actually that was the exact problem i thought of when considering doing this kinda free lance job.....
i would start off within my circle of frens for example if my fren wants to sell his/her piano , i can step in as a middleman and find a potential buyer.i know my frens and my frens know me so there is this form of trust between us.my frens know that i'm crazy over pianos and they trust that the information i give to them on their pianos is true to best of my knowledge....
sometimes or practically most of the time , these 2nd hand piano shops usually quote a price which is much lower than the actual cost of the seller's piano inclusive of depreciation....
it goes something like this.If u think my quote is low , den go look for another 2nd hand piano dealer.the process goes on and on and everytime the same thing happens again and again....time and energy is wasted in finding a 2nd hand piano dealer on the classified ads and in no time , u feel that the same 2nd piano dealers are always posting the same advertisement on the classified ads day after day....
for in my case , i could quote an estimated price after calculating depreciation.wad i would do is take down the serial number , model and brand of the piano and email the details to the piano manufacturer and wait for a reply concerning the year in which the piano was produced and from there i could work out a decent estimated selling price.
then i'll find some buyers from my own circle of connections and tell them the selling price and then whoever is interested can take a look at the piano...
many 2nd hand piano dealers claim that they're doing it out of pure interest but i dun seem to buy that idea cause after all , they need to pay money for their shop rent , eletricity bills etc and as for me , i dun need so much money to support my lifestyle cause i'm a 17 year old teen after all , i dun have to fully support myself financially well at least not yet.....
wad matters most in business is honesty and not money....