Laura,
A few days ago, a client had a piano appraised by Leo Holder. Appraisal by a Certified Piano Appraiser was required by a moving company to determine how much extra insurance the client needs to purchase for the piano to be covered while being transported. Holder did this in conjunction with the technician that had serviced this piano until recently. The client reports that Holder was good to work with.
For what it's worth, this client already had another local technician do an appraisal, before she found out that a Certified Appraiser was required. This UNcertified appraisal of her 1928 Steinway model B that had been rebuilt 26 years ago came in at $60k, an amount that, by all other reckonings, is way out of line. That technician asked questions such as what the client paid for the piano in the first place. I was baffled by the relevance of such a question, since it could have been $1, or $100k. Personally, I don't see what bearing that would have on the piano's value today.
The Certified Appraisal for this piano came in at $43k. A major piano retailer pegged the value at $25k, and said that if it were optimized (rebuild the action again, new keys and back action, neither of which the piano received in its first rebuild), the value would be in the low $40ks. An unofficial appraisal by a Certified Steinway Appraiser (I didn't know there was such a thing!) is its value as rebuilding stock, since none of the components used in the rebuild were Genuine Steinway Parts. (It now has a Gravagne soundboard, Bolduc pin block, and Renner action parts. The work was done by Richard Davenport, RPT.)
The musical value of this piano is high. It has been used and thoroughly enjoyed by a professional pianist with a DMA in Keyboard Collaborative Arts from the University of Southern California. She is sorry to have to part with it, but is relocating and downsizing. (Taking its place will be a high-end upright, the search for which I have mentioned in another thread.)
So, for all of the time and money spent on appraisal, we have confidently determined that the monetary value of this instrument is somewhere between a few thousand dollars and the mid five figures.
Sheesh!
Alan
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Alan Eder, RPT
Herb Alpert School of Music
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, CA
661.904.6483
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-28-2021 19:06
From: Willem Blees
Subject: Steinway value
Laura.
May I suggest you ask Leo Holder to do an official appraisal of this piano. He has an ad in the classified section of the Journal. He will work with you, and give instructions what you need to do. The customer will need to pay for this.
Wim
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Willem "Wim" Blees, RPT
Mililani, HI 96789
Original Message:
Sent: 05-28-2021 18:33
From: Laura Wright
Subject: Steinway value
Hello all,
I have a customer with a Steinway B (ca. 1890) that he needs a value for insurance purposes; not a claim, just a valuation for the policy. It was restrung about 40 years ago, and had action work (new hammers, original wippens) about 20 years ago. It also has plastic keytops from a long time ago. It tunes up nicely and is playing ok. I have absolutely no idea what a piano like this is worth. I was hoping maybe some of you who work on a lot of Steinways, rebuilding and such, might have some idea of a value figure.
Also, I don't do official appraisals, but is it okay just to give him a professional opinion of value for insurance replacement value?
He also has an English Bentside spinet built in 1978 (Thomas Hitchcock replica) and a French double manual harpsichord (Taskin 1769 replica) built in 1977. He wants values for these as well, but I have absolutely no experience with these types of instruments.
Thanks!
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Laura Wright, RPT
Ivory Keys Piano Service
Durango CO
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