Last time I said I discovered four ways to shop for pianos, but I only covered two. Hopefully my faithful audience hasn't been on pins and needles since then. After all, the other two ways are the two most traditional ways: Piano retail stores, and private owners.

I shopped around at a few different piano stores in my efforts to find the perfect piano. I was struck by the different attitudes different stores had, and how I was handled by the various salespeople. One guy was so anxious to make any sort of sale that he directed me to a subpar piano without stopping to find out much about my skill level or what I wanted a piano for. Another store had a guy at the door who said hello and told me to call him if I had any questions; otherwise, I was left quite alone. Another salesman did a decent job of listening to me and showing me various pianos and comparing them, but didn't seem particularly interested in really making the sale happen. Some asked for my contact information, which I freely gave, but not all who got it used it. (If you're going to try to sell an item as expensive as a piano, it might take more than one contact with the customer, don't you think?)

I didn't buy a piano from any of those guys.

At yet another store, I was approached by a friendly, knowledgeable saleswoman who explained things to me, found out exactly what I was looking for, and steered me precisely in the direction of the kind of piano that was right for me. I'm not saying she was a perfect salesperson, or that I bought a piano from her because of her sales techniques, but she certainly did help her cause with the way she worked with me.

I spent a morning in her store looking at pianos. One in particular caught my eye, and I was told by her manager that it was such a special deal it wouldn't last long. I was still somewhat early in the process, though, and wasn't ready to make a decision. I also wasn't sure it was the best piano for the best price. Turns out at least a month later, that piano was still there, for the same price. Hm.

I worked with this same saleswoman at the university piano sale described earlier. She put on the pressure, and nearly had me convinced with one particular deal that did seem quite good, but not quite good enough to take. When I walked away from that deal, I decided that was probably as good as I was going to get on the retail front. And if I passed it up, it only left one other option: the second-hand market.

So I started scouring the papers (online of course) and Craigslist. It's amazing what you can find there. Eventually, I made an appointment to go see a 6'1" Kawai from 2000 for a really great price. The piano was in pristine shape, lovingly played, and was only being sold because its owner had passed away. My only concern was that it might be too big--I was more in the market for Kawai's 5'10" model. But this might be a deal too good to pass up.

The thing was, Shelly and I had decided that we'd really like to install a system on our piano that allows you to mute the hammers and strings and plug in headphones, thus making it possible for me to practice when Ellie is in bed, which is when I have the most time to practice. This piano, of course, didn't have that, so I started searching around for technicians or stores that could install it, to get a sense of the price. I was pretty ready to do this deal.

As it turned out, other technicians informed me that probably the only place that could do it was the piano store where my favorite saleswoman worked. I'd been ignoring her for a couple of weeks, but I called her back to inquire about the silent system.

As I was explaining that I was looking in the private market, she asked what I had found there. It was then that it hit me. I hearkened back to the negotiation class I had taken in law school. One of the best bargaining strategies you can have is to make sure your BATNA is good. That's Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. In other words, you can get a good deal when you know you can walk away to something just about as good.

I realized that with this piano from the newspaper, I was armed with a very good BATNA. So I told her all about the offer I was about to accept. She noted that she had seen that advertisement in the paper. She admitted it was a hard-to-beat price. But then she said. Let me see what I can do for you and call you back.

Half an hour later, she called back with an offer that beat anything I'd seen in a store before. A brand-new piano of the size I was more interested in for a price only slightly more than the extra-low price I'd been offered on a seven-year-old piano. I thought the difference in price was worth the newer piano. She offered me a good discount on the quiet system too. I took the offer back to Shelly and we decided to do it.

The only thing left to do was to pick out the actual individual piano we wanted.

To be continued...