Music Trade Review

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THE
V O L . LVIII. N o . 1 1 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, March 14,1914
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A Readjustment to Meet Present Conditions.
I
T is pleasing to learn that the articles which have appeared in this publication urging a read-
justment of valuations placed upon trade-ins have awakened widespread interest, and judging
from correspondence received a number of readers have been favorably impressed with the
arguments put forth in this connection.
Good! On with the dance, let joy be unconfined.
It must be plain to those who have given the subject even a superficial study—and it certainly
deserves more than that—that there is something radically wrong with the present system gener-
ally in vogue regarding the valuations placed upon instruments traded in for player-pianos.
It is necessary, according to my reasoning, to bring about a readjustment of this whole matter,
which I affirm is one of the most vital which this trade faces to-day.
There must be a readjustment; and why hesitate, for, after all, what is business but an ever-
changing readjustment to meet new conditions?
In my humble opinion the weakest spot in the whole piano structure has been the lack of a
definite, fair business valuation placed upon traded-in pianos.
A short time ago I was in a piano wareroom, where a salesman was exhausting his surplus enthu-
siasm in interesting a lady in a player-piano. He finally succeeded, after gingering up in his argu-
ment, in getting up to the point where she asked what allowance he would make on the old piano
which she had in her home. He asked the make of the instrument. The piano was of the ordinary
commercial rank, and had been in use twelve years, and yet this salesman, without investigating
the piano in any way whatever, without sending an expert to examine the instrument, allowed her
$165 for this instrument. Can you beat it? Not easily, I'm sure.
Now, how such loose, slipshod methods can work out successfully in business I do not know.
The man placed a fair valuation upon the player-piano which he sold, and yet eagerly allowed
$165 for an old piano which may have been worth $25 real money.
If piano merchants fill up their warerooms with such stock, inventorying them at the values
allowed in exchange, where are they going to land?
They won't land; they will slip by the landing point.
We should carefully examine all our errors, for only by locating them and avoiding them in
the future is it possible for us to accomplish even a modicum of success.
Business failures can easily be traced to definite causes, and it will be found that most of the
failures are brought about by certain defective policies by which the business institutions are
operated.
Now, business should not be an uncertain proposition, taken as a whole, and it would not be
if better working principles were established, thus to a large degree eliminating uncertainty.
Would a furniture man make liberal allowances for an old table or sideboard as a trade-in
proposition on new furniture? Would he load up his warerooms with a lot of old, antiquated,
worn-out junk and then inventory that stock at trade-in prices?
Certainly not; nor should men in any other trade.
Contrary to the general established principles in business, some piano merchants continue to
follow this dangerous policy of making over-liberal allowances on traded-in instruments, thus add-
ing to their ultimate business defeat.
(Continued on page 5.)