The church music director who purchased our harpsichord came to pick it up today.  He looked over the Emerson Grand we have for sale but it wasn't quite what he was looking for.  We had met him last week when he first looked at the harpsichord and he had said nothing about looking for a grand.

In the meantime, I had a customer with a gorgeous Kurtzman 6' grand who could not find a buyer.  It needed about $1000 worth of work (very sluggish action) to bring it into shape for a buyer to determine if it was suitable to purchase.  The owner was unwilling to invest any more into the piano and she needed to get it moved out of its current location so she determined to give it to a non profit organization and take the tax deduction for her donation.   She found a local high school that was willing to take the piano but they had no funds to do the work or even to tune it so the owner paid for the move and the tuning.  The school will use the piano as-is and probably within a year, it will get all beat up and not be worth anything at all.

When the church music director found out that he could have been the recipient of the Kurtzman instead of the high school, he was heartsick.  Our parting words - always check with a reputable technician.  when you are looking for a piano to buy.  He or she may know of the perfect instrument for you.  And if he/she doesn't know right away, within a few weeks, an owner with a potential candidate for sale will call the technician for help in selling or donating the instrument.