Tips for Navigating a Private Sale
- Hannah Beckett
- 6 days ago
- 12 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
By Hannah Beckett
If you haven’t already learned the hard way, the private sale marketplace is treacherous territory. Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, eBay, and other online platforms where you can find used items for sale are full of enticingly cheap, yet incredibly expensive, mistakes. That being said, it is possible to find a suitable piano online if you know what to look for. If you have just begun your search, this article will provide the necessary information to safely and successfully shop for a piano in a private-sale marketplace.
Before you even start looking at those delightful little “Piano In Need of a Good Home” listings, let’s set some realistic expectations. If you’re looking on Facebook Marketplace for a piano, you’re likely working with a low-to-no budget for your first piano. There’s nothing wrong with limited budgets, but you must understand that you usually get what you pay for. In the piano world, price is synonymous with lifespan and quality. If you want a cheap piano, you will get a cheap piano. Here are a few realities that you need to accept when you’re shopping for an inexpensive piano:
The Piano Will be at the End of Its Lifespan
If you’re brand new to piano shopping, you should know that pianos have finite lifespans. If this is a new concept, pause here and give Time To Say Goodbye: Why We Need to Move on From Pianos of the Past a quick read. Now that you know pianos don’t last forever, the question to keep in mind as you shop is, “How long will this piano last?” If you were hoping to find the one piano you’ll have for your whole life, go ahead and adjust your expectations. Most of the pianos listed online are already past their expiration date, so at best, this piano should be considered a “starter” piano until you can afford to buy something younger.
No Piano is Truly “Free”
Factors in the piano acquisition process that are frequently overlooked include an evaluation by a qualified piano technician (more on this in the next section), the cost of moving, and the cost of servicing the piano after delivery. All of these expenses add up quickly! If you truly cannot afford to pay several hundred dollars for these services, get a keyboard. There are many budget-friendly keyboards available that are a far more effective way to begin your piano journey. They are easy to move and require no maintenance, and unlike many old pianos, they will be in tune with a functional set of keys. Keyboard technology continues to advance, and many models offer learning features that are particularly beneficial for students. Start with a keyboard and save up money for a piano that you can properly maintain.
Piano Shopping is Not a Treasure Hunt
The piano world is an unlikely place to find hidden treasure. Most tales of the monetary value of pianos, especially “antique” or “rare” pianos, are woefully inflated and completely unrealistic. If you enjoy a good treasure hunt, grab a metal detector and head to the beach.
Step 1: Narrow Your Search
There is no shortage of used pianos available online. In fact, there are so many that, to an uneducated shopper, it can be hard to know where to begin. Contrary to popular belief, the glut of pianos that are for sale is not indicative of a dying industry - they are simply the generation of pianos that have now aged out of serviceability. To give some context, I’ll use data gleaned over the past two years from the Piano Buyer “Sell My Piano” service. In the span of roughly two years, over 4,000 used pianos have been submitted for sale from individuals across the continental U.S. Of those 4,000, only 30% are eligible for resale. The remaining 70% are pianos that have outlived their lifespan and have no remaining functional use as an instrument. Here are some ways to identify the 30% of healthy pianos within private sale search results:
Eliminate Certain Brands and Models
Thankfully, the current era of piano manufacturing makes brand elimination fairly straightforward. As you read in the previous article, many American brands went out of business in the 1970s and 1980s. If the piano you’re interested in is one of these brands, it is already at least forty to fifty years old and likely beyond repair. Cross these pianos off the list of possibilities. If you aren’t sure about a brand name, you can find a list of common American brands to avoid in the article, Advice About Used Pianos for Beginning Students.
As a general rule, if you’re looking for a starter piano, either for yourself or your child who is beginning to take lessons, avoid spinets and ornate, large uprights. Most piano owners are unsure or unaware that their piano may be a spinet, but they are easy to identify: If the music desk (the part on the front of the piano where you put your music book) is taller than the piano, it is a spinet. For more information about spinets and why you should avoid them, refer to the article referenced above.
While large, ornate uprights are visually beautiful, they are a terrible option for beginners. Most of these were produced in the early 1900s by companies that have been out of business for a long time. Regardless of what the listing may tell you, this doesn’t make them “rare,” “vintage,” “antique,” or a noble salvage mission.
The best brands to look for are Yamaha, Kawai, and the occasional Baldwin. Yamaha and Kawai make high-quality, long-lasting pianos that make wonderful starter pianos, even at forty years old. Baldwin is a company that outlived most other American brands no longer in production. It is still possible to find some older Baldwins that are serviceable; however, this depends on the model and age of the Baldwin. A Baldwin Acrosonic (a spinet from the 1950s-1980s) is a poor choice, but a Baldwin institutional model from the late 80s could still serve as a starter instrument for a few years.
