Piano Prices

Does anyone know what a good price would be for a Yamaha 5'3' C1? I live in the Philadelphia area. Thanks in advance.

$10,000 new or less

I posted in a thread about this last week so I'll spare everyone the test - but I would have said $4000 give or take a few hundred.

Martin: Do you live in Philly? Have you shopped for pianos recently in Philly? Have you shopped for pianos recently anywhere in the US?

$10k is unrealistic and a prime example of the bad information that spreads around the net (esp. USENET). I suspect that a C1 costs a dealer pretty damn close to 9k wholesale, and they aren't going to send it out at $1k gross.

Go to Cunningham Piano and talk to Rich before you buy anything.

OK them, $11,775 - but any more and you're getting ripped!

See, I've bumped you up 2k already.....

I recently got a quote from a central Jersey Yamaha dealer for C1 at $11,200. They are not that far away from Philly if you can't find a good price around there.

Tim

Thanks, everyone, for your great replies It seems like there's quite a markup on some of these models. From what I understand, the C series is a 'real' Yamaha (as opposed to their GH series). The local piano dealer is selling a 5'3' GH1 for around 13K, so I assume that their wholesale price is about half of that, does this sound correct? Also does the type of finish affect the price? Thanks again.

Jon Abrams

PS, Tim, what is the name of that dealer in central Jersey?

the price depends upon the model.. The lower priced series could be under 14K and the upper end quality just under 20K

The only thing that saved you was the GBP -> USD exchange rate (which is quite excellent right now)

Ugh, a GH1 is extremely expensive for 13K. Over here the price of a C1 at wholesale is about £6,000 ($9k).The GH-1 will be less.

Dealers happily shift them over here for about a 20-30% upmarking depending where you go, except this Scottish guy at a company in the city where I live, who is the most evil piano dealer I've ever met.

I was in there trying out grands (a C1 as it happens), and he just started playing some crappy show music on the piano a few feet a way, and then had the audacity to come up and ask me 'could you really afford that piano?' - which was marked at £11,000 (which is about $15-16k) - almost 50% up, *and* over the recommended retail price.

... at which point I got up and left in a hurry, ignoring his futile attempts to apologise.

Motto, you have to do some research yourself before you buy - what a piano dealer tells you is the wholesale price may very well not be. Ignore the spiel they give you about this being the 'best one they have seen', or the fact they've 'got a customer interested' or 'we've actually sold one of these earlier today' - all of it is a con to get you to commit there and then.

I hope you find a dealer who can help you - there's a few people in this group who can help out. Larry (who posts here) will be able to offer you some assistance as he is a dealer in a large city himself.

At least you're not in Canada - it would be $694,221.73