I am a professional musician of 35 years and the purpose of my guide is to let students and parents know about shopping for a quality Instrument. Keep in mind: "Teacher approved," "Not a throw away," "German type," "It has a serial number!", "This is a genuine", "This is not a Cheap imitation" or "Best quality for this price", "You won't find a better instrument at this price," "It has a one year Warranty", "Bankruptcy''..etc.. means absolutely nothing on a website or anywhere else and is a red flag! Remember just because an Instrument looks great doesn't necessarily mean its a good Instrument and all that glitters is not Gold. Cheap bargain "Instruments" use Inferior materials, poor finishes, badly fitted parts, inferior tone and little or No attention to setup. With brasses and woodwinds the most noticeable problems are with thin metals, poor finishes and cheap "pot metal" keys & bad valves that break easily and are badly aligned. These Instruments if they continue to work make them a trial for your child to learn on. Make sure a qualified musician plays your instrument when you receive it. A beginner will not know if its them or the Instrument that doesn't sound right. Low end cheap Instruments with names you have never heard of almost always are unrepairable because the inferior metal, the wood used and lack of replacement parts and Instrument Repairmen don't want to deal with this junk because they know its just going to be a temporary fix. There's a good reason you can't buy these "Instruments" at music stores. Most of these "Instruments" are made in India, Pakistan & Mainland China in sweat shops by the same company and sold under different names, most of them European sounding. Some use variations on quality brand names to trick you! Do research on any brand you want to buy and the seller. Any reputable Musical Instrument manufacturer should have their own Website, Distributors and sell their products in music stores AND not just on the Internet. Are there any reviews or complaints on the web? Where are they made? Is the shipping cost overly high and what's the return policy if they send you an inferior Instrument? Are you stuck with paying their overpriced shipping, handling and probably a hefty restocking fee not to mention your time and cost to send it back if its no good? The Seller has nothing to lose and everything to gain even if you ship it back! Forget about the positive feedback most customers see a pretty looking instrument that arrives quickly and think WoW and then leave positive feedback, some leave it without even playing the Instrument! They don't realize they have an inferior Instrument till it falls apart a couple months later and they never bother to go back and warn others with negative feedback or are afraid of retalitory feedback. Some are embarrassed they got taken. Be sure to throughly check for any and all feedback about defective merchandise with any kind of Instrument they sell that includes neutral feedback. If the Instruments are high quality there is very little chance of ever hearing such feedback because they are always inspected before being sent out by any reputable Manufacturer. Also if you read any promised supplies are missing with the order or that its inferior is another sign of non inspection & bad quality control. Be aware another trick of the seller is when a customer says they received a bad Instrument is for the seller to say contact us it must have been damaged during shipping, sometimes they blame the customer for mishanding it or say: "Best quality at this price" this means: Did you really expect a decent Instrument for what you paid? Your Child deserves to learn on a well made Instrument not some cheap "throw away" that will make a nice wall hanging or a prop for a play. If it sounds too good to be true it is, these are well planned out Scheme's to Con you, Buyer Beware! The moderately higher priced brand names are of much better quality and worth it, they can be repaired and will have resale value. If you can not afford a moderately priced quality brand name instrument or are afraid your child will give it up, I suggest you rent for the time being. You are not saving any money buying junk!