Eliminate pianos that have been stored in a garage, basement, or warehouse. Pianos that are exposed to unregulated environments for even a short time become breeding grounds for mold, mildew, bugs, and worse.
Avoid Scams
Unfortunately, the piano world is not immune to scammers. At the time of this article’s publication, there are several variations of the same scam involving a free piano (almost always a Yamaha grand piano) that had once belonged to a loved one who is now deceased, typically a husband, wife, father, or mother who “barely played it.” The primary indicator of this scam is that the piano is always “with the movers,” and to obtain it, you must arrange for pickup with them.
To avoid scams, keep in mind these basic principles while shopping online:
1: It is extremely unlikely that someone with an unwanted Yamaha grand piano would turn to Facebook Marketplace or email random strangers to offload it for free. These instruments are very expensive, and the majority of people who actually give away a Yamaha will either already know someone to give it to or will donate it as a way to obtain a significant tax write-off. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is.
2: Movers move pianos. They do not hold them, keep them, or leave them in the back of their truck for extended periods of time. If the piano is not in the possession of the person giving it away, then it is likely in a legitimate, climate-controlled storage facility, or with a friend or family member who has space to house the piano until it is sold. If this is the situation, then communication should involve the owner of the piano, you, and the third party in an easy-to-follow text or email chain. If the owner wants you to communicate independently with an unnamed third party for pickup, it’s a scam.
3: Typically, scammers just copy and paste images from the internet to make their listings or emails seem more legitimate. If a photo is involved, do a quick Google Image search to see if the photo belongs to a business or appears elsewhere online. If the photo appears on a business’s website, it is a scam.
If you’re in a situation that seems suspicious, call a piano technician and ask for some advice. Technicians with websites are frequently targeted by scammers, so they are typically familiar enough with scamming tactics to help you identify a legitimate sale situation.
If this is your first piano, you will likely need to connect with a technician who fulfills your professional and personal preferences, so head to the Piano Buyer Technician Database to search for one in your area.
Another problematic scenario is a “warehouse” sale. Unfortunately, pianos attract many unqualified opportunists who think flipping pianos is an easy way to make money. Most of the time, these individuals pick up free or cheap pianos, dust off the case, perhaps have it tuned by a technician, and then try to sell it for a higher price. Most of the time, these listings will show pianos situated among many other pianos in some kind of warehouse environment, or you’ll see several listings with different pianos on similar backgrounds. While this is not technically a scam, the people running these operations are often untruthful, inexperienced, or too uneducated to provide accurate information about the piano. If you find a promising piano within these circumstances, call a piano technician to verify the information based on their technical expertise and their local knowledge.
Search Local Only
It is probably obvious by now, but you should never buy a piano sight-unseen by either yourself or a trusted piano technician. In general, you should always buy locally, or at least as geographically close as is reasonable. Buying a piano that is several states away will incur very expensive moving and maintenance fees. For instance, a piano moved from Florida to New England will experience a difficult transition from the hot humidity of the South to cooler, drier Northern weather. Over the course of the first year, this can result in increased tuning and repair fees as the piano adjusts to its new home - if it can adjust at all. If you’re willing to pay for such an expensive endeavor, make the wiser choice of putting that money towards a piano available at your local dealership that has already been acclimatized to your local environment.
Step 2: Evaluate The Possibilities
Once you have narrowed the search and identified a few possibilities, it’s time to have some evaluations performed by a technician. Pianos are incredibly complex instruments with thousands of working parts that you cannot see unless you remove the case parts. To an untrained eye, a piano may look like it is in “perfect condition” because the cosmetics of the case parts are aesthetic and clean. In fact, most online piano listings claim at least one of the following statements about the piano’s condition:
Pristine condition
Meticulously maintained
Just needs a tuning
All keys work
Sounds great
Beloved family heirloom
Plays well
Piano owners are often unreliable narrators, and their unprofessional opinion of their piano should hold no weight in your decision-making process. Piano technicians will gladly regale you with stories about pianos in “pristine condition” that secretly housed water or fire damage, or termites or mouse nests.
Myth: “The piano is in great shape because it has not been played in several years.”
Fact: An instrument made of organic materials will decay over time, whether or not it receives significant use.
Most of the time, the owners of these instruments have not had them consistently serviced, and wrongfully assume that the piano is in perfect condition because it has experienced minimal use, and the piano’s exterior is unblemished. This attitude is comparable to glancing at a used car and saying it is in good condition because it isn’t dinged or scratched. No one buys a used car without first popping the hood. Pianos are exactly the same - you won’t know what you’re getting into until a technician has opened it up and done a thorough inspection of the parts you cannot see or access. Do yourself a favor and don’t wait until after you’ve moved the piano into your home to call a technician; you’ll be setting yourself up for a bad day when a technician takes one look inside the piano and tells you that there is nothing to be done.
