The true value of a musical instrument is in the number of listeners
it has.  A Mills Violano-Virtuoso in a private collection that gets
played for ten people a week is worth less than a simple 88-key
coin-operated pumper piano in local pizza joint that two hundred
people hear each week.

As collectors hide away their musical instruments their values will
decrease.  I urge collectors to find public places to put their
instruments so they can be heard regularly.  And when the instrument
gets scratched, doused in beer, the art glass broken, and eventually
breaks -- fix it, and remember all the friends that instrument made.

John Preble
Abita Springs, Louisiana
http://www.abitamysteryhouse.com/