I am very lucky to have been left a legacy of £10,000 and am wondering whether to upgrade my baby grand. Aside from the obvious musical investment, would it be a financial investment as well? If I did go down this route but needed to sell it again one day, would I recoup what I paid for it, would I lose, or would it have appreciated? If anyone has any suggestions I would be grateful. (I'll be away for 10 days or so, so thanks in advance to anyone who replies.)

Very few musical instruments are investments. Those that are (e.g. Amati and Stradivarius violins) are already priced at many millions of pounds. There may well be some modern instruments that will one day be equally revered - but could you have spotted the 1953 Fender Telecaster as such a star?

Pianos are probably the worst depreciators, as they are expensive to start with and have so many parts that eventually wear out and have to be refurbished or replaced.

A genuine history piece (a really old Broadwood or Pleyel or Erard) might keep its value - but would not be a good choice as an instrument to play.

For something you could use you'd need to be something of a piano expert and find a very fine second hand piano from one of the big names (Steinway, Bosendorfer, ...) that would hold its value, and you would still be doing well to get back what you paid for it. And you would not be able to play it very much as that would devalue it.

My view is that for a musician a piano is a tool and its value is in using it.

If you want something that is going to accumulate in value you need to be an expert in art or antiques.

A piano is to play. For investment purposes it would be a disaster. Even then, for £10k you are unlikely to be able to upgrade significantly from what you already have, unless what you have is really bad. Towards the bottom end of the quality new market would be a Yamaha C3, for example. If you were to decide to buy one, taking the £10k legacy plus the trade in on the baby grand you would almost certainly still need to find a bit more - the rrp is over £19k but you can get them (new) for less than £15k. I recently bought a May Berlin (Chinese, by Schimmel) which was cheaper but still likely to be beyond your legacy + trade-in. This being the case you are probably going to be getting a second hand instrument, in which case the question of whether it will be significantly better than what you already have becomes even more pertinent. In either event I cannot imagine there is the slightest chance of it's value appreciating: I repeat - a piano is to play.

If you are of a level to really appreciate an expensive instrument I don't see how you'd even consider that you'd want to get rid of it some time.

Mad Tom and Robodoc - thank you both very much for the replies. Very helpful and they make sense.

Sbhoa - well, hardly anything in life is certain, and you never know when your luck might turn; so, much as I would hate to have to sell a treasured possession, it might become necessary one day.