Is a Second-Hand Handpan Worth It? An Honest Maker's View

A handpan we made eight years ago is, right now, somewhere in northern Italy in the hands of someone who bought it from someone who bought it from us. We know because the current owner messaged us last winter asking about a tiny rust spot near one of the side notes. We sent them a care guide. They sent back a video of the instrument sounding, honestly, better than when it left the workshop.

That is the conversation worth having before you buy or sell a second-hand handpan. Not "is it cheaper?", but "what happens to one of these instruments after the first owner moves on?"

The quick answer

A second-hand handpan from a real maker is almost always a good buy if three things are true: the instrument is in tune, you can verify the maker, and the price is between 70% and 100% of the current new price. Vintage handpans from defunct makers (PANArt, early SPB) can be worth significantly more than new. The risk isn't depreciation - it's counterfeits and mistuned instruments sold by people who don't know any better.

What actually happens to a handpan as it ages

A handpan is a deep-drawn steel shell, hammer-tuned by ear, glued at the seam, and nitrided or chemically hardened. Once you stop seeing it as an "object" and start seeing it as a tensioned metal structure, the aging makes sense.

In the first two to three months after the instrument leaves the workshop, the steel relaxes. The harmonics settle a few cents. The central "Ding" - the note in the middle - usually becomes more present and easier to hit. We retune at this point if a customer brings it back.

In the first year, the player's relationship to the dynamics changes the instrument back. Steel responds to repeated vibration at specific frequencies. The notes you hit most often soften and round. The notes you ignore stay bright. By month twelve, an instrument that started life "uniform" sounds like its owner.

After three to five years with consistent play and decent care, a handpan reaches what other instrument families call its mature voice. Violin-makers and luthiers have known this for centuries. There is no good reason to assume steel behaves differently.

We've had customers send us back instruments after five years just so we could hear them. It is genuinely a different experience than playing a new one.

Why this matters for second-hand value

In most consumer markets the rule is simple: depreciation. A new car loses 20% the moment it leaves the lot. A new phone is worth half within eighteen months. A new mattress is worth nothing the day you sleep on it.

Handpans don't follow that rule, because:

1. Production is tiny. A serious maker produces 50-150 instruments per year. Nala produced fewer than that for most of our existence.
2. The mature voice is real. A well-played instrument sounds better than the same instrument new. So used can be more desirable, not less.
3. Some makers are gone. PANArt stopped making the original Hang in 2013. Pantheon Steel is gone. SPB has changed dramatically. Those instruments can't be made again. The market knows.

A 2013 PANArt Hang in good condition currently sells for €6,000-€12,000 on dedicated handpan forums - several times its original price. We've seen specific scales (the D Minor, the Mystique) hit four figures repeatedly.

That doesn't mean every used handpan appreciates. Most depreciate gently to about 70-80% of new price and stop there, holding that value indefinitely.

A story about a borrowed handpan

About eight years ago, an SPB handpan from Russia made its way to me in Bucharest. SPB (the workshop of Sergey Bardyshev) was one of the first makers in the world; he helped popularise the word "pantam" that some of the community now prefers to "handpan".

That instrument had been around. The hammer marks were visible. It had crossed the Atlantic, lived in the US for years, and arrived in Romania through three or four hands. Its value at the time was around €10,000.

And people lent it to each other. Not because it was cheap, but because it was real - a community of players passing a mature instrument between them, trusting one another the way violinists in Cremona once did with the older Stradivarius instruments. When I played it, the sound was not struck; it was poured. You barely touched it and the room changed.

That instrument is the reason we now keep two of our own handpans circulating among players in Romania. They go to people who need them - workshops, festivals, beginners who can't afford a first instrument. They come back six months later with a different voice and a fresh story.

A second-hand handpan, treated this way, is not "used". It is seasoned.

When second-hand is a bad idea

We owe you the other side of this.

You don't know the maker. Counterfeit handpans (cheap stamped shells from Asian factories, sold as "handpans" with no tuning or with mass-produced tuning) flood Facebook Marketplace, AliExpress-adjacent sellers, and unregulated reseller accounts. They are typically priced €400-€900. They sound recognisably wrong to anyone with experience but can fool a first-time buyer. If you can't trace the instrument to a working maker by name, walk away.

The instrument was dropped. Steel dents change tuning permanently. A dent in the central area near the Ding will warp the whole instrument's tuning over time. Photos of the inside (taken through the port hole with a phone light) usually show internal damage if the outside hides it.

The previous owner "tuned it themselves". This is rare but devastating. A handpan tuned by an untrained hand cannot usually be saved. Ask directly.

Rust on the playing surface. Light surface rust on the rim or port is fine. Rust on a note field is a serious problem; it has likely changed the metal's behaviour at that note's frequency.

The price is too good. Below 50% of current new price from a known maker, something is wrong. Either the instrument is damaged, the seller is desperate, or the listing isn't real.

A real customer story (from our records)

Artur, who recorded an entire album with two Nala instruments, came to us second-hand on the first one. He'd bought a used D Kurd 9+1 from a player who'd had it for three years, sent us the audio, and asked whether it was worth the asking price.

It was. The instrument sounded fully matured, the previous owner was a careful player, and the price was about 75% of our new price at the time. We confirmed the build was ours, gave it a free retune when he visited the workshop, and he went on to use it on stage.

His verdict on our work, from his public review:

"Made an entire album with two of Nala's handpans. The sound quality and tuning stability are exceptional - studio and live performance ready."

Artur Pasecinic, multiple-instrument owner (verified review)

The second instrument he bought new. He says he can hear the difference even now, two years in: the first one is rounder, the second is brighter. Both are "his" handpans.

How to buy second-hand safely

Five steps that have worked for our community:

1. Identify the maker by name and verify they made it. Most makers will confirm a serial number or photo by email. We do this for free.
2. Get isolated audio of every note. Not "a song". Each note, played slowly. Compare to a reference video of the same scale.
3. Ask about history. Drops, retunes, environment (humid attic? dry studio?), and number of owners.
4. Negotiate retuning into the deal. Add €100-€300 to your budget for a professional retune after purchase. Email us or your preferred maker and confirm they'll work on it before you commit.
5. Buy through a community channel, not a generic marketplace. Dedicated Facebook groups, the HandpanWorld forum, or maker-vetted listings have built-in accountability.

How to sell a Nala handpan you no longer want

We will help. If you bought a Nala handpan and you're ready to pass it on, write to us at nala@handpan.ro. We will:

• Confirm authenticity for prospective buyers
• Suggest a fair current price based on the model, age, and condition
• Optionally retune it before sale for a fixed fee
• List it in our internal network if you'd prefer not to handle a public sale

The handpan you sell becomes someone else's voice. We have a small interest in making sure that handover goes well.

So - is it worth it?

In most cases, yes. A second-hand handpan from a real maker is one of the most stable instrument purchases you can make: you usually pay less than new, you get a sound that's already matured, and the resale value is robust if you ever want to move it on.

The catch is that you must do the homework. The marketplace is messier than it was a decade ago.

If you're looking, we keep a list of Nala handpans currently for sale by their owners. Email and we'll share what's on the list. If you'd rather buy new, you can browse the lineup in our shop or read how to choose your first handpan first.

Either way, treat the instrument like a presence, not an object. That's the part of the spirit worth keeping.