Hey, thanks for taking the time to try and help me out! It does seem like it's a buyer's market right now for pianos, but a decent piano still costs a considerable amount of money. Of course, I think this is partly because I'm very serious about it so I don't want just anything.
If you get a poorly maintained piano, it could cost several thousand dollars to restore it. Just replacing the actions of a grand costs something like $4k-$5k from what a technician told me.
If you're willing to try a lot of free pianos and know how to recognize ones that don't need restoring you can get a good one for the cost of having it moved.
Given the difficulty people experience in getting rid of pianos, and the constant flood of pianos, a piano might not cost you much money; you might even be able to get paid to take a nice piano off someone's hands: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/arts/music/for-more-pianos...