Since my grand piano search is coming to a standstill and I have only a few weeks left before the next year begins (I'm an accompanist and teacher) I am considering buying a cheaper piano from kijiji/craigslist and then reselling it for about the same price if/when I find my ideal piano. I have been using an old Yamaha Clavinova for the past two years, and it just doesn't cut it for me or for my students who will now be coming to my studio.

Thoughts?

What's your kijiji/craiglist budget? I'm assuming you are still looking for a low cost grand piano... is it $5K, $10K, $15K? Let's say you could find an older Yamaha C3 from 1970's/1980's that is in good working order (good soundboard crown and sustain), but whose hammers are as hard as rocks (metallic sound) and you put $5K to $6K into it to replace the OEM flanges, knuckles, shanks and hammers and had the instrument voiced and tone-regulated. Might be a pretty decent instrument for the money! This is exactly what I am doing with my second instrument (which happens to be a 1980 Yam C3); replacing the OEM parts mentioned above with WNG and Abel Natural Felt Hammers. But that would still take a skilled piano technican / rebuilder at least a month to pull this off for you. Another of my new "entry-level" favorites are the Weber W150 to W185 [5' to 6'1"] line of Grand Pianos, some come with WNG actions. I've seen sale prices for these in the $10K to $17K range. Owned by Samsung and manufactured by Young Chang in China, these pianos were designed by Del Fandrich (former Chief Design Engineer at Baldwin and also designer of Charles Walther W175 [5'9"] and W190 [6'4"] grands) and they have a pretty nice sound for the money. If you are down in the $5K range, I'm probably not qualified to recommend anything but a good used Yamaha U3 upright.

Might work, if you have a 2nd hand then they will not devaluate so quick.

I would visit a number of big 2nd hand dealers. Maybe you already did while searching for your grand.

You could also consider renting a piano.

I say go for it, if you find something you like on kijiji/craiglist. It seems to me there is always a better piano to be had, regardless of how good or bad our current piano is...

So, with that in mind, nothing is permanent when it comes to pianos.

I will say though, that pianos are a heck of lot easier to buy than to sell. That might be something to keep in mind. If priced accordingly, they eventually sell, depending on the piano.

Who knows... that kijiji/craiglist piano might just be a keeper.

Good luck!

Rick

Wouldn't going through a dealer instead of privately make me lose money though?

Not sure what my budget would be. I guess I'd be looking for a piano that would be easier to resell. Maybe a $10k Yamaha or Kawai as opposed to a $5k Samick? A 30kYamaha c3 2012 is available here that's been selling since early June. That's gettin to a lot of money again and then maybe reselling the Estonia if I end up not liking it would be better.

>Wouldn't going through a dealer instead of privately make me lose money though?

Dont think so, you get what you pay for. Also your time is also money.

Pianos are not easy to resell. You should expect to loose some money on it. Also you will have standard maintenance costs (tuning, voicing, etc).