I agree with Gordon Stelter, it is a good idea to also have a qualified
player piano technician look over the instruments and assess their
condition before buying them [161007 MMDigest].

I service and restore pianos and player pianos for a living.  I live
about 45 minutes from the Herr collection.  I have seen this collection
myself and met the heirs.  I'm sure Randolph spoke only 'glowingly'
of his collection to his family members who are novices.  At the time
I thought the prices were unrealistically high.

It _is_ a great collection, with something like 18 Steinway player
pianos, many of them extraordinary.  Many of these instruments had
parts removed and some parts were missing.  I saw a big pile of Duo-Art
parts in the basement.  They need to have someone like me go over there
to put together these instruments and assess them to see exactly what
they have.

Bill Maguire