Looking for a logistical nightmare? Try to get rid of a piano

Getting into the piano business is a heavy decision. While that’s a bit of a bad pun, it’s also the truth.

Piano dealers mostly have their own infrastructure in place to deal with one of the world’s heaviest instruments. But for people who have a piano and don’t want it anymore, things can get complicated in a hurry.

Just ask Pete DeVito of Washington Township. DeVito isn’t even selling the Brambach baby grand piano he got from his brother. He’s only interested in giving it away, and even that is proving difficult.

“At the time, my three daughters were younger, and I thought they might start piano lessons,” DeVito said.

His daughters opted for athletics instead, and he listed the piano on Facebook Marketplace.

That’s where it can get tricky, according to Ed Kuszajewski, manager at Vittone’s Music Center in Hempfield, which sells a variety of instruments and has a piano showroom at the rear of the store.

“You have to have special equipment, a piano dolly, various sizes of grand skid board because you have to set the piano on its side and take the legs off to move them,” Kuszajewski said.

Vittone’s has a dedicated piano mover who shuttles between eastern Ohio, northern Maryland and western Pennsylvania doing the specialized work. Kuszajewski said it can cost between $350 and $700 to move a piano properly, without risking damage.

DeVito said that while he has been contacted several times about his Facebook Marketplace ad, it often has been with specific requests.

“I had a guy call who just wanted the bench, someone who just wanted the metronome, but I want to get rid of the whole package,” he said. “Someone wanted me to play it over the phone for them, and someone else wanted to know when it was last tuned.”

Kuszajewski said the maintenance of unused pianos like DeVito’s plays a large role in the ability to resell one.

“A piano can look great cosmetically, but if it’s been neglected and has just been sitting around, it’s going to need a good amount of work,” he said. “It’s not a sofa, but a lot of people treat a piano like a big piece of furniture.”

The frustration among home piano sellers is clear. On Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, several listings show an initial price that is crossed out, reduced or eventually just changed to some variation of “free to a good home and you have to come get it.”

DeVito’s ad notes that anyone interested will need “a truck, some muscle and a furniture dolly.”

On top of that, when there’s potential money to be made, you can count on scammers getting in on the action.

Piano Mart, a website dedicated to buying and selling pianos, has a large list of email addresses they’ve collected of potential piano scammers, who use a combination of forged cashier’s checks and wire transfers to grift money from sellers.

That makes it even tougher for someone like DeVito.

“A friend of mine had a similar piano, and to finally get rid of it, he ended up paying to have someone remove it,” he said. “I don’t want to do that — I’d love for someone to be able to take it and use it in their home.”