How do I sell my piano?

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

I have a piano which was my Mums before I had it. So she bought it (second hand) about 40 years ago.

I've now had it for 17 years. Both my children learnt to play but they are adults now, one has moved out and the other one plays maybe every few months. I've kept it as I think that maybe I'll start learning again (got to Grade 5 as a child but then gave up). However, I don't think that's ever going to happen so I want to sell it and get the space back.

The problem I have is I have no idea how much its worth and where to sell it. I contacted my local piano shop but they said they weren't buying 2nd hand pianos at the moment.

If it's worth less than a few hundred pounds I'm happy to give it away to a family where a child is keen to learn. However, if its worth more than £500 then I'd rather sell it, obviously.

Any ideas as to how to get it valued?

Second hand pianos are so expensive to transport, that they’re really difficult to sell. Especially one that old. I couldn’t even give my mum’s old piano away. 😰

Pianos are really really hard to sell.

No one wants them these days, modern houses don't have space for them, they are a pain in the arse to move, noisy for the neighbours in semi/terraced houses and digital pianos are really very very good now.

You can Google the make and model (model often found on the back, inside the lid, or by taking off the board between the keys and the pedals). See what 2nd hand retailers are selling them for. But honestly unless it's a very very nice one, chances are you'll struggle to even give it away.

We couldn’t give ours away.

thank you. I did think it might be quite hard to sell, so I feel OK to give it away but didn't realise that would be hard as well!

It's a Cremona Overstrung model. I'll have a look for the serial number.

@MardyBoudoir

We couldn’t give ours away.

So what did you do with it? I can't exactly sling it in the boot of the car and take it to the tip! Did you manage to get rid of it or is it still with you?

We couldn’t give ours away. Had it on every local free group for weeks.
We ended up having to break it up to take to the tip.
We felt awful as it was a lovely piece but it had to go.

oh no! That's so sad.
If mines not worth much (and I suspect it isn't) I'd happily give mine to a family who could use it. But I didn't think I'd have to break it up.

You could contact local piano teachers to ask if they have any pupils wanting to buy one?

@GiantKitten

You could contact local piano teachers to ask if they have any pupils wanting to buy one?

That's a good idea.

Try schools near you?

Or old peoples homes. Or these organisations that put pianos in public places, if you’re in a city.

Trying to get rid of ours but it's just not happening. The local piano shops don't even bother to respond.

From experience, they're an absolute swine to move and a lot of houses just don't have the space for them.

I'd second the trying schools etc.

I had an old one, the piano tuner warned me it was getting more difficult to tune because of the age and wear.
I stuck it on eBay and sold it for a tenner. The buyer worked for a removal company so collected it in a works van.

Ask a good quality piano teacher to value it. Ask local music schools if they want it or not.

I recently had to get rid of my upright piano which was a very high quality instrument, tuned every year, wonderful tone. NOBODY was buying pianos. I spoke to various dealers and eventually donated it for free. Moving pianos is an expensive specialist job.

Try contacting your local music teaching centre.

Hi everyone
thanks for all the suggestions.

I contacted a piano dealer who basically said that the market was saturated with pianos like mine so they wouldn't be interested, and suggested I put it on gumtree.

I then asked a couple of local piano teachers if they knew any pupils who were looking for a piano. I also asked the local primary school if they wanted it. No one was interested.

So I stuck it on FB. marketplace for free, and had quite a lot of interest. Someone came and looked at it and is picking it up tomorrow. She and her husband have recently moved to this country for work and she had to leave her piano behind. So it's going to be used and played again, which is great.

Glad you managed to get rid of it.

My DP is a piano tuner, and he regularly gets calls to tune pianos which the owners think must be worth a lot because they’re old and in some instances maintained. As a rule he says the older the pianos are, the less they’re worth, obviously there are exceptions but for the most part.

He also gets calls from people saying they’ve just got this piano from freecycle and could he tune it. In all his years as a tuner he’s only ever seen one which was even worth tuning, the rest he says that the person likely paid more to transport and have it tuned than it was worth.

Although there still is a much bigger market than we thought for piano tuners, so someone is playing uprights rather than digitals.