Vultures in a boneyard...

[happyrat1]

I thought I'd browse the classifieds today and took a look at the keyboards for sale in the Greater Toronto Area current listings.

I set the sort list to Price Highest to Lowest.

There are currently over 1,200 pianos and keyboards for sale in the region.

Hundreds of acoustic pianos lead the charge including so many baby grands I lost count.

These were interspersed with Vintage and Professional gear ranging from an Alesis Andromeda A6, to a Moog Grandmother, to hordes of Korg PAs and Yamaha Motifs of all generations.

Right now many professional musicians have sunken to selling their instruments to pay the rent and put food on the table.

I couldn't help but felt a profound sadness as I perused the listings.

Toronto is a pretty artsy town with a lot of people employed by the entertainment industry. We, however, remain in lockdown while Las Vegas is offering everyone to "Come for the gambling, stay for the plague!"

A love of music is an unrequited love. No matter how much we love the sound, it never loves us back...

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

A love of music is an unrequited love.

Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough know'st thy estimate,
The charter of thy worth keeps Craigslist guessing,
My bonds in thee are all determinate.

For how do I hold thee and still keep eating?
And for your sound where is my deserving?
Thanatos, for now, I still am cheating,
And the sound of mortgagors more unnerving.

Thy self thou gavest, in better times,
And me to whom thou gav'st gladly took,
So thy great gift, once so sublime,
Now must attend some other shnook.

Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,
But playing music ain't making me fatter.

*With deepest apologies to fans of Shakespeare's 87th sonnet.

 

[Biggles]

Just had a browse of the Toronto Craigslist, 270 items over $200.

Interesting mix of kit, some good some not so good.

1980’s Ibanez Tube Screamer pedal $450 which does not surprise me, I bought one for £45 and after hardly using it fir a year decided to sell it and it alone more than paid for the ex demo Boss GT100 that I bought to replace all my guitar pedals.

I suppose that one good thing is that something that is unused is better sold off to someone who will actually use it.

There are some really nice looking guitars but that is a minefield with so many Fender rip offs out there.

 

[happyrat1]

Craigslist is small potatoes...

Kijiji is the main buy and sell service in Canada...

Kijiji Canada

Pianos, organs, synthesizers & keyboards are available for sale in Toronto (GTA) - grand pianos, Roland, Hammond, Casio & more on Kijiji Canada's #1 Local Classifieds.

www.kijiji.ca

Gary

 

[Biggles]

That is one hellovalot of keyboards.

But just wait a while.

All or at least a sizeable proportion of the newbies who have bought up kit to learn to play keys during the isolation will give up and sell their gear on.

I would expect a lot of lower end arrangers, digital pianos and workstations like the Juno, Kross 2 and Yammy to come on the market in the New Year

 

[happyrat1]

Actually if you change the sort order to most recent first, you'll see tons of Casio CTK's and Yamaha PSRs for sale already.

Truly there's always a few hundred boards for sale here, but with Covid, people are having to choose between the baby grand Steinway in the living room and paying off the line of credit that's been ballooning during the lockdown. Not to mention theaters and clubs which are threatened with bankruptcy. I've never seen so many quality used instruments up for sale at one time before.

Gary