Justed wanted to add:

I have a haynes-schwelm flute that I had as a 9 yr old playing through jr high. It is now being passed down to my 11 yr old daughter. It is not junk to me. I looked into what it is worth to find out no more than $400. Not sure what it is made out of...not silver, I think nickle?? It is valueable to my family and would love for it to contiue in the family. It was good to me and will be to my daughter. And if she becomes serious as a flutist than we will invest in a better sounding flute.

Nickel flutes are awesome for marching band. I have one, and it lasted through 11 years of concert bands, 5 years of marching band, and COUNTLESS assaults from mean middle school kids who stolle it from me, hit stuff with it, dumped it in a toilet, etc. They are virtually indestructable! I just had it overhauled and it sounds better than it did when it was brand new.

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Sorry for misspellings!

Also, just wanted to add that if my child was playing flute, I would definitely get them a nickle flute before I would get them anything valuable. Kids are so careless sometimes, and who knows if they will really be serious about playing a year from now... So many kids I went to school with upgraded to a B-foot, open holed silver flute only to drop out of band a year later.