Baby Grand - John Brinsmead - Value

[MMMusic]

I have a beautiful walnut baby grand piano by John Brinsmead and Sons. It has a lovely tone and keeps its tuning well. I'm afraid I'm not sure how old it is. It was my fist piano and I have loved playing it (now graduated to larger grand piano as this is my profession). Does anyone know what the value of such a piano might be? (It is in very good condition and I payed more than £1000 for it 16 years ago) It needs to be moved from my parents house 300 miles away and I can't squeeze 2 grand pianos into my small rented house. Trying to work out if it is worth storing until I can find a house to fit both of them or if it is not of much value now? Unfortunately, it is of huge sentimental value to me, so it's proving to be a very difficult decision. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Withindale]

Could you lend it to someone who would enjoy it and look after it?

[Colin Nicholson]

Unfortunately we can't give a one-off valuation here on this forum.... [see the blue box above]. You will need to contact either a music shop, private piano tuner or someone in the piano retail business - but essentially someone who is able to partly test-tune it - and examine your piano on-site.... so you need to ask if that person can give a valuation on the spot - and that they are experienced in piano valuation. Its like selling your house to me on the spot - I wont know its true value, I will offer you a wild guess or silly money.... then you decide to appoint a proper estate agents!.... same with pianos.

The company will also be able to tell its age by the serial number.

[joseph]

If this was any old Brinsmead baby grand, I'd suspect that at best, it's worth what you paid for it, and probably a fair bit less. However, it's not any old Brinsmead grand, because you've stated it has sentimental value, so in that case, it's worth it to you to keep it.

A couple of things to consider. Sentimental value is important but does it outweigh sensible financial considerations? You have to think in your head, how much you'd be willing to spend storing and moving the piano before it was no longer worth it. The other thing is, when you do eventually have space for two pianos, how difficult will it be to find a second piano that you like if you've sold the Brinsmead? Also, what condition is the Brinsmead likely to be in at that time, should you decided to keep it? I don't know how much storage costs, but on a google search today I saw a company offering to store pianos of that size for £2 per day, plus 85 pence a day insurance. Remember you'll have to have it moved as well, so you could add £250 each way (guessing that figure). So, that means over a year, you'd spend the storage plus the insurance (£1040.25) plus the removal each way (£500). Is it worth it to you to spend £1540.25 in order to keep the piano for a year? Two years and you'd be £2580.50 at the same cost. You see, it quickly becomes quite a burden.

If that sum of money is worth it to you because of the value of the piano to you, then I'd say spend it, go for it. You might want to find a friend, or a church who could do with the loan of a piano for a while, so that you can have free storage and they can have the use of the piano.

One of my pianos is a 1955 Challen upright. It was a present from my now dead grandfather, and it was my first piano, and is one of my few links to him. The piano has been attacked by moths because of my less than musical parents thinking it was anything other than a sideboard, and it has been attacked by poor management of central heating, and in general it sounds tired, terrible, completely clapped out and needs thousands spent on it. There's a part of me that's willing to go ahead and spend the money to revive it and reintroduce it to my musical life, but I think the reality is that the work would never produce a satisfactory result for the money spent, and I'd certainly never be able to recoup the money spent if I had to sell it, so currently the piano is a piece of furniture in my parents house. Actually it does have a full-blow Schwander action at least! I won't be spending the money on it, incidentally.

[MMMusic]

Thank you so much to all my replies so far, I'm very grateful for your time and thoughts given to help me make this difficult decision...

[dboyce]

To be considered is, how much money does it take to overcome sentiment?

Unfortunately no-one will offer extra money just because a piano has sentimental value to someone else. And unfortunately secondhand pianos generally fetch lower prices now that some years ago.