Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
FINANCING AND COST OF AN INSTALMENT BUSINESS
ENTERS TALKINGJVIACHINE FIELD.
Discussed in an Interesting and Informative Manner by Edward Mott Woolley in His Second
Article on the Instalment Business in Printers' Ink—Some Serious Problems.
B. H. Janssen Becomes Distributer for Pathe
Freres Phonograph Co.—Will Devote Ener-
gies to Piano and Furniture Trades.
In his second and final article under the head-
ing, "Selling on Instalments," the first of which
was published in last week's Review, Edward
Mott Woolley, writing in Printers' Ink, refers to
the financing and the cost of doing business on an
instalment basis. Mr. Woolley includes some very
interesting data in his discussion of this important
phase of the business, and referring to the piano
trade, says in part:
"The high-class piano men have for years op-
posed t\v. practices of certain piano houses th.it
force indiscriminate instalment campaigns on the
people. These practices have brought frequent
disaster.
"For instance, one large piano house shows that
in a certain rural district, where a very large num-
ber of pianos had been sold on deferred payments,
the cost of selling each piano was amazingly high.
In figuring the cost of doing an instalment busi-
ness it must be remembered that a sale is not
really a sale until the transaction is completed and
the bill of sale passed. This event, in the piano
business, may be several years away in the vague
future. Or, worse, it may never take place at all.
" 'In that event the cost of selling the piano takes
a jump,' says the head of the house just cited:
" 'Through one of our retail stores alone in one
year we repossessed 700 pianos. The cost of doing
business in that store wiped out the entire profit, so
we were compelled to close the store. You may
not believe it, but we have pulled in as many as
2,000 pianos in one year. . . . The idea oc-
curred to us to sell pianos from a central point
out in the rural districts. I found that the cost of
selling a piano, although we sold as many as 2,000
in a rural district in one year, was $150. You can
readily see that on a figure of this kind there is no
profit.'
"This typifies merely the extreme of the less
desirable instalment business.
"The prpblem of financing pianos has for years
been a serious one. As a rule, the banks will not
handle piano instalment paper directly, although
carefully selected piano customers are undoubtedly
good risks. The goods, too, are long-lived and
therefore better security than most instalment
goods. In many respects piano paper is strong
collateral, but it usually has to be handled as a
thing by itself. Therefore several financing com-
panies have been organized. They take this paper
and issue bonds against it, and it is said that sev-
eral million dollars of these securities have been
floated. I am told that the banks in various cities
are taking the bonds, and that a market has been
found with the general public.
"An executive of one of the bond companies
states it this way:
" 'Behind the bonds there is, in the first place,
the piano itself; then the indorsement of the dealer
or manufacturer, or both; then the credit insur-
ance ; and finally the entire assets of the bond
company. These bonds carry 6 per cent, interest
and mature serially.'
"It is claimed by some piano dealers and manu-
facturers that the maximum term should be thirty
months, and that beyond this it is scarcely possible
to do a profitable piano business."
Adam Brush is a new piano dealer in Steele-
ville, 111.
Territorial Rights
Are rapidly being assigned to
Piano Merchants for the
Sialer Piano Player
& $
/
Put it
9A
Piano
Have you gotten in touch with us? If not, it is de-
cidedly to your advantage to do so at once.
The trade-in proposition is becoming more serious
every day. Our PLAYER ACTION, which can be
put into any ordinary size piano WITHOUT EX-
TENDING the case, avoids trade-ins and helps to
dispose of trade-ins.
;
B. H. Janssen, the well-known piano manufac-
turer of 132d street and Brown place, New York,
who is popular from coast to coast and has many
stanch friends in the industry, has become inter-
ested in the talking machine field, and this week
closed arrangements whereby he will ,be distribut-
ing agent for the Pathe Freres Phonograph Co.,
B. H. Janssen.
whose, headquarters are at 29 West Thirty-eighth
street, New York City.
When Mr. Janssen was approached by a repre-
sentative of The Review regarding this new ven-
ture he said that it was true, but that he was not
in a position to give any details at the present
time or disclose his entire plans until some day in
the near future. ]t is understood that he will de-
vote most of his energies to the piano and fur-
niture industry, where he is well and favorably
known.
PRAISE FROM AJ^XAS PIANO MAN.
Kohler & Campbell, Inc., Fiftieth street and
Eleventh avenue, New York City, recently re-
ceived several letters explaining the merits of
their player-pianos. Among the most interesting was
one from a large Texas piano merchant in which
he stated: "We acknowledge the 'Kohler & Camp-
bell player-piano just received and want to com-
pliment you upon this fine instrument. It is in-
deed a beauty, hi finish and tone it can't be beat,
and we know the merit is there in quality, as it is
a Kohler & Campbell. We have already sold it
and feel certain of a number of other sales. Our
prospects never looked brighter than they do
right now."
TIPPING CASE DISMISSED.
The action brought by the Greenhut-Siegel-
Cooper Co. against Hugo Ricca and Laurence
Kirchoff, charging that the defendants tried to
bribe D. Szakvary, buyer of pianos for the store,
in violation of the anti-tipping law of the State,
was recently dropped by the Court of Special Ses-
sions with the sanction of the complainants and
the district attorney.
Better write us immediately after reading this adv.
Sigler Piano Player Co.
Harrisburg, Pa.
N. Y. Piano Stool & Bench Co.,
Stroudsburg, Pa.