I have followed this thread with great interest and amusement, but my
instincts tell me we know about the same of the future of mechanical
music as the producers of Flash Gordon or the GM styling studios did of
the future of transportation.

My first player piano purchase as a teenager was in the late 1960's
when I literally stood in line to bid on a dreadful old Standard player
upright which needed everything.  I got it for $75.00 and then had to
pay $35 to have it hauled up from a basement.  Now, the same piano
would be a giveaway, and the moving cost $200.  A couple of years
later, I finally wound up with an equally beat up Brambach Welte
sans drawer for which I paid $100.  The guy who sold it to me said
he'd deliver it, and he did, lashed to the top of his derelict 1959
Cadillac, and I was thrilled to have it.

I met wonderful people who helped me find parts and gave unstintingly
of their advice (including the use of white glue and vinyl tubing,
unfortunately).  I knew I would never have a Hupfeld Orchestrion, but
I received the Hathaway and Bowers catalogs and fantasized about having
ten grand to buy anything I wanted.

In the 1970's and '80's I watched as plain case Steinway Duo-Arts
were offered at $30,000.  To a student, it might as well have been a
million.  I was reconciled to my cheap Welte, and I began buying recut
rolls from the Powells.  I moved that piano four times, from apartments
to houses, with the help of friends until they started asking if an
invitation was to help move the piano.

Last year, in what may have been the trough of the values for such
things, I found a wonderful Baldwin Welte in Colorado at what seemed
to me to be less money than an identical straight piano.  As a high
school teacher, I could never have afforded a similar piano 20 years
ago, and this one has given me immense pleasure and satisfaction.
From a selfish standpoint, therefore, the current market for
reproducing pianos has been a blessing.

Now, as to the future: who can tell?  I have demonstrated my piano
to a few of my students and many of my friends.  I don't see that it
captures their interest like it did mine 30-odd years ago.  The students
are fascinated by the machinery and the craft of the mechanism, but they
do not seem to "connect" with classical music or with popular music of
the 20's.  Some of my older friends like the music, the pianists, and
the performances, but object to the fact most performances preclude
normal conversation.

So, in the final analysis, people like you and me are going to remain
passionate about this hobby and preserve the instruments we already
have.  I don't think anyone should count on "investment potential" to
justify a purchase; there just may not be any excluding the rarest of
instruments.  Show your toys to your friends.  Take them out if they
are portable.  Talk about your fascination with them to anyone who will
listen, invite people to hear them, and if all else fails, just enjoy
them yourself!  The future will take care of itself in spite of us.

Bruce Duncan