Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Misaligned 2010 Yamaha C3X serial number

Grey market doesn’t necessarily mean the model isn’t available in the US. It means a set of serial numbered pianos of the model was not intended for US consumption. Yamaha claims this is because they make pianos for specific climates. Whether you buy into this or not is fine. The main ramifications is that Yamaha won’t warranty grey market pianos. That doesn’t seem relevant in this case, as the piano isn’t anywhere near the warranty period.

This is probably off topic, but Yamaha not providing warranty coverage for grey market pianos is a non-issue not only for this particular piano, but for all preowned Yamaha pianos. This is because: (1) Yamaha warranty is only good for the original purchaser who bought the piano from an authorized Yamaha dealer, (2) Authorized Yamaha dealers in the US will not sell "new" grey market Yamahas, so all grey market pianos are preowned and the purchaser will not be the original owner, and (3) All warranty service needs to go through the authorized Yamaha dealer. If someone bought a Yamaha piano in Asia and brought it to the US, no US dealers will honor the piano's warranty. However, Yamaha is well-known for providing excellent warranty service, and under certain circumstances warranty service has been provided to purchasers of preowned Yamahas. One such example was given in Larry Fine's Piano Buyer.

One thing I was wondering is when the Yamaha piano serial number lookup website says "The entered serial number XXXXXXX was not made for the US market", does this also apply to Canada? If it does, then they should change "US market" to "North American market". Perhaps some of our Canadian friends who own Yamaha pianos bought new in Canada can enter the serial numbers of their pianos to see what the website says. If it doesn't, then is there a similar website that Canadians can use to determine if their Yamahas are grey market pianos?

Eric

The whole concept of a non-transferable warranty on a product that costs tens of thousands of dollars, or more, is whacky to me. I just can’t imagine that being the case with any other consumer product.

The site I posted works in Canada and is the same for the U.S.

Again look for a service card holder inside the piano. You will find them on both grand and uprights. Also there are other differences you can look for too but this one is the easiest if you see the plastic sleeve.

No less unfair than a non-transferable airline ticket.

Wha???

How are those two things even remotely similar?

Besides, I don’t think it’s unfair. I think it’s bad business, and just one of many reasons the acoustic piano industry is in the sad state it’s in.

I appreciate this PSA because in other listings of used Yamahas <10 years in age that I've seen, the language gives the impression that the warranty is transferable (e.g., "STILL UNDER WARRANTY!"). I'll give benefit of doubt to the folks who list that they don't know about the non-transferable limitation.

Hope other experts weigh in on the grey v Canadian market q.

Thank you! I really appreciate this information and the sourcing! I didn't even know that this was a C3XA and not a C3X until you've pointed it out. You're totally right. In my mind I thought I was paying $25k for a previously $60k+ piano that is relatively new.

But when I looked up older PianoWorld posts in the forum I discovered that a poster in 2015 said that the C3XA was retailing new for $29k in Los Angeles. So def not a steal. LOL. Given the way tariffs and inflation are going I hope I won't be eating my words next year.

Thank you for validating me being anal about this. I consider myself pretty laid back but this also hurts my eyes. I'm more confident now that the piano's authentic since everyone's weighed in but shocked that for something that takes months to make it's finished off w/ sloppy typesetting. And that last step I presume is much easier than all the previous steps in the workflow of building a piano.

That's really good to know. A lot of the ads of younger 2nd-hand pianos give the impression that it's transferable.

Thank you I appreciate learning of another venue in my search. I'm so glad I've posted because I realize how naive/frog in a well I've been.

Ah. Thank you for this helpful advice. It does give peace of mind knowing that counterfeiting's hard to do. That goofy serial does bother me. I know I'm likely missing the forest for the trees here.

Oh wow. Thank you for sharing this detail, I'll now know to look for it. As I've said to another poster, def feel like a frog in a well here.

LOL, so sad but so true. We seem to reward con artists in suits in our society.

The piano looks very clean and the non-transferable warranty is mute because the piano is well beyond its warranty period. I agree with Triple Time, The price is not great, just average.

I feel ya, and I hope he and folks like him get their comeuppance.

Unrelated to piano now: It sours the optimist in me when I see that unscrupulous businesses can survive (and even thrive) in our economy. Examples that come to mind for myself as a recent consumer in the home repair and childcare markets really opened my eyes to how you can create a new LLC and start new google and yelp business profiles and get a few *maybe* legitimate happy reviews online and voila, you're as good as new.

Hello Pianoloveratl,

Welcome to the forums. I hope you will consider visiting us while you are searching, but I will add a little to this conversation. I was at NAMM when the C3XA was debuted. It was billed as a somewhat premium C3, but it's probably better to see it as the sneak preview of the C3x. When new, it retailed for about 15% more than the C3 and low and behold, 2 years later when the Cx series landed, it came with a price increase of ~15%.

On a personal note, I prefer the aesthetic of the C3 or C3x over the C3XA. To each his own, but I wonder how that style was received by the general public. I don't represent new acoustic Yamaha pianos, so I don't get that feedback. I don't know how being a short lived variation among the long Conservatory Series history of Yamaha will affect retail/resale, but I would judge the piano by its specific condition.

Now here's a little more history. Few people predicted the global recession caused by the housing crash in late 2008 to last so long. Manufacturer's tried to hold on, eat price increases because sales were down, but eventually something had to give. The release of the Cx-series allowed Yamaha to make large price adjustment that had been overdue.

If you've found posts of new, crazy-low prices on C3XA back when new, keep in mind what the economy was like then. Piano sales volumes have still not recovered in the US to anywhere near what they were pre-Great Recession. Many stores closed and those that survived like us had to really tighten our belts and adapt to the market. We adjust to the "new normal" each time we are thrown for a loop.

The other fun thing you and others will have to start getting used to is that tariffs affect used prices, too. Like with many economic moves, there is some lag between new prices and used prices, but as pre-tariff inventory sells through, replacement comes at a higher cost, imported or otherwise. On any individual piano sale, there is plenty of variance, but on the whole, the value of new is directly related to the cost of new. A post about a price even 6 months ago is old news.

Good luck in your search!