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Steinway model O - $10,000 (Fresh Pond)
condition:
good
make / manufacturer:
Steinway
model name / number:
O
size / dimensions:
5'10" x 4'9"
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built in 1900
unrestored, but well cared for and eminently playable.
I and my friends have been playing it happily for 25 years.
It holds a tuning remarkably well and has a strong soundboard, producing a strong voice with an authoritative bass.
We play it with the lid down in group sessions so that it doesn't drown out everybody else. Quite a beast.
I bought it for $12,000 25 years ago, considering that a good price and quality after about five years of searching for a piano to replace my old upright. The Miller upright was fine in its way, but after getting this old Steinway that supposedly "needed" restoration, I suddenly found myself leaping over technical barriers that I had considered permanent, thanks to the miraculous Steinway action. You may already know about this. I didn't understand what all the hooplah was about, I just thought it was a really good piano. That turns out to be a massive understatement.
Why am I selling it? I want a better piano. Restoration would solve that problem, but it would cost maybe $30,000, require losing use of the piano for a considerable time, and require craning it out and back into my second floor music room. It seems more sensible to replace it. Sigh.
You can look up the costs of all this stuff and see what you think.
One thing that never occurs to most people regarding a grand piano: The cost of the real estate it occupies vastly exceeds the cost of the instrument. It requires a sizable room, with space for other musicians and listeners, while mine for example minimally occupies about 9'x7' just for the instrument. You can do the math based on the square footage of your place and how much you pay per s.f. or could rent it out for. My actual music room is much larger than that, about 12'x19'.
My math today is 7x9=63x$35/s.f./mo.= $220 per month. My cost for the piano and its maintenance over 25 years is under $2 per month. The piano footprint alone costs about a hundred times as much as the piano. Weird, right?
If you have the space and the desire you don't care. There is nothing like a baby grand.
My impression is that most baby grands are bought by people who need to fill large rooms with objects signaling their social status. Hence the large market for shiny flawless baby grands that mostly sit neglected in impressive houses.
This old piano is for a relatively impecunious person **who wants to play a nicer piano** than they have managed so far, and has the room to house it. I want to find a good home for it. Make me an offer!