Why are the pianos on ebay often less expensive than those for sale by piano rebuilders and restorers?
They are often unrestored and require a lot of work. Shaffer Pianos will spend anywhere from 8 – 16 months fully restoring an antique piano so that it will sound and function the way it was intended to. When you purchase an unrestored piano on ebay, you take chances. A cracked frame, a bad pinblock, or moth and rodent damage can require thousands of dollars to repair. Often, on ebay you are buying from a person with little or no true knowledge of a piano’s condition. The buyer who thinks that a tuning can fix keys that do not work or eliminate a rattle or buzz, is often very unhappy when a piano technician tells him that the beautiful piano he just purchased cannot be repaired.