Left: What a piano player sees. Right: What a piano technician sees.
Myth: “It’s in great shape, it just needs a tuning!”
Fact: It never needs “just a tuning.” Pianos require much more service than “just” tuning, and most used pianos are far behind on their maintenance schedule. Continuing with the car metaphor, tuning is the equivalent of getting an oil change or refilling a gas tank – it does not take into consideration the brakes, condition of the tires, fluids, or internal parts. Only a qualified piano technician can determine the specific maintenance required for your piano to meet your needs.
Further Reading: Caring for Your Piano
Expect to pay for this service and factor the cost into your budget. It is not something you should skip just to save money. Again, if you cannot afford an evaluation, you should use a keyboard until you have a budget that includes the evaluation. If you don’t want to pay for several evaluations, ask your technician for their opinion on your options, and prioritize the one they recommend the most.
Step 3: Finalize the Transaction
Once you have found your piano, the final steps are to finalize payment and schedule delivery. Here are a few guidelines to help you navigate this slightly sticky process:
Use a Professional Piano Mover
Even if you’re moving a small upright piano, it is always best to use a professional piano mover. Don’t call your friends, Joe and Bob, even if they swear they can do it and will accept pizza as payment. It’s also a bad idea to allow the owner to move it. Pianos are treacherous, and even if the move looks straightforward, it never is. While most moving services will offer piano moving, their expertise is not always trustworthy. Failure to properly move a piano might result in the piano getting dropped, a friend or individual suffering an injury, or damage to your home. You can read about the piano moving process in our article, Moving the Family Piano. Your piano technician is likely to have a recommendation for a trusted mover. You can also search the Piano Buyer Movers Database for available piano movers in your area. It will likely cost a few hundred dollars, but could save you thousands in hospital bills or insurance claims.
If this is your first piano move, you will likely need to connect with a professional mover, so head to the Piano Buyer Movers Database to search for one in your area.
When finalizing the purchase of the piano, ensure that both parties agree on the piano mover of choice to avoid potential liability issues.
Exchange of Funds
Exchanging payment can be tricky as the seller is unlikely to accept payment after delivery, and you may be hesitant to pay before delivery. If this is the case, plan the move for a day when you can be present and pay for the piano at the time it is removed from the owner’s home. A deposit can also help foster goodwill during the transactional process.
A wonderful resource for used pianos is PianoMart.com. These listings are typically less prone to scams, and they offer an escrow service if you are uneasy about issuing payment. You can also narrow your search by your zip code to search exclusively for brands you are interested in.
Alternatives to Consider
If all of this sounds a bit overwhelming and too much of a hassle, there are alternatives to shopping for pianos on the private sale marketplace. Here are a few options to consider:
Ask a Technician for Help
Have I said this enough times yet? Piano technicians are wonderful resources for piano shoppers. Piano technicians have vast networks among their colleagues and their clients, and they often serve as intermediaries between buyers and sellers. If you’re looking for an inexpensive, used piano, they will often be able to connect you directly to a seller. You may have to pay a fee for the service, but it is usually well worth it to shop through a known network of professionals, rather than search on your own.
Go to a Dealership
While dealerships are typically stocked with new pianos, they will also sell used pianos. You may have to pay a little bit more than what you would in a private-sale marketplace, but a dealership may already have had the piano repaired and tuned, so although the cost up-front may be higher, you may actually end up saving money in maintenance by going this route. Additionally, some dealerships offer shop warranties, free or discounted moving services, and payment plans.
Get a Keyboard
I’ll say it one last time: a keyboard is a great option if your budget is so limited that you cannot pay for piano moving and maintenance. If you know you’d like a piano, aim to have a minimum of $2,000 to $4,000 saved up before shopping. You may be able to find something for less, but a budget of that size leaves room for variables.
Now, before you send me an angry email about how great your free piano is, or how perfectly your old piano plays, or how much you treasure your grandmother’s piano, note that everyone is entitled to their opinion of their piano. However, the information published on Piano Buyer is not based on subjective opinions from individuals; it is based on factual information and experience contributed by working professionals within the piano industry, including piano dealers, manufacturers, technicians, and teachers.
Hannah Beckett is Piano Buyer's Publisher and Editor, the Executive Director of the Professional Piano Technicians Network, and a piano technician in the DMV area. She's a lifelong piano lover and enjoys participating in all parts of the piano industry. She can be reached at hannah@pianobuyer.com.