How much is my piano worth?

If you are a private seller looking to sell your piano for the highest return, or have it valued for other reasons, here is our opinion on who to contact and in what order.

1. Insurance valuation

This one is the highest figure as you are looking to replace the piano like-for-like including delivery costs. You should expect the value to be higher than you paid initially due to inflation.

2. Clients of local piano teachers & tuners

Your local piano teachers and piano tuners will have a list of clients in their mind who should really be upgrading their piano. If they are willing to recommend your piano to their clients then it may help you achieve a fair price. You might consider offering a commission to the teacher/tuner (they may choose to accept or decline that offer) to make up for their time visiting your piano with their clients.

3. Friends, family, neighbours

Your friends, family, and neighbours know that they can trust you. They will believe you when you tell them how much you paid, where it was bought from, how long you’ve had it, when it was last tuned, etc. They are also not likely to give you a hard negotiation, they will either take it or leave it so make sure to price it sensibly to start with.

4. Private buyers on eBay or Facebook

Buyers on eBay and Facebook will treat you with suspicion. They will expect that you are selling the piano because it has suffered serious structural defect and you are trying to wash your hands of it. For this reason, they may not pay as much as the earlier buyers.

5. Piano shops

They have to make a profit, they have to have the piano tuned, repaired, cabinet polished, they have to pay to have the piano collected from you (£150+) and pay to have the piano taken to the new owner (another £150+), they have to pay for it to be tuned in the new owner’s house (£80?), and they have to take on the risk of providing a warranty (usually 5 year minimum). A piano shop likely already has too many pianos in stock, not enough cash, and long queue of work in their repair workshop. For all of those reasons, a piano shop will usually offer the least out of all the buyers. However, the 1 very big advantage is that they offer the fastest way to get the piano out of your house. Piano shops might make a cash offer for immediate payment or they might be able to make a higher offer if they can sell it on commission with payment due once the piano is sold.

I hope that helps sum up the reasons why different buyers will make different offers for the same piano.

If you have a Yamaha piano for sale we will be interested to make an offer so please send us the details using this form

Thanks
Mark & Julie Goodwin