I have been infected with this crazy hobby for nearly 20 years and,
while I certainly do not promote the "rendering" of old player pianos,
the sad truth is that sometimes we are left with no alternative.  I
still consider myself somewhat of a newcomer to this hobby, but during
my involvement I have seen the interest deteriorating.  At the "local"
auction years ago a dead player would _always_ fetch $100 and up.
Today it is ignored and very rarely receives a $5.00 bid.

When we owned a rental property, I took full advantage of the carriage
house (okay, it was just a nice two story garage).  It was packed full
downstairs with dead players, and in the upstairs were assorted stacks
and all kinds of parts we had acquired from many "old-timers".  Does
this sound familiar?

When the time came to sell the rental property, we were faced with
several truck loads of "stuff" that we had no place for.  This
investment of several hundreds of dollars was no longer an asset --
it was now a major liability.

I figured I would bite the bullet as for the money that was invested,
so I took out ads in the local papers and Pennysavers: "Free Unrestored
Player Pianos".  Living in the past (as I so frequently do) I expected
my phone would be ringing nonstop, but I had a total of three respon-
ses, with one lady coming and taking a look.  After she saw that the
pianos were not ready to sit in her living room, she was no longer
interested.

Where were all the "new" people that were becoming interested in these
wonderful machines?  It still amazes me today that we could not give
away one piano!

As you have surmised, we saved stacks and parts and spent even more
money having the pianos hauled away and destroyed.  Their value was
no longer worth what it cost to keep them; I didn't think I would ever
see that day!

Okay, so now I have confessed my sins.  How do we keep this from
happening again?  Do you see the interest growing?  Is my situation
unique to my geographic location (upstate New York) or is it universal?

Dave Smith
OutBack Mechanical Music
http://home.mkl.com/~outback/