How to buy a piano
ONLINE AUCTION ADVICE
Reasonable piano?
Over the years we have given lots of advice to people looking to buy used pianos privately. We would help them learn about what to look for and always suggest they have the piano checked and valued by a local tuner.
Old style action inside
Auction sites such as ebay can be very good for finding many types of product but with pianos you do need to know what you are buying. This is virtually impossible from an external photo and the seller themselves may genuinely not understand what condition the piano is in. So many of the older pianos are deteriorating year by year and have serious structural problems or need a lot of expensive work. Even recent ones can have major faults.
Signs of fluid used to try to repair
loose tuning pins
Read our information about used pianos as a start and find out as much as you can, but unless you can arrange for the piano to be assessed by a technician, we really would suggest being very cautious. We know of people who have bought pianos this way which have been in very poor condition, one paying £1500 for a grand that would not stay in tune. He simply said he had learnt his lesson!