Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum I found why piano price is so expensive in New Zealand.

I was thinking to buy Kawai ES920 digital piano but there was no shop had it. I contacted about 10 music shops to import it but 9 of them refused and 1 shop accepted. While I was waiting for them to quote delivery fee, I got reply them that they are informed from Kawai AUS that they are not allowed to export to NZ as there is already exclusive Kawai dealer in NZ.

There are only two mucic shop branch and they are Yamaha and Kawai exclusive dealer and their price almost $4,000 more expensive than Australia. Even though Kawai and Yamaha Australia brach office deal with two countries , always NZ price is much more expensive.

Long time ago, I was thinking to import Feurich grand from Australia as NZ price is too expensive, I asked the music shop dealer if he can ship to NZ but he forwarded (or reported) my email to the Furich dealer in NZ without telling me.
Very rude!! and Feurich dealer told why I contacted Australian dealer.

As New Zealand is small country therefore market size is very small, music shop make exclusive contract with piano makers and put lot of profit on thier music instrument.

They put 'Let us challenge price match!' on thier website but customer cannot find any other shops which sells at cheaper price as they are exclusive dealer.

But I definately understand their expensively priced pianos because the piano goes along with lifetime once purchased and market size is so small. They should've put lots of profit to survive

It's the price you pay for living in a small country. It's the same here for some things, although piano prices aren't too bad.

There’s advantages and disadvantages to living in a small country and a big country. Tony3304 - is there a model of Yamaha new or used that you enjoy? Yamaha makes a huge selection of models that are far less bright than earlier models. If your heart is set for a Kawai, unfortunately it will cost you more in New Zealand and you pretty much have to pay more. Could you find a used Kawai from a private seller in Australia and get it shipped to NZ? That way you could avoid a Australian dealer “ratting you out to the NZ dealer”. Just a thought....

It's not just small countries that have the problem, in big countries like the US there are rural areas that are so far from a piano dealer some people end up making a weekend trip out of visiting a metro area, or even take a flight to get somewhere they can try the piano brands they like. The situation seems to be headed in the wrong direction, I only hear about shops closing and don't hear of new ones opening. Even the big chains are having problems, Guitar Center just declared Chapter 11 debt restructuring and is closing a large number of their stores to try to get solvent.

Pricing is country specific based on market conditions. They sell Mercedes in just about every country but they are not sold for the same amount in each country.

Casio DP's are quite well priced in NZ, as are Korg. Kawai, Yamaha are much more expensive than in the US. Its around $1000USD for a Yamaha P125 here.