Hi, all,
I’m pretty sure that every institution will vary by state laws and even private schools have some limitations. I used trade-ins where possible, but as was mentioned, dealers were reluctant and wouldn’t offer much.
In California, as part of the CSU system, I eventually discovered a little-know technique that I used many times. Any piano that music didn’t want could be transferred to Property for disposal, and as was also mentioned, money went into the General Fund and Music got nothing. Then I discovered that I was allowed to trade items to the general public under a situation called a “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) for a “Valueless Trade”. I ended up using this many times and it worked very well.
I was able, over the years, to trade nearly worthless old uprights for new artist benches, for example. One PTG member bought 4 old Everetts, refinished them and cleaned up the insides, and added them to his rental business. I was also able to trade a 1955 Baldwin R for a couple of expensive new sets of hammers, shanks and flanges, repetitions, etc. I once traded a 1963 Baldwin R for a new Yamaha upright. (The technician purchased the upright and traded me for the grand.)
In California, it involved paperwork, advertising the offered trade situation in a couple of specific newspapers (that was back in the day) and so on. The only practical way I could do that was to put out the word among local technicians to see who wanted what, see if we could agree on a general price point, and then find an item that I needed, to have offered for the trade. Then I could start the formal paperwork. Much was behind the scenes, and the eventual deal had to be offered to the public. Never had any takers from the newspaper ads.
It meant more office time, but thel music department received something useful in return. You may want to check out those phrases “Valueless Trade” and “Memo of Understanding” to see if anyone at your school or state recognizes the concept.
Kathy
Original Message------
I am in a similar situation - of our 95 pianos, nearly 3/4ths of our 54 grands are over 50 years old, and only 11 pianos are younger than 20 years old (and only 3 of those are grands). Luckily the repair/maintenance budget has been enough that we've at least been able to replace hammers/action parts on a fairly reasonable schedule, but there are several pianos that are definitely getting too tired to work with, barring rebuilds. Luckily the current director is fully on my side regarding the need to have a replacement plan in place, but we're fully aware how hard it will be to allocate the money for that when it's not been in the regular budget for quite a while.
It seems the most cost-effective solution is to trade in old pianos to help offset the costs of new pianos. I was given a budget of $35k for 3 new practice room grands, and without trading in pianos that would be simply impossible, even with institutional discounts. And even with the trade ins, it will still be a stretch to get close to our budget.
------------------------------
Adam Schulte-Bukowinski, RPT
Piano Technician
Glenn Korff School of Music
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
------------------------------