Presto

PRESTO
The American Music Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
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ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide Is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
»f tnelr value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general Interest to the music trades are In-
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Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1923.
February 5, 1923
fires were largely advertised, and the destruction was insignificant.
Instead of a volcanic eruption it was a fire cracker fizz.
The automobile men seem to do it better. They do not care what
becomes of the old cars. They do not want them. They refuse to
pay floor space rent for their keeping, and when they sell a car the
profit is of a kind that so important a transaction justifies. And it
should be so in the piano business.
As now conducted, it is not uncommon for the piano salesman, or
the small dealer, to estimate his profit at about what he thinks he can
sell the trade-in for. In that way he must make two sales in order
to get one profit—and that a doubtful one. And when the new piano
goes out and the old one comes in, there is expense in making the
trade-in saleable. To the cost of making the sale there is added the
expense of repairs and the uncertainty of how long floor-space must
be devoted to "parking" the old piano. It doesn't pay. Better, often
to tell the prospect the truth and let him, or her, have the pleasure of
donating the ancient treasure to some poor relation, or to some other
philanthropy.
But the thought here is of the trade-in in its effect upon the credit
of the piano trade at large. The automobile business discovered that
the bankers shied because the proportion of trade-ins was going too
large. The bankers had a closer familiarity with cars than they
usually have with pianos. But the connection is close, and the same
standards of credit exist. The piano business is a small one as com-
pared with the automobile business. There were 2,500,000 cars made
in 1922, as compared with about 200,000 pianos of all kinds. Conse-
quently the sources of money supplies took closer inspection of con-
ditions in the motor business than of pianos, presumably. But the
net results are the same, so far as the extension of credits goes. And
there is a good deal in it for the consideration of the manufacturers
and merchants whose lives and capital are invested in the piano
business.
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
IT IS NOT CUSTOMARY WITH THIS PAPER TO PUBLISH REGU-
LAR CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANY POINTS. WE, HOWEVER,
HAVE RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN NEW YORK, BOSTON,
SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, MIL-
WAUKEE AND OTHER LEADING MUSIC TRADE CENTERS, WHO
KEEP THIS PAPER INFORMED OF TRADE EVENTS AS THEY HAP-
PEN. AND PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE REAL NEWS
OF THE TRADE FROM WHATEVER SOURCES ANYWHERE AND
MATTER FROM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS, IF USED, WILL BE
PAID FOR AT SPACE RATES. USUALLY PIANO MERCHANTS OR
SALESMEN IN THE SMALLER CITIES, ARE THE BEST OCCA-
SIONAL CORRESPONDENTS, AND THEIR ASSISTANCE IS INVITED.
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Forms close promptly at noon every Thursday. News matter for
publication should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the same
day. Advertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, five p. m,,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy should be in
hand by Monday noon preceding publication day. Want advs. for cur-
rent week, to insure classification, must be at office of publication not
later than Wednesday noon.
PIANOS AND CREDITS
How far has the trade-in, or second-hand, operated against piano
credits in the minds of the bankers. The question is suggested by
the recent stand taken by the automobile industry against trade-ins.
It is said that the motor-car business was losing ground with finan-
ciers, and that, with the ruling against trade-ins, the banks returned
the automobile business to special favor and credit.
The idea is that the statements rendered when credit was asked
were so loaded with the doubtful item of second-hand stock, that the
bankers became uneasy and began to ask questions. As soon as the
condition became understood, the motor men concluded that the sta-
bility of their industry needed a stimulant. It was found in the rul-
ing that no more trade-in business would be permitted. What will
now become of the second hand cars is another matter. Presumably
the junk dealers will be busy and the scrap-heaps more mountainous.
The same condition prevails in the piano business without a doubt.
The long lists of "used" pianos seem ominous to capital. And the
strange propositions by which to sustain piano credit have not helped
much. In years past we have had the suggestion that the old pianos
be destroyed by fire. At one of the annual conventions a few old
squares were burned up. But the effect was the opposite of conclu-
sive.
If there was any result at all it was of a kind to intensify the
unfair notion that the proposition of fake in the piano business was
disproportionate to its activity as a live industry. The piano bon-
CREATING A DEMAND
If there's one thought that has found expression in these columns
more often than others, it is that selling pianos is the result of energy,
push and will on the seller's part, rather than any deep-rooted desire,
or demand, of the buyer's. The only advice that is worth giving to
pupils of piano selling is to get out and stir up the prospects; to keep
digging and to create the demand that spells business.
The piano dealer who opens a store, puts in a stock of beautiful
instruments, and then sits back and waits will not be long in discov-
ering that his only regular callers will be the tax gatherers, the rent
collector and the bank runner. These three will be there and, as they
grow insistent, the store-keeper will intensify his "cussing" of the
piano business. To him it will not long seem the best business in
the world and, sooner or later, the sheriff will be in possession.
But that extreme is not of frequent occurrence in the piano busi-
ness. As a rule, the piano dealers know that nothing but live men
are needed; that the demand for pianos must be created; that people
do not know they want pianos until they have been told, over and
over again, and made to see the profit in their ownership.
It is only by pushing that things are made to move in this day of
restless energy and uncertainty. No progress is possible to those who
stand still. The piano salesman who sees a prospective sale in every
house, and who is never satisfied with any house in which there is no
instrument, has the first and last principles of profit in this particular
business. The other kind can seldom hope to succeed.
There never was, and never will be, a passive piano man. To be
successful his name must be Push, and a synonym is Perseverance.
Just now a Frenchman is in the country practicing auto-suggestion
as a means for overcoming disease in its most common form—that
of imagination and in-growing fear of sickness. His formula is so
simple as to be acceptable, and his cures are countless. The incident
is told of a man who had been troubled with bow-legs. He could not
walk to church without a sense of personal inadequacy which un-
fitted him for real worship.
One day the minister mentioned the Frenchman's formula for
overcoming all bodily ills. He said that it was really only the exercise
of will power, and that the will to do was more than half way to per-
forming the miraculous. The man with the parenthetic walking
beams determined to try the favorite formula, and one night, on go-
ing to bed, he repeated, "Every day and every night my legs get
straighter and straighter." The next morning he arose to find that
he was knock-kneed. He had overdone it, but proof of the power of
the will was not lacking.
And it is the will that wins success in the business of selling
pianos. "People do not lack strength, they lack will," said Victor
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