Bruce Pier wrote in 050308 MMDigest:


>> The reserve bid, $20,000, is high for a Style 125 -- too much
>> for a conversion, in my opinion.  Another example of buyer beware.


Which brought to mind many conversations I had with my uncle when
I was a kid.  I was just starting to get involved in player pianos
and I was all excited about a Wurlitzer Apollo reproducing piano
I just picked up.

My late uncle (from Rhode Island) had quite a collection of band
organs, music boxes, nickelodeons, etc.  I would often call him and
tell him about an instrument I found, and the very next question
I would always ask was, "What's it worth?"

No matter how many times I asked him that question, I would get
the same answers:

  "What do you want to pay for it".  He would add,
  "Do you like it?  Is it what you want?"
  "Then it is worth whatever you are willing to pay."

Unless you are running a business where you want to buy the instrument
to try to flip a profit, how can you really put a number on the
enjoyment that instrument may bring to its owner?  Remember, to some
other people that band organ may be just a dust collector.  But that
doesn't make it worth less.

I saw a car auction a few weeks ago where someone paid $75,000 for
a 1969 Barracuda; the buyer thought it was worth it.  The band organ
price may be high, for now, but perhaps in another 10 years, you will
say to yourself, "Man, I should have bought that organ, it was only
$20,000.00."

I said the same thing a few weeks ago.  My first car was a 1969
Barracuda convertible.

Howard Jensen