Posted by Rick Denney on December 18, 2003 at 11:14:48:
In Reply to: Re: Re: How would you price a used 4/4 Nirschl? posted by David L. Simmons on December 16, 2003 at 22:26:39:
Estimating the value of something like that is really difficult, because they are not that common and no longer in production and so there is no way to check a market price.
What I've done in similar circumstances is price a similar instrument (something that looks similar in a picture and that is generally thought to be of similar quality).
Thus, to insure my 1937 Reynolds euphonium (with four top-action valves and upright bell), I used a Yamaha 321 as a comparable instrument, and paid extra for replacement value coverage.
I've never had to test the technique, fortunately.
The other approach is to pay a dealer to provide you with an appraisal.
My suspicion is that your horn would be worth something in the range of about four thousand dollars or less, judging from the prices received for other Boehm and Meinl-made four-valve CC's. It would depend on condition, of course, and this is just a guess from someone who owns a B&M-made York Master and who therefore keeps an eye on stuff from B&M.
If it says "Made in Germany", it was either made before the early 50's or after 1990. When it became clear that eastern German was not flourishing under Soviet influence, makers in western Germany marked their products "Made in Western Germany". Later, when the partitioned parts of German coalesced into countries, anything from B&M would have been marked "Made in West Germany", while anything from the east (i.e. B&S) would have been marked "Made in DDR".
Rick "who owns western and eastern German photographic equipment from that era, too" Denney