Fender Rhodes 73 suitcase Mk1

[Paul_k]

Hi, I'd like some advice on a Fender Rhodes Suitcase 73 Mk1.

The Piano is my father's (he's owned it privately for years in the UK) and he's asked me to find out if it's worth anything and to gauge interested in a possible sale. The piano has not been gigged or toured, just played in the living room for the last 25 years or so.... It really looks to be in great condition and plays perfectly (but I'm no expert!!)

Trouble is I've had a look about and I can't find a single suitcase model for sale in the UK. I've searched Ebay and seen a few 'Stage 73s', prices vary from £400 to £1500.  

Could anyone comment on value and likely interest in the UK?

Many thanks for your help...

[Mark II]

I would estimate the value to be somewhere between 1800 and 2500 euros.
That's what they achieve in german ebay, depending on their state.

Mark II

[axg20202]

To be honest, you can't give them away in the UK. I'll do you a favour and give you 100 quid for it.  

Seriously though, good condition suitcase models are not that easy to come by in the UK and fetch a good price. If it's in good cosmetic and functional condition I would expect it to be worth anything from about £1200-1500. As with anything though, it's worth whatever someone is willing to pay. People generally prefer the earlier model (with 3 concentric knobs) rather than the later version with sliders on the piano preamp, but in the UK people are less fussy on this point as a good condition suitcase piano is a good find regardless of the model (although I think Mark II suitcase pianos are probably valued a bit less for a piano of similar condition). If it was mine...I'd keep hold of it....but if I really wanted to sell it, I'd sell it on ebay, cash on collection only, with a reserve of £1000 and see what happens. There's usually a lot of bidding activity on Rhodes pianos for sale in the UK.

BTW, 1500 sheets for a Stage piano is absolute robbery, but there's always someone with more money than sense - like I said, they're worth whatever someone is willing to pay.

[Quatschmacher]

There's going to be plenty of interest. Which method you choose to sell it you will make a lot of difference to the price. You could be nice to someone here on the forum (such as myself :-) ) and sell it at a reasonable price .

Or you could go the ebay route and make a killing. (I have been watching Rhodes pianos on ebay for a long time now in order to research prices before buying one and the three suitcase 73s which have been listed there this year went for £1120, $1286 and £1380.)

I just wanted to mention, in response to the poster who recommended putting a reserve on the auction: From what I've seen putting a reserve on the auction tends to keep the price lower in general as people give up trying to meet it, as does a high opening bid. Auctions with low opening bids without a reserve get more people interested as they all think they'll be able to win it and in 99% of the cases the final price is ridiculously high. (I've even seen auctions for Rhodes pianos with a buy-it-now price, say, £850, where the final price ends up being £1000 or higher because the first bidder put in a low bid (and hence made the Buy-it-now option disappear) and then loads of people got into a bidding war!