Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Good price for new Shigeru SK-2?

Hi everyone. I have been looking for a baby grand piano and I've seen a lot of good advice from this forum. I've played different brands and I personally like Shigeru SK-2 the best. My only question is pricing. The best offer I had from the dealer is about $42k (my location is US). I think there is still room for the price but not sure how much. I checked some of the previous threads for this piano but don't really see a recent discussion. I was wondering if anyone have bought an SK-2 recently and what is the best price you have ever seen, either new or used. Thanks a lot.

The current SMP price for the model in polished ebony is $57,400:
https://www.pianobuyer.com/brand/kawai/
$42k is a little bit more than 25% off that price, which isn't bad. Does your price quote include tax or delivery? Is the dealer inventory well-prepped and do they have a good reputation for after-sales support? Do you love a specific example of an SK-2 at your dealer more than any others you've tried?

There isn't a lot of new or recent used inventory around in some places, as the supply chain is still wonky, making for a different than normal shopping experience. It's probably the time of year where the most piano shopping takes place, and it's also my impression that it's more of a seller's market right now (at least compared with a couple years ago).

If I were 100% sure that my favorite piano is at a particular dealer, the deal probably wouldn't be swayed by a thousand dollars (one way or the other) for me, given the price range in which you're operating. But there's no harm in making an offer and continuing to shop around.

I don't see any on PianoMart right now, one recent used SK3 on eBay that the owner doesn't own outright, and an older used SK2 in a wood finish at a dealer that has a player system on it (which devalues the piano, IMO). Nothing else in the US pops up without trolling a bunch of local area sites.

I agree completely with terminal degree

Given an expected potential discount of 10 to 30% off SMP the dealer is making a pretty fair initial offer. You could make a counter offer and wait (there is no such thing as an emergency piano purchase), but dealers may be less flexible if they only have limited stock of a particular popular model and know that they will be able to sell it in a reasonable timeframe

Usually, higher end pianos sell at more of a discount, but Shigerus are limited in availability to start with and very popular within a certain subset of piano shoppers

I took delivery of a new SK5 very recently. When I was piano shopping only 1 SK5 was on the floor and it was already sold. Another uncrated SK5 was in the back waiting to be set up. I went back a week or two later and that unopened SK5 had been sold sight unseen without ever making it to the showroom. A few weeks later, the dealer took delivery of another SK5 and I was alerted the day it arrived. I tried it the next day and made the decision to purchase it shortly thereafter.

So in the span of a month or the dealer sold 3 SK5s!

I think literally every brand/model has significant variability from piano to piano so if you are picky and think you've found "the one" it's probably reasonable to go for it

For the record I did not negotiate or counter offer when I purchased my piano because
1. The price was in line with expectations based on SMP - typical discounts
2. I liked one particular piano, and a few grand in the overall scheme of things was not a big difference
3. I think there's a gentleman's understanding that service expectations are inversely proportional to the intensity of pre purchase bargaining. I didn't push at all on price but the dealer also called in a favor and had Don Mannino spend several hours optimizing it prior to delivery. In my opinion, that level of service alone far exceeded the value of any haggling

Edit:

Wanted to also mention that I think the SK2 is a great model and I think it has very few competitors in the sub 6 category. But to reiterate the "each piano is unique" mantra, I tried 3 SK2s far preferred one of them over the other two

When converted, a BN SK2 in my country is USD 36419.

Unfortunately , prices in one country do not transfer to prices in another.

When I purchased my SK2 the price you quoted give or take 2-4K was more or less what I would have thought would be a good buy on a brand new SK2. That was just prior to the pandemic and supply chain issues. I think given today’s market that’s a good price in my opinion.

When I purchased my SK2 I paid a bit less than the price posted by the OP. (Note I'm based in the UK).
However, I recently had contact with my dealer who told me that demand for Shigerus is good and there is a waiting list of several months now.


Unfortunately, this suggests that the prices are going up.

For what it's worth, I bought an SK-2 in early 2018 in Denmark (I know, prices don't compare to the US).

List price was USD ~38000. My discounted price was USD ~31000 including a rather complicated delivery (lifting the piano into an apartment with a heavy road crane), a bench and two tunings (plus the MPA visit).

In late 2018, the list price for an SK-2 went up to USD ~41000. Recently, it went up again to USD ~46000. Around here, most piano prices seem to have increased by similar rates, with a few exceptions (pianos manufactured in China seem not to have gone up in price).

Yes, I'm terrible at negotiating and would, in this market especially, be afraid of annoying the dealer to the point it's sold out from under me, only to have to wait six months or longer and maybe even pay more for it. This is exactly the kind of mentality that feeds the inflation monster. Unfortunately, however, for buyers of pianos and many other comparatively scarce items, that is for the moment the hand we've been dealt.

Thanks everyone for the reply. I was choosing between Yamaha C2X, KAWAI SK-2 and GX2. I like kawai's action better and the sound of SK-2 it's way more colorful compared with the other two.

I understand the supply issue and the dealer also mentioned something similar. However, I'm able to get about 40% off SMP for YAMAHA c2x. Not sure why the discount I can get is much lower for KAWAI. I can only get about 25% off SMP for both GX2 and SK2. My impression is you may be able to get better discount for KAWAI compared with Yamaha. My original budget was for GX2 level, so SK-2 is way over my budget. That's why I would like to check some recent purchase price and have the best discount I can possibly get.

That really means nothing except how the different manufacturers structure their pricings and discounts. Don't play the game - just go by the actual price you'll pay and ignore what the list price and discounts are :-)

Yeah, I agree. It's over my budget, but I am willing to spend more money for a better touch/sound and enjoy playing it for the next 10-20 years. Thanks for the advice.