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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PLAIN FACTS FOR PIANO MERCHANTS.
(Continued from page 3.)
Absurd reasoning, and the facts are made plain upon investigation that these values do not
exist. They are unsound and require careful revision to meet the changing times.
If it ever was right to make such liberal allowances on trade-ins that time has long since passed
—more particularly since the commercial piano has become such a dominant factor in the total
output of the country.
The profit making possibilities of the piano business must be measured largely by the values
placed upon traded-in instruments.
Now, let that thought, Mr. Piano Merchant, sink deeply into your mind, and it certainly is worth
a little time to work up a reliable, sound basis on which to handle the trade-ins, because sooner or
later, if the present attitude is persisted in, there will be conditions brought about which will be
unpleasant to face, and which will be disastrous to many.
We talk about a cleaning-up process. No better means of cleaning up could be made than by
cleaning up a lot of antiquated, useless, cumbersome traditions which have in truth hampered the
industry in its natural growth.
We can vaporize on many ethical points in connection with the piano business, but when you
get squarely down to brass tacks this trade-in proposition becomes to my mind a dominant one.
House-cleaning is always in order, and it may be well to begin at home and see how we stand
regarding the cleaning-up proposition.
Of course, it will never be possible to get things just as we like them in this or any other indus-
try, because there is always the different viewpoint—the player action men complain that the piano
manufacturers ask prices that will seriously affect the supply industry.
Piano manufacturers put it up to piano merchants by saying that they are simply meeting a
demand for low-priced players. The piano merchants allege that they must have player-pianos to
sell at only a trifle increased cost over the ordinary uprights, and in the meanwhile costs of doing
business are mounting up all the while and costs of selling and handling player-pianos are becom-
ing accentuated, and later on there is going to be some worry.
But, in my humble opinion, if a national policy were adopted regarding the treatment of trade-
ins, it would do more at one stroke to clear the retail atmosphere of the industry from clouds and
disaster than any single act that might be accomplished.
Without question, if this present condition maintains, the introduction of the adaptable player
mechanism for old pianos will be a saving clause for many members of the trade.
Suppose the Piano Merchants' National Association took up this one subject and handled it at
its session in New York this year, and its members should come to an ironclad agreement regard-
ing a valuation for trade-ins, it would at one stroke accomplish more than the association has in
all of the previous years of its existence, because it would strike at the root of a trade condition
which has been slowly eating away the financial life of the industry, and now, with the growing
power of the player-piano, it bids fair to threaten it more seriously than ever before.
I respectfully make this suggestion to the Executive Committee of the Piano Merchants'
National Association. Take up the question of trade-in allowances, handle the subject in a broad
and business-like manner, and come to a definite understanding concerning it. Slash the present
rate of estimate in half, and then in half again, else piano conditions will grow worse instead of
better.
Where will some of the stock of the dealers be at the present rate when made up of a large
amount of traded-in stock—stock which was taken in at vastly inflated prices and is less and less
salable, even at low prices, on account of the increased popularity of the player-piano?
These are not idle words, nor are they made for superficial purposes.
As I have stated in previous articles, they are written with the idea of arousing trade senti-
ment to the extent that piano merchants may see with clearer vision the dangers which confront
them and may govern their acts accordingly.
The voice of an awakened trade must determine these great questions, and it behooves us,
therefore, not to rest in foolish security while danger threatens.
Net profits tell the story of business success or failure.
Net profits in business are what most men desire, and if under certain conditions net profits
have not developed, it behooves every man to dig deeply into the very vitals of his business and
discover the reason.
We are all naturally desirous of succeeding.
The passion to succeed is strong in the human breast. It is the inheritance from several aeons
running back to the age when the diplodoci butted each other and the pterodactyls fought, flapped
and snapped for the mastery, and that same desire to succeed dominates humanity, even though
we are superficially covered with a kind of veneer which conceals much from the external view.
But if the principle be wrong and has not within it the elements
of success it is far better to cast it aside into the scrap heap of anti-
quated practices, and there, to my mind, is where the present system,
widely followed, of trade-in pianos should go. It belong to the past!
It smacks too much of business folly to have the center of the
stage in the modern cast.