How do I get rid of a baby grand piano

[NoRomeo]

My mother died and left an old Bechstein baby grand piano. The thing is it is not in the greatest of condition. The frame was cracked once and the actual casing is also damaged in places. It plays quite heavily and it can't quite be tuned to perfect pitch. I don't have room for it anymore (downsizing) and no-one in my family plays the piano. It's barely worth anything.

Local school doesn't want it as they don't have space. Put in on Ebay a while back and it didn't get any offers even being on for just £200.

DH won't let me Freecycle because he doesn't like strange people coming into the house.

Ideally I'd like it to be recycled but can't find anyone who recycles pianos.

I'm in Hertfordshire.

Find a piano restorer and offer it for nothing if collected. Or take an axe to it and use it for a nice warm fire this winter.

Local piano teacher might have some ideas?

Ebay or free cycle, they are all strangers, surely? Try FB local selling page, but probably FOC, as the buyer has the cost of removal plus tuning.

Ask local universities, music charities, theatre groups and choirs.

Your DH is being controlling, that sounds a bigger problem than the piano.

Oh! I would have taken it if I was living close to you. They are beautiful. Offer for free and it will shift. Good luck.

Don't worry - that's been dealt with. 😉

But also - given it is damaged and won't tune, what is the real value? Unfortunately some items do reach a point that they need to go, if no one wants it you need to come to terms with that.

Sorry for the loss of your mother

I think his thought process is that when you offer stuff for free you get loads of weird people. I get it - when we sold our last house I had loads of stuff on Freecycle and a couple of the people who turned up made me really feel like they were casing the joint.

According to all the cartoons I've seen, you drop it out of a top floor window.

This would be such fun but sadly it's currently located on the ground floor.

I am also struggling to see the difference between someone buying it on eBay and someone collecting it from Freecycle.

I think the only option is to list for free- I have a beautiful upright that I picked up for free, because they are so heavy- it would cost a lot of money to get it removed.

As it is damaged and can’t be fully tuned now it has probably reached the end of its life. You can pick up perfect uprights for virtually nothing now as most people use an electric piano that they can just tuck away when they are not using it.
i appreciate it is a link to your mum, but it sounds like it has become a little bit of a chain.

Its probably worthless as a piano, few people have space to house a baby grand and those who do are going to purchase one that can be tuned properly and played.

Even advertising it for £200 someone is still going to need to hire a van / removals people to move it and get it repaired. So very quickly the £200 baby grand becomes closer to £400.

Op it obviously has some sentemtal value to you. Could you get a cabinet maker to recycle it into something for you, like a table or drinks cabinet? Or use it to house a digital piano for your new place and you could learn to play it.

I say this as a pianist, and mother of a pianist. We have a digital piano in our not-very-big house. You’re very unlikely to get rid of it for love nor money in it’s current condition. Fully repaired and tuned, you’d still be unlikely.

Keep the stool and the music as your connection with your mum, but I don’t see a future for the piano if it can’t be tuned.

I forgot it would have a stool.
Get it made into a dressing table or desk.

I love the suggestion to have it remade into something else! I agree it's worthless as a piano and it would be hard even to give it away for free.

Take the 'innards' out (a bit of a job in itself!) and do something like this.

Whilst this is probably true for smaller more portable things that can easily be resold, it’s unlikely to be the case for a baby grand piano. It would take some serious logistical planning - only someone who is seriously interested would go to this effort.

Op another option if you just want it gone try your local auction house.
One near us will uplift and scrap if it doesn't sell. If it sells they take a share of the sale value.

I still think it will be a up-cycling project for someone rather than being a piano.
I am picturing some sort of beautifully polished hardwood.

We ended up dismantling our old piano and telling the parts to a skip. It was worthless and damaged and no one wanted it for free (far too heavy to move and not worth paying professionals to move it).

It wasn't hard. Google how to remove the strings. They're under a lot of tension so you have to remove them/ loosen them in the proper order so that the frame doesn't (potentially) implode.

Omg 😲 I'll take back my comments. I've rumbled on Ebay! The prices for refurbished ones are mental.
It might be worth getting in touch with piano restoration companies and see if they'll take it off your hands.

My ex MIL passed away and we tried and failed to give away her baby grand which was actually in very good condition, just needed tuning. It went with the house clearance in the end.
More recently I had to get rid of an upright piano in a community hall I manage. No one had used it for years. Our chair of trustees was insisting it was worth £100s but no one was remotely interested. I did eventually manage to give it away to the guy who came to do the PAT testing.

Make up a tragic back story and get it to The Repair Shop and let them work their magic.

Then sell it.

I’ve just googled your area and this popped up
Maybe Worth a conversation at least?

https://www.oaklandspianotuning.com

Have you shut him up inside the piano with a bunch of spoons - to demonstrate to any would-be takers that it 'does' indeed play in tune?!