I have an Austrian Stingl in another country that will be sold by a friend.
“Free”
Pianos are notoriously hard to sell, especially if you have a deadline. Good luck.
Some people look at it as a piece of furniture, so if the wood is in good shape mention that.
But pianists are looking for tone, action, tuning, and maintenance
Tone - how does it sound?
Action - do the keys and pedals respond ok?
Tuning - is it in tune. Does it keep it’s tuning a reasonable time (6-9 months)
Maintenance - when did you last have a professional: tune it, adjust the action, check the felt on the hammers, etc. Was Maintenance done regularly?
Well, you could start by saying “I will move it for you”
I’ve been trying to buy a used piano for five years. I found dozens of playable pianos offered locally for free.
I don’t have a truck, or enough big people at my disposal to move one by hand.
There is no one within 200 miles that you can hire to move a piano.
I highly doubt that. It’s conceivable that you may not be able to find professionals but one request on Craigslist should be able to find any number of truck equipped talented amateurs wiling to do the job for a slightly less than exorbitant fee.
I’d think pretty much any moving company could do it.
Otherwise, I’d call a piano store. They can likely either tell you who they use or for a fee have their guys do it.
Also, look to see if there are any ‘safe movers’ (as in people that move large, heavy safes). They’ll have the equipment and ability to do it.
Yeah, back before radio, it was common for people to have am upright piano in their house to provide their own music. Now there ar lots more old uprights around than people who want one. A few years back I was in a Goodwill store and saw an upright fro 20 bucks. I remarked to the person I was there with that I wished I had a place to put it (I’ve always wished I could play) and she told me not to buy it because she knew someone trying to give one away.
Something catchy that spends at least a few weeks in the top 40 rotation of a popular radio music station.
Also moving pianos is harder than moving sofas or whatever. It’s not the weight or shape, it’s the not screwing up the close tolerances and moving parts.
And the weight and the shape.
mmm
Seriously, pianos of any non-grand variety are harder to sell than a basket of asbestos. Pretty much every moving and storage company has a back room full of abandoned spinets, and the Goodwill shop trying to get rid of one for twenty bucks has my sympathies.
I inherited an upright a couple of years ago, and I ended up giving it away. Whether it’s still being played, or if it went to Burning Man and got turned to rubble, I have no idea.
Drop it down a mineshaft. They all play the same note when they hit the bottom; A♭m
cough chord (or possibly notes would work, too.) cough
There was an upright piano in my family, a treasured family heirloom. A treasured family heirloom that gathered dust and took up space. When Mom cleaned out her house, she wanted to throw it away, but the cousins and siblings threw a fit. No one wanted it, of course (see the part about gathering dust and taking up space), but no one wanted to throw it away, either.
My SIL wound up taking it, and it sat in her house, taking up space and collecting dust, for a decade before she threw it out.
Nope, I started with the moving companies, and it was the piano store that told me I would have to look outside the state to find someone who would move a used piano. They will only deliver one that they sell.
Also, from above, I struck out with Craigslist and Front Porch Forum as well.
I guess movers kept getting blamed when people picked out a crappy piano and tried to blame the movers for damaging it.
My wife sold her’s through a music store that accepted consignments. The store picked it up and placed it in their inventory. It sold about a year later and my wife got a check in the mail for the agreed upon amount. Win-win for all.
How long ago was that? Because I’ve heard the same thing as others; that pianos today end up junked most of the time.
When my nephew was learning music, my brother bought him an electronic keyboard on which to learn piano. Much more compact and movable that a real piano. (Although I like the idea of a grand piano in the living room. Perhaps the appeal is the idea of a living room large enough to fit a grand piano.)
Forty-some years ago, my folks had a hand-me-down piano that they decided to get rid of. No one wanted it, so they wheeled it into the back yard and had a piano-smashing event. Sadly, I’d left home by then and wasn’t able to participate.
Find a movie company that want to film a piano falling from a great height and being smashed. :eek:
If it has a metal soundboard then you might get something for that at a scrapyard.
It kills me to say this, as I had one that I dearly loved as a kid. But that’s the market as it exists.