NY Post
Angry buyers of Steinway pianos say they were duped by salespeople who told them the instruments would increase in value, though they actually plunge in price by 50 percent or more as soon as they leave the showroom floor, according to a report Saturday.
Owners of the ultra-expensive instruments, which cost between $70,000 and $150,000 when new, said salespeople lied to them about what their pianos’ worth in the future, the Hatch Institute reported Saturday.
Customers said they were shown charts of steadily rising prices for new models and were told that buying a Steinway made a better investment than Wall Street stock, the investigative journalism site said.
One Steinway brochure, titled “Your Steinway Investment,” claims that “for more than a century and a half, every handmade Steinway has increased in value,” adding that their pianos were “an investment instrument unique in all the world.”
But when owners tried to sell, they learned their Steinways were worth tens of thousands less than what they’d paid, even when the pianos were just months old or had never been played, the site reported.
14 comments:
A fool with money will soon depart !
When you sell 1000s of anything you will always find a few duds. Steinway is not much different than Rolls-Royces or Tiffany jewelry - falling in value after a purchase is expected in just about anything you buy. Their logo is still the 2nd or 3rd in value.
And having a cult-like following and controlling 98% of the high end concert trade since the late 1800s makes Steinway a textbook to anyone looking at American industry.
That Chinese offer is about a year old and did not go anywhere. Sure their market is China - where they are wisely teaching their kids classical music while we give ghetto garbage to our youth as an ideal. The future of music is China. But when it comes to cars, whiskey, pianos, status stuff, Chinese elites love imported, not domestic.
As a matter of fact, Steinway is spending a ton of money on new equipment and remodeling their offices.
The 'boys in the hood' would love to get their hands on that land, but sadly for them, they will have to content themselves with Halloween parties at the mansion - at least during their lifetimes.
I guess you might say that the pianos are only worth a song.
They use sales tactics well known in other industries--make shit up in order to make the sale. On the other hand, buyers should at least spend a few minutes on the internet researching this before plunking down 50 grand on a speculative purchase. Most buyers have bought a car in their lives, and know that the minute you drive away, it has depreciated thousands of dollars. Why wouldn't the same be true here?
As my dear old grandfather Litvak said (just before they swung the trap), he said "You can't cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump.
How does someone successful enough in life to have that kind of money to drop on a piano manage to fall for such a checkable lie?
I will address 50% of the problem:
Lots of the woods once used in the older models is now illegal to harvest or use in the United States. Therefore the late models do not retain their value like the older ones. Same thing with new Gibson guitars.
They are more showoff pieces now, and I'm actually glad the speculators who buy yet don't even play are crying boo-hoo
A Steinway acoustic piano may sound amazing in a room 10 feet away when you actually hearing the harp & soundboard but its mic'd (microphone)signal out front in the house through the FOH house mix (through the house mixing board) what 99.009% of regular people can hear is no different then a digital grand that costs 1/10th, weighs 1/10th and doesn't require a tuning tech to come in house every time you move it or some "artist" wants special tuning. (You can tune each of the 3 strings X 88key units a 1/4 Hz apart for a more sweeping chorus effect on each key for example (2 hours of tuning), but the new Yamaha digital pianos do that also with the entry of a cursor in milliseconds)
Other things like changing demand, costs moving, tuning these in theaters, concerts.
Its a dying art, I know my comment will piss people off but dont shoot the messenger
As Yiddish actress Molly Picon once said "such problems"
"How does someone successful enough in life to have that kind of money to drop on a piano manage to fall for such a check-able lie"
------------------------------------------------------
Like said speculating show off , wall street types, white collar Hedge fund shit that know nothing about music or instruments only out to make a quick buck. The same shit that buys a building then makes everybody in the house homeless.
The same shit that buys Jimmy Hendrix Stratocaster to hang on his office wall, drinks a couple Martini's and hits golfballs at it.
Good for the Steinway crew for taking these speculators for all they got. And dont feel to bad for Stienway because the same type of speculating hedge-fund scumbag owns the company. It takes some to know some more.
I feel bad for all those skilled craftsmen, the end is near. Make no Question its only a matter of time before the owner sells it to the Chinese
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulson_%26_Co.
@Joe said... Thanks for sharring ....
so the sales people weren't being honest?!?!?!
SAY IT AIN'T SO!
Angry buyers of Steinway pianos say they were duped by salespeople who told them the instruments would increase in value
I blame white people.
You can’t compare digital to a Steinway.
"Like said speculating show off , wall street types, white collar Hedge fund shit that know nothing about music or instruments only out to make a quick buck. The same shit that buys a building then makes everybody in the house homeless.
The same shit that buys Jimmy Hendrix Stratocaster to hang on his office wall, drinks a couple Martini's and hits golfballs at it."
One time visiting John Varvatos corporate offices, I saw a genuine Fender telecaster that Springsteen plays being hung up through the glass door. I wanted so bad to smash that window and take that guitar home. It's truly sickening the way these douches disrespect music and anything with true artistic merit. Thats why there's Maroon 5 and imagine dragons
Post a Comment