Thoughts on Buying a Lowrey Organ

Based on the few times I’ve shopped and most recently, bought an organ, I thought I’d write a little something for those thinking about buying an organ or trading up. I’m no expert by any means, but I think this makes sense.

The first thing is where to buy? Private sale such as Craigslist and Ebay or with a dealer? It isn’t as easy as it sounds. In general we think that a private sale will be better priced, and in most cases that is true, but not so much in the organ market.

We’ve seen the stories — ‘I inherited it and do not play, how much is xxx worth’? That is the biggest single story out there. They get a bogus value from somewhere, either a dealer that isn’t being entirely truthful or they look at Ebay and see the asking prices, or they have the invoice from when it was bought new, and go from there. In the case of Ebay, they usually don’t do the diligence to see what those are actually selling for, in the case of the very few that actually do sell. Same applies to Craigslist, except there is no way to see what they actually sold for.

Value – how much is that new to you organ worth in actual dollars, and how much is it worth personally to you?

If you go to the dealer, chances are the asking price will be higher than the private sale. But they will negotiate, more on that later. In a private sale, unless it is local to you or you have a way to go get that behemoth, the transportation costs to get it to your front door is most likely going to be about $800-$1000. Keep that in mind. If the organ you are looking at is worth $2K, it is worth $2K sitting in your house, not $2K plus $1K to get it there! And that doesn’t include setting it up in your home in general.

I know people that have bought an organ for what they considered a great or fair price only to be shocked at what it costs to get it in their house.

Dealer sales – IF you are wanting to trade-in, this is your only option obviously. But how much is that organ you’re wanting to trade in worth? For a Lowrey, if it is an LX or older model the answer is very little. For instance, I know for a fact that my LX500 was worth $500 in trade for an SU or A series Lowrey. I know that because the dealer was talking to himself on the phone with me and let that particular cat out of the bag.

Frankly, unless you are trading in one of a very short list of older organ, you will get nearly zero in trade in actual value. That’s because the dealer doesn’t want it and most likely won’t even sell it. He’ll send it to the dump straightaway when he picks it up at your house. He cannot get enough money for it to cover the fixing up, transportation and maybe a very short warranty to a new buyer. It just doesn’t make economic sense. Of course, he could do what our local dealer did. Stuck all those old, non-sellable organs upstairs at his store to gather dust.

Buying from a dealer does get the old one out of your hair though, and that has a certain value in and of itself. Sure, you could list it for sale somewhere. But realistically, it will take quite awhile to sell and probably won’t sell for much anyway. That is unless you have one of the rare, highly desired models and are in a hotspot of organ sales. Most of us don’t fit in that category though, do we?

If at all possible, the best way to buy a new/newer organ is with cash. If you use a credit card, the dealer has to pay for its use, which means you will pay for it in the price. If you need to finance it, try to get the financing on your own. The dealer most likely won’t have a lender that will give you a good rate since banks tend to not want to loan on organs. You can get a loan for it from the bank though, if you have the credit to support the loan without considering the organ itself.

If at all possible, figure out what is the least new/newer organ you are willing to buy and go from there. Here’s what I did on my purchase of the Palladium a couple of days ago.

I had originally started looking for a deal on a Royale and went to the dealer to get a look at one and play it. While there, the salesman showed me the Stardust. I was impressed enough that I had pretty much decided a Stardust was what I really wanted, but a Royale would be OK too. Then after a few phone discussions, he suggested a scratch ‘n dent Palladium. And I ran into a Grand Royale.

I did a little research and decided that I could afford a Royale or Grand Royale, and if I got really lucky, the Palladium. When I went to the store to do the buying, I had cold, hard cash in my hand and I made sure the salesman knew that. I had a maximum I was willing to pay for the Palladium in my pocket and had decided that I would get the most organ I could get for that, but nothing less than a GR or Royale. I also had maximum I was willing to pay for all those models in mind.

After all was said and done, I ended up with the Palladium at a price that you’ve never seen one offered for or sold for. Way less than that.

Luck was with me, the rapport I established with the salesman (who was also one of the owners) and my unwillingness to pay more than I had said I would all played a part in me getting one of those rare fantastic deals. And you can’t downplay luck in this either. Great deals come along sparingly, but when they do you have to jump on them quick as they don’t last. I was lucky because I had the money when that deal showed up.

Patience is a virtue in these things. If you are friendly with the salesman/woman and have patience, you can oft times get a better deal than you thought you would.

I hope this gives you some food for thought. If others have some ideas that might help, chime in.

Lloyd