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Chapter 1. Introduction 

The purpose of this report is to provide the general public with some insight into the workings of the music industry in general and the violin business in particular. By presenting facts which are probably little known to the buying public, we hope with this report to give the consumer a helpful tool to guide him in selecting a violin and/or having repairs made on it. The violin will be used as an example, but the same considerations and principles apply to the viola, cello, bass and bows for these instruments.

The violin is probably the most romanticized instrument in existence. Much has been written about the violin, from the position of the maker, the collector and the player, but most people are unable to separate fact from fiction. Most of the fiction is deliberately fostered by certain violin dealers and teachers, and we hope to explain in this report some of the reasons for this practice.

A. Basic Facts to Remember

Fact 1.
The merchandizing of violins is totally unlike the merchandising of any other product. Throughout the world, violins are bought and sold in a way that has no parallel. No other trade defines "usual and customary" business practice in the same way as violin dealers. It is hard to say this loudly enough: No other consumer product is sold in the same fashion as are violins. This fact is especially obvious when we are talking about old/antique instruments. Therefore, knowing the common methods/schemes of this trade (outlined as Fact 5) will protect you from becoming a sheep to be shorn. Knowledge will make you an educated buyer.

Fact 2.
Fact 2. The violin is a classical "blind item." Very few people have the professional qualifications to appraise authenticity and physical condition. Yet it is these which ultimately determine any instrument’s "Fair Market" value.

Fact 3.
The beauty of sound of any violin has no necessary relation to the price of the instrument. Just as visual beauty is in the eye of the beholder, beauty of sound is in the ear of the listener. Anything we perceive with our five senses is judged subjectively, as something we "like" or "don’t like" --not as something which is objectively good or bad, since there are no recorded and accepted standards to judge by.

Fact 4.
The actual monetary value of a violin, like that of any other article, is determined by what it will bring in a sale--regardless of how much, or how little, one may have paid for it in the first place. Insurance reimbursements are the only exception to this rule.

Fact 5.
More than ninety percent (90%)of all violin teachers, tutors, and orchestra directors--as well as a large number of music administrators in schools and universities, not only public but private -- are employed on a "commission" basis. Covertly, they receive "finder’s fees", kick-backs, bribes, or other forms of remuneration from various instrument dealers.

Fact 6.
To accommodate the routine payments to third parties, most sellers who do not provide Cash-Buy-Back Warranties have to add -- on top of the normal 33% gross business profit (not net profit)-- considerable marks-ups. These are astonishing. They may triple, even quadruple, the whole-sale/Fair-Market price of the instrument.

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