Occasionally, a church needs to sell their organ. Our initial advice: if you have the space, keep the organ. Even if you don’t have immediate plans to use, restore or maintain the organ, someday, your congregation may want the pipe organ returned. It’s ability to inspire cannot be replaced by electronically produced sounds through speakers, nor will guitars and drums have a lasting place in traditional church worship. Further, the escalating costs of manufacturing a new organ will play a role in future decisions; good stewardship dictates that the investment made by those who have preceded you be carefully weighed.

That said, your first challenge will be to place a value on the instrument. This is often difficult given the wide range of manufacturers, sizes, tonal designs, locations (installation complexity) and intricacy of the action. You will need to understand the differences between market values, insurance (replacement) values and depreciated values. You will need to understand the perspective of the purchaser who will need to consider the associated costs involved with redesigning, reconfiguring, revoicing an organ that was custom designed for your congregation, your physical space and your acoustic. In short, you will need an organbuilder for step one. Hopefully your current service provider can help; certainly, an APOBA member can help.

Step 2: Consider the avenues available to advertising and selling the organ. We suggest using the Web to contact the Church Organ Trader. These folks advertise any and all things related to pipe organs. We also suggest using classified ads in both The American Organist and Diapason magazines; also accessible on the web.

Step 3: Depending on the conditions of the present organ’s installation, you may wish to consider hiring an insured professional to remove the organ in order to protect the building and its furnishings, as well as anyone who might be injured in the process. Please feel free to include a summary of your situation in the Message section on the APOBA Contact page and check with your local APOBA builder for advice. There may be a small consultation fee involved, but it is imperative that an organ be properly removed for preservation. Occasionally an organ is removed in exchange for the cost of removal; this ensures its preservation and prevents the harmful portions of the organ (lead and tin) from being improperly disposed.