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THE
fflJJIC TIRADE
V O L . LVIII. N o . 10 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, March 7, 1914
SING E 0 P
fe of p ER
Plain Facts for Piano Merchants.
VERY man who is reasonably familiar with music trade conditions must be aware that the
growing ascendancy of the player-piano is bringing about new conditions, and in former
issues of this paper I have frequently called the attention of piano merchants to the fact
that the problem of the trade-ins is one which should arrest the attention of every vendor
of pianos in this country. And, by the way, speaking of the trade-ins, how quickly the trade fell
in with the acceptance of that term—the trade-ins—which I gave to used pianos traded in for new
ones. It is a coined "term, but one which fittingly applies to the specially designated product.
I have stated in previous issues that the time was rapidly approaching when the trade-ins for
new player-pianos would occupy a position somewhat analogous to that held by the square pianos
in days gone by.
_
I wonder if piano merchants have sharpened their pencils and have figured just where the
over-liberal policy adopted in the valuations of the trade-ins would land them in the end! It is
worth while going into the subject carefully.
It will not take an accomplished mathematician, even to go into the subject in a superficial
way, to determine that the present plan adopted by some piano merchants in trailing in used
pianos for new player-pianos is going to place them in a very unpleasant situation unless their
purse strings or their reserves are materially lengthened.
There are some who have unwisely offered to allow the full original price on instruments
traded in for new pianos within two years from date of purchase.
Suppose a dealer takes his pencil and pad and figures his original cost of the first piano sold;
then adds to it his average cost for piano selling; figure an expense of two years on carrying the
lease; then figures the cost of the new player-piano, plus its selling charges, and see where he lands
after he has traded in the first piano, allowing for it its original selling cost.
Instead of two sales at two profits he is likeiy to have made two sales at no profits, with an
old used piano in stock with an uncertain value attached.
Men who have not gone into these matters as closely as they should are fooling themselves,
and that is one reason, to my mind, why piano merchants have not become richer and why busi-
ness has not become more profitable.
The practice of making over-liberal allowances on traded-in instruments is really the basic
reason whv the piano industry has not advanced to the financial position which it should, when
you consider the total amount of retail business done in dollars and cents.
Too many establishments are loaded up to-day with traded-in pianos, which are blocking the
way for new 7 sales and which have cost merchants more than they should have in sales allowances.
Take the case of some of the recent failures over the country. An analysis of the stock of
foundered concerns shows an accumulation of traded-in pianos stored away which have been inven-
toried at absurd valuations.
Now. when men fool themselves they are in somewhat of a dangerous position, and a cold
and careful analysis of their affairs would lead to the belief thai they have overvalued their
traded-in pianos, and with the player growing as tremendously as it has it shows that this year
there will be more traded-in pianos than ever before in the history of the industry. Now what
will become of them?
>
The answer to that question I reaffirm is one of the greatest problems of the trade, but, after
nil, it should not be difficult of solution, provided men would go at it in the right way. There should
be a national understanding among the better class of piano merchants as to a standard of values
which should be placed upon traded-in pianos.
When an automobile moves away from the salesroom its value tumbles at a precipitous rate,
nnd, yet, when a piano is placed out one, two or three years some men have felt that by bolster-
ing up values on trade-ins that it was helping thi'ir business.
E
(Continued on page 5.)