Cross-country piano move...Is it worth it?

[HomeOnTheRanch]

FIL has a square grand that belonged to his mother (no idea if it was in the family before that). I think it is at least 150 years old. FIL's wife wants to get rid of it for space issues, so it has been offered to us.

 

My initial reaction was NO since we have major space issues also and we already have a piano, keyboard, and an organ. DH REALLY wants to keep it in the family, and he has a notion that is worth $$$$$. Of course, we wouldn't sell it, but I don't know if it is really that valuable. FIL did have it repaired after his mother died, and he says it works fine now.

 

Problem: The piano is in New York (Syracuse area) and we are in California. How much (ballpark) will we have to pay to get it out here?

 

I had the idea that perhaps they could "loan" it to a museum until we had the means to get it out here. Has anyone/family done that before? Advisable?

 

(FWIW, DH already has a violin that belonged to his grandma, so isn't exactly like we are heirloomless, lol)

[readwithem]

We gave our upright to friends who lived about 3 hours away. I called the local piano store to get an estimate on moving it, and it was about $1200. I can't imagine what it would cost to move it cross country. I would call a local piano store and see whether they could ballpark for you. The movers here did say if I wasn't in a hurry, they could wait till they had another customer either here or there, and could use the truck simultaneously, the cost would be about $800. In the end my friend rented a U-Haul, tied the piano with ropes, and had strong friends in both cities :)

 

When we moved recently the movers put our grand on the back of our shipment in the regular moving van. I was beyond shocked. When dh's employer said they could move our piano, I didn't picture it going behind my clothes, books and furniture. In the end they had to take the lid off the piano, and they damaged the threshold on my front door because they didn't have the right equipment to get the piano off their truck. The lid is full of scratches, which the moving company will pay to have fixed. In the end they probably will come out better than having hired a professional piano mover. But next time we'll pay the pros ourselves, it's just not worth the headache.

 

As to your family piano, I would probably do everything I could to keep it in the family. I'm biased against keyboards (sorry :) so I think I would prefer my children learn and play on a piano vs. a keyboard. Plus how cool that it's a family heirloom! My brother has my grandmother's baby grand but sadly nobody plays anymore.

 

Does your dh have other siblings who might want it?

[kalanamak]

ARe you ready for a roadtrip? I think that would be an adventure the kids would always remember.

[Tammyla]

I'd have it checked out before committing to moving and keeping it forever. A piano that can't be tuned isn't worth much at all.

[Ferdie]

You can find out how much the piano is worth for a small fee, $25 I think. There is a website, (I don't have the link since my computer is in the repair shop) where you enter the piano serial number and within a week a so they give you an estimated blue book value.

[RebeccaS]

I know how your dh feels. My fil had a baby grand that he was getting rid of and he offered it to us. I wanted to take it so bad. I do play, we didn't have a piano and he had this one since the kids were little. I have a pic of dh when he was just a wee thing and he was sitting at that piano. Alas, the cost of moving it from MD to Oh was too much and we declined. My sil now has the piano. She couldn't bear to sell it either. If the time comes that we can move it, it's ours to take, but I somehow doubt that day will ever come. The piano is just not worth much aside from sentimental value.

[chai]

This is a great book to buy to look at piano values and to know whether it is worth your money to get the piano: Piano Book.

 

My FIL paid to move their piano to us. The cost of the move was about the value of the piano. They used a company that groups all of its piano moves together, so the cost might be a little bit less. (I no longer have the name of the company.) It cost about $1000 to move the piano 1000 miles. You pay extra if you need the piano to be moved up or down stairs.

[AuntieM]

if you are interested in it as an instrument rather than for sentimental value. A piano technician I hired once told me that those square grands were often more valued for their novelty as furniture pieces than for their quality as an instrument. If you choose to move it yourself, look into how to do it. You are supposed to move grands on their sides (not sure about a square one). We've had ours moved 5 times now, by the moving companies that did our relocations. Several times a third-party service was called in to prepare the piano for moving. It was only in our last move that there were any problems. But it's an old mid-grade piano, we knew when we bought it that if we might eventually want to upgrade.

 

As far as piano vs keyboard, I can tell you that the long strings and key action of our big piano have helped develop finger strength in our children, their teachers have commented on it. I know there are some keyboards available with weighted keys, I would definitely look for that in a keyboard.

[HomeOnTheRanch]

Thanks for all the input. I'm still on the fence about it. It may not have been completely clear in my post, but we already have a piano (upright) AND a keyboard AND an organ...my point being that we have what we need, and then some! :001_smile:

 

DH does have a brother that lives near us, but if they brought it out here I (and everyone else in the family) would bet that they would sell it in a year or two for whatever they could make off of it. Maybe not, but they aren't known for being the sentimental type.

 

There are really a lot of things I would rather spend money on right now rather than a monstrosity for the living room.