every foyer.

Do it for your family. Do it for your country.

Thats a funny posting.
Surely you mean buy an American made piano.
Anyone buying a non-American made piano is merely shipping money out of the country

Hey. I have a grand piano, a console organ and a full-sized theatre organ with four monstrous external speakers all in a one-bedroom off-campus APARTMENT. I don't think anyone in these parts know even knows what a foyer is. I certainly don't have one.

Come to think of it, I once sold a piano to a lady who put it in her "foyer." Her neighbor's hubby was the CEO of "X" mega corporation and her hubby was a successful brain surgeon. So they each had to have what the other had.

When I called the neighbor and suggested she come and buy a piano as well because her neighbor bought one for her foyer, she scoffed into the phone and said "foyer? that's not a foyer! It's a hallway!"

To which I replied "well you have a giant bay window facing the street that frames a ficus tree. Don't you think a large grand would look better?"

"I don't play."

"You don't have to. Come in and let me show you some of our pianos that can play music for days on end via remote control. Why, you can even have singers and orchestras accompany the piano through your home entertainment system. I have an appointment open this thursday at 2 or this saturday at 9:30 a.m. Which time works for you?"

A few weeks later there was very large Japanese grand in ebony polish with a full-blown player system looking out at the street.

Never hurts to call the neighbors to let them know there's a new piano in the neighborhood.

Now is the time NOT to buy a piano or anything you do not absolutely need. In these uncertain economic time, now is the time for you to worry about your bank account, not the piano salesman's. As a piano consumer, or consumer of any kind, you never should worry about the welfare of the salesman. The consumer and salesman have opposite interests. Only a salesman would tell you otherwise. That would be clear on a piano consumer oriented website.

I agree! Buy yourself a piano and save yourself a bunch of money by staying at home and enjoying your new instrument instead of going out and spending money on things that wont be worth anything in a few years.

If you ask me, every home should have a piano

A house without a piano is no home.

Steve, I'm damn tempted! If I had done that a year ago I'd have the piano I want now instead of devalued investments.

Steve:

There's no way your Estonia has 'devalued', quite the opposite actually.

Just stay tuned a bit....

Norbert

A few weeks ago during a recital at our store I noticed a man standing in front of a Steinway model M. He stood there with his arm folded for a few minutes just looking at the piano.

I walked up to greet him and asked if their were any questions I could answer for him.

He told me that about 5 years ago he was extremely close to purchasing a brand new model M for his young, talented daughter but decided against it and purchase a used piano from a private seller.

He said that not only had the piano's cost increased by nearly $15,000 over that period but he could have purchase more than one Steinway with the money he had lost in investments over the past year.

He was clearly upset and regretted not purchasing a Steinway when he had the chance.

Ever heard of the paradox of thrift? If not, google it. Banks have been infused with billions of dollars. Are they hoarding it or sitting on it? Heck no. They are buying distressed assets right and left. They aren't loaning it out like they were supposed to, but they are taking advantage of the biggest buyer's market in half a century. You should too.

Why? Money in the bank is like a pile of firewood. It does little or nothing unless you do something with it. You can stare at it and worry about it and watch it rot, or use it (metaphorically speaking) to fire up a furnace and start an industry.

The piano salesman doesn't want you to worry about him. He exists to help you solve your problem. If you walked into my store, I'd probably sit you down and teach you a bit about what money is and is not before I tried to sell you a piano. If you worry about money, you don't understand it. When you convert your money to assets that work for you, the peace of mind that comes means that you've made an informed decision.

Can I take that a step further? You need to strike the word "worry" from your vocabulary. Worry is, simply, "fear of the unknown." If you don't understand money, then money owns you. You are frozen and you pick up the herd mentality. You hoard it when everyone else is hoarding it and it loses value faster.

In a herd mentality, never do what the herd does. During the bubble, the herd was motivated by greed. Now, during the panic, the herd is motivated by fear -- advocating just the advice you are dispensing. When everyone hoards enough cash, the value of cash will plummet. A deer caught in headlights usually gets run over.

I agree. My interest would be to help you make an informed decision based on knowledge of the facts. Your interest would be solely in price, perpetuating the illusion that your problem gets solved at the moment you pay for something. However, the transaction is only the beginning. It's the return that makes you wealthy. Wealth can't always be measured in dollar terms. Sometimes the return comes in inspiration, which would make you an entrepreneur.

Yep. Can't agree more. You are all about price paid. If you buy a cord of firewood but don't know how to make fire, then you better not pay too much for it.

Even though I am no longer in sales, I always felt that a piano was an investment in peace of mind. Peace of mind (freedom from worry) is in really short supply these days. Buying a big wooden three-legged box that requires no electricity to operate seems like a wise investment to me because each time I use it it forces me to be creative. The notes I hit or the interpretation I express through my fingers is the definitive act of problem solving.

I can also help you with your golf game.

I think I'd help the economy more if I had my old upright completely restored.

Buying a foreign-made piano helps our trading partners and thus helps the US manufacturers that export to those countries. But the multiplier effect of your purchase of a foreign-made piano also helps the US economy more directly also - the dealer you buy from can pay his bills, and pay his sales staff (rather than going out of business and laying off everyone), and the sales staff can go out and make purchases, and the dealer's distributor can likewise pay his bills, etc. - the net effect of a multitude of such purchases (not just pianos) is to break the downward spiral.

Going out and making a big-ticket purchase right now would be a very patriotic thing to do. I purchased a new piano six weeks ago. I think I am going to get a new flat-screen TV soon - in part to help the economy - not just of the US, but the world.

Brad

I also plan on buying an HDTV in the next few days.

Sooner or later, hoarding cash will fall out of fashion. The trick is to buy the big-ticket items now while everyone is desperate.

I agree with much of what has been said above.

There's a fine line between over-extending yourself and hoarding increasingly worthless cash in droves.

Some of my most recent customers seem to appreciate the value of something like a piano that stays and is neither going up or down.

Especially if they make some of the smarter choices out there right now....

Norbert

Many years ago when I was coming through a divorce that destroyed my finances, the first thing I did was buy a new Steinway M. I'm sure that Nancy Orman would have shouted "NO!"

It was a wonderful piano and gave me hope and joy for the future. I couldn't afford much else for a while. I was driving a car that cost me $175. But I had a piano that I enjoyed so much that even in the middle of the night, I would sometimes walk by and play a single note - and savored the tone. I enjoyed knowing that piano was sitting there waiting for me.

Never postpone joy!

Well, I don't know about that.
In Norway, the saying goes like this:

" Hver gledesstund du har på jord, betales må med sorg"
(Every happy moment here on earth, must be paid for with sorrow)

I would probably think that, too - if I lived in Norway!

Congress is about to pass a nearly $800B stimulus package. Let's think of a proposal to get some of that money that would help the domestic piano industry. A new piano in every school!!!!

That's worth its own thread . . . so . . .