Frequently Asked Questions: Is my piano worth anything?

This is probably the most asked query from walk-ins and callers alike. As always the answer is: it depends. Though, almost by the nature of the question itself, it’s almost always asked in edge cases. People who’ve got a regularly tuned glossy black instrument made in the last 20 years seldom ask this question. So lets walk through two incredibly common scenarios.

Scenario 1: The Spinet in the Basement

Downstairs in the family home there sits a spinet. A spinet is the compact home piano that sits around 3 feet tall. It doesn’t get played very much (if at all). I’d say it’s sat down there relatively unnoticed for 15 years. The case is in good shape and the temperature in the basement has been pretty stable the whole time. I don’t think its ever been tuned though. So here we ask, is my piano worth anything? Unfortunately the answer is no.

How is this even possible? Well there are a few factors working against it. First off you can almost disqualify the instrument on location alone. Managing the instrument up a flight of stairs (or through the sliding glass door into the backyard) is cumbersome and costly. There is no easy way to move a piano, there are only skilled laborers who can manage it easily enough.

Secondly, this type of instrument floods the market. Your story is multiplied tenfold across the country. We have inquiries constantly where people are practically begging us to take their instrument from them. They’ve completely abandoned the idea of selling it in search of someone who will simply remove it from their custody at no cost to themselves. It’s actually become worse than worthless; its illiquid. The instrument has value but its almost impossible to get it out.

Lastly, “I don’t think its ever been tuned.” A piano under absolutely perfect conditions can expect to lose about 5% of its pitch over the course of a calendar year. Now an instrument that is 5% off is quite a simple tune indeed (as simple as tuning a piano can be.) A single tuning will put you right back to where your instrument is designed to be played at. But multiply this decay year over year and your instrument is so far off pitch that even should you choose to get it tuned it won’t keep because the instrument has become acclimated to a much lower tension. It now requires a pitch raise where the tuner overshoots the desired tuning, lets the instrument settle, and then comes back at a later date to set the final pitch. This doesn’t apply only to spinets but spinets tend to suffer from this the most.

I could go on but at this point it feels like an assault on the type of instrument that got me into piano technology in the first place. If it weren’t for the accessibility of these home instruments I never would have gotten to the point now where I know enough to disparage them. This whole section says nothing about the memories and sentimental attachment these have brought to my family as well as countless others. But then again people don’t come in to ask if this instrument could meaningful to them and their families; they ask what it’s worth and time and time again I give them the bad news.

Scenario 2: An American Antique Upright

The case is a bit beaten up and it’s dustier than sin. It sits, upright, nearly 5 feet tall in the garage waiting for the day it finally gets fixed up. It could’ve been in the family for one hundred years, built sometime in the late 1800s or the early 1900s. The keys are yellowed and at least one mouse (brood) has made it it’s home. What you have is the skeleton of an instrument. A buried piece of American history. A reminder that, at one point, Americans used to manufacture instruments: Good instruments. Not flimsy throw-it-out-with-the-vegetables goods. It’s something that could have been a permeant heirloom if only someone had had the foresight to treat it as such.

In its current state, is my piano worth anything? As is?

No.

But maybe I can find someone who wants to fix it up and they could flip it!

If you spend $5,000 on restoring most any antique you would then have an instrument, a gorgeous instrument mind you, worth about $5,000. —

These instruments are not investment vehicles. They weren’t built to be moved around and traded for a quick buck. They were built to be played, to be enjoyed, to be maintained. Pianos of this size have soundboards comparable to grands and thus they can sustain a powerful bass. A perfectly regulated, fully restored American instrument is as much an heirloom as a grandfather’s gold wedding band or a vintage car: it is something worthy of passing down generation after generation. But until someone takes the time, energy and thought to make it into something beautiful, it’s destined to sit in the garage waiting for its turn.

In Conclusion

I am obviously sentimental about pianos. I think there’s a lot of to latch on to if you play an instrument with history. I know not every instrument is going to be worthy of restoration, and many more that are will never receive it. It’s just always a bit sad when people ask is it worth anything because I know in that moment that its probably sat in neglect for many years. If you loved it dearly, and it brought you many irreplaceable memories, you’re far less likely to part with it but I am very sentimental. Sometimes we are burdened with pianos and most of the instruments we haul away I do not lament. I take comfort in knowing that we offer options. If the best thing for the instrument is moving it, we’ll move it. If it’s restoration, we’ll restore it. And if ultimately it’s destined to be hauled away as junk we will take the usable parts available to other pianos and discard the rest.

–Dakota Baker, Store Manager // Sharp’s Piano Co.