Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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VOL.
LXXVL No. 22. Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, N.Y. Jvne 2,1923 8 1 n 'g
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Checking the Menace of the "Gyp" Dealer
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MATTER that is receiving a great deal of well-deserved attention in various sections of the country
concerns the curbing of the private house, or "gyp" dealer who, in the guise of a plain citizen en-
, deavoring to dispose of his household effects for whatever they will bring, foists on the gullible public
^ instruments of questionable value at prices many times higher than those asked for the same grade
of pianos in legitimate stores.
Recently in St. Louis retailers succeeded in having passed an ordinance providing that those who ad-
vertise musical instruments and other goods for sale from private houses must indicate in the advertisement
whether or not they are dealers. In Cleveland the music trade interests are back of a similar movement. In
New York such an ordinance has been in effect for several years, with the result that, in the classified sections
of the newspapers, advertisements of musical instrument and furniture sales, etc., are listed in two sections, one
for dealers and one for legitimate private individuals. Penalties for the non-observance of this dividing rule
are severe enough to make the ordinance quite effective.
This question of controlling the "gyp" dealer has not apparently received the proper amount of atten-
tion, probably due to the fact that legitimate retail dealers do not consider it of sufficient importance. Yet
these same "gyp" dealers do considerable harm to the trade from various angles. In the first place, they make
a surprising number of sales that would ordinarily go to the regular dealer. In the second, through offering
false valuations, they shake public confidence. The individual who is defrauded to a greater or less extent
in his purchase from a private house dealer is often unreasonable enough to take out his spite against the whole
trade and thus kill a number of sales which might otherwise be made without difficulty.
There is always a certain element of the population which is looking constantly for bargains or, more
accurately, for a chance to get something for nothing or next to nothing. Individuals in this class will look
askance at the offer by a legitimate dealer of used instruments at bargain prices representing their actual worth
and often less than that, and then go to the private house dealer and without question pay the price he asks for
an inferior instrument on the plea that it actually cost two or three times the price quoted.
The ways of the "gyp" dealer are not unknown to the trade, nor is support given him at times by a cer-
tain class of manufacturer a secret. Investigation has shown in certain cases that, where one piano was offered
by a "gyp" dealer at a low price, in the same house were six or eight similar instruments, each ready to be
moved to the parlor for display and sale as soon as the first one was sold.
Investigation some time ago in New York proved that in one particular case a "gyp" dealer got $450 for
a piano which he claimed had cost him $700 and had been used only three months. His story was that he was
breaking up his home because his wife had died. The same piano which he sold for $450 could have been pur-
chased at retail from a regular dealer for $350 or thereabouts. His chance lay in the fact that the name on
the fallboard in some respects resembled that of a well-known instrument of high quality and he played upon the
resemblance to the limit.
It would seem as though this fight against the "gyp" dealer should be made national in scope rather
than depend upon spasmodic efforts of local organizations. A campaign against the "gyps" carried on by the
National Association of Music Merchants, and if possible in co-operation with the Advertising Clubs of the
World through their Better Business Bureau, should prove effective.
The "gyp" evil is not a new one by any means. It has existed for many years and will perhaps exist for
many years to come. But with New York, St. Louis and other cities and towns establishing that the private house
dealer can be curbed to a great extent by ordinances, these precedents should facilitate the success of similar
movements all over the country. The legitimate dealer is under obligation to sell goods that measure up to the
quality represented. The "gyp" dealer, on the other hand, is here to-day and gone to-morrow.
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