Craigslist - yipe!

[dreamshark]

I finally got around to listing the piano on Craig's list (free). I had put it off for months, thinking that nobody wanted to come pick up a piano in the middle of winter, free or not. But the prematurely springlike weather got my cleaning juices flowing and I decided to give it a try.

Oh. My. God. I got 4 responses in the first two hours, and more today. I think we're up to 8 inquiries now, including a surprising number along this line: "Is this piano still available? I could pick it up this evening." I can only assume that those responses are from piano dealers who have trucks and ramps and piano movers on the premises. Either that or they are from people who have no idea how much a piano weighs and think we're going to help them throw it in the back of their pickup.

I DID NOT EXPECT THIS RESPONSE and wasn't quite sure what to do. This is a pleasant enough family piano, but as far as I can tell it has very little monetary value. It's almost 100 years old, the styling is dead simple, the finish is in far from perfect condition, and it needs at the very least some new felts on the strikers. All of this was made clear in the ad. But if dealers are interested in it, maybe I should have asked for money. Oh well, too late now. Mostly I just want it out of here.

After thinking it over I picked one person to respond to, the one that was most obviously a parent looking for a piano for her child. If she doesn't show up tonight to look at it, I'll move on to the other one that claimed to be a parent. I'm not totally averse to the idea of giving the piano away to someone that plans to resell it, but given the choice I'd rather donate it to a good home.

Comments

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I probably should have put a requirement in the ad that whoever takes it engage pro piano movers. Fortunately, in our case the piano is very accessible. The challenge will lie not so much in getting it out of the house as in getting it down the cement stairs to the street. Once they've gotten it that far, any damage done is likely to be to the piano, not the house. Still... I'm leaning toward respondents who say something like, "Give us a day or two to line up piano movers" rather than the "I'll take it tonight" ones.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes. Get pro movers involved if you possibly can.

K.

[nancymcc.livejournal.com]

I had the exact same experience with a hide-a-bed that needed some work. Hauling it away meant looking at it in our driveway (dry, summer). No one ever took it. So I think your speculations are right... people love to "get in" first, but then have second thoughts.