The Vintage Item In Your Home That's Quickly Losing Value

If you love buying antique furniture, you have probably eyed a gorgeous vintage piano once or twice. However, if you take the plunge and purchase one, you have essentially bought an item that will do nothing but lose value. This is because from the moment you buy one, your piano depreciates in value for several reasons, and also because pianos just aren't very popular anymore. Willow Wright, the owner of Urban Redeux Vintage, told House Beautiful that one of the reasons pianos have declined in popularity is due to the lack of music parlors and drawing rooms in modern homes.

Additionally, after just one year of ownership, a piano will have plummeted to being worth 78% of its value, a number that only continues to go down throughout the years. After 15 years, a piano is worth only 40% of its value. Because of this, the high price of pianos can't be justified in the same way anymore (especially considering the extra low resale value). In fact, some people are so desperate to get rid of their pianos that they give them away for nothing or for small change, vintage or not.

The value of a piano hinges massively on its condition. There are exceptions to pianos losing their value — for example, a Steinway piano will hold more value than a lesser-known brand name — but for the most part, the older a piano is, the less desirable it becomes. You can do certain things to help keep your piano in good condition, such as cleaning and tuning it regularly.

However, if it doesn't feel worth it to you anymore, it isn't easy to upcycle a worn-out piano. Matt Hirschfelder, a piano restorer in Salem, Oregon, told the BBC that the process of dismantling a piano is long and arduous, though he argues that this process is well worth it. Plus, if the piano hasn't been used for a while, the separate pieces could essentially be rendered useless. 

Overall, the harsh truth is that pianos just aren't a fashionable item to have in one's home anymore. Speaking to the BBC, Brian Majeski, editor of The Music Trades magazine, shared that pianos are just "not as culturally relevant" as they once were, hence their decline in value. So, the next time you spot a piano in a vintage store, don't be tempted to buy unless you want to give it away for a pittance (or worse, send it off to be destroyed) when you're done with it.