Experience to buy used piano

Source: Singapore Piano Shop & Music Book Online Shop   Published: 11/16/2019 11:00:40 PM   Clicked: 1099

One customer just bought a YAMAHA baby grand piano from us, and we learnt they've searched the piano for quite a long time, here we quoted her posts:

My son is 12 years old. He started to play piano about 10 months ago, I bought digital SingArts for him, he played more and more, so finally I found him a teacher and now it appears that SingArts is not enough and acoustic piano is needed.
Budget is kind of tight so I am looking for an used piano.

I came across an Kawai upright K25 for about 4800 SGD - is it good price for that one assuming that technician will confirm that it is OK?

I came across another piano that attracted my attention - it was YAMAHA "baby grand" ( if that is a proper name for small 150 cm grand). That one played a LOT better than 10 upright pianos there, so I couldn't forget that one even that I am not looking for grand and it is almost double the budget - it just sits in my mind whenever I think about piano for my son..

I also viewed a Kawai upright that was in private house and out of tune since few years, have no idea what was done before.

Yesterday we were in another place to test pianos, this time more official shop with Yamaha dealership and some used pianos and uprights. We tested some Yamahas U1 from late seventies, some other brands like Victor, Eterna, Weinberg, Sojin and Samick and it surprised me that my son finally told me that Samick SU-121 was the best within 2000-2500 S$ budget, better than old U1-s.

We were about to leave when I found another small piano with antique design, it appeared to be ...Shimmel - it was a lot smaller and more delicate than known to everyone U1 format, I didn't expected anything special but when we played it - it was totally crazy - smallest piano around (112cm) made so powerful bass we couldn't believe! It was that one:
https://www.pianoshop.sg/en/product.asp?ProdId=03295
I still can't believe in that sound, it was complete not just in bass but in all registers.

So far we have three candidates:
1. Samick SU-121 upright - within a budget and in great condition, ready to pick up and with warranty from dealer ( cheapest option )- that was the one picked by my son
2. YAMAHA baby - out of budget, sound nice and with dealer's guaranty
3. Shimmel Upright Antique Design - in good condition and warranty, out of budget like

We started to take into consideration grand baby also because my son has lessons on Yamaha G1, and finally I have confirmed the space for that piano: our living room like 3.5 x 5 meters and 2.8 meters height. We think it's a good deal for us and we like the piano very much after it's delivered. My son plays the piano everyday.

I have to say it's not easy to find a good piano and it need some homework before we make our decision.