I lived in Palo Alto and there used to be a store called Drapers but it's gone. I don't know of many stores but there is "the starving musician" starvingmusician.com/startframe.htm and they deal mostly used horns, but they have a good staff, but personally i would go Best.

Somewhat to my surprise, I bought a new sax at Best on Tuesday! I really only intended to 'window shop', but the stars and planets lined up just right. Here's the complete rundown: Parameters: I used my Rovner mouthpiece for this shopping trip - a little more open than my Yamaha 5C, and what I've been using the most, recently. I was assuming that Best would offer me anywhere from $500 to $900 for my 1-yr-old Yamaha YTS-23 (bought from them), and I had set an *absolute* max of $2500 out the door. A few of the saxes I tried were under $2000 (a Selmer 200, LA Sax 800 and a Yamaha 50-something [55?]), but they either didn't play that well (the Selmer was really 'stuffy') or just didn't feel like much of a step up from the YTS-23. The octave key (one of my main reasons for wanting to upgrade) on the LA Sax was maybe even worse than on my Yamaha YTS-23. For $2180 there was the YTS-62II. I liked it a lot, but compared to the next step up the action felt a little stiff. Then there was an old Selmer (36?) on consignment for $2500. It sounded pretty good, but felt sloppy (i.e., in need of maintenance) and I didn't love it right away, so I kept moving. I also tried a new Selmer Series III ($4200). I couldn't possibly afford it, but it was really sweet to play (both action and sound), even though something about the palm keys didn't feel quite right (I suspect I'm already trained to prefer the Yamaha feel in that regard). It was hard to see why it would be worth $1200+ more than the two Japanese contenders. Those two would be the Yamaha YTS-82Z ($2660: only $60 over the best price I'd seen for a new one on the web) and the Yanigasawa 901 ($2990: again, not so far from web prices). Both had a *very* good feel and sound (IMHO). The Yani had a slight edge on the left hand pinky keys. Going from low C# to B was a little bit easier. The flip side was that the Yamaha was a little bit more consistent in terms of intonation. I figured that for $330 I could train myself to use the *slightly* less comfortable Yamaha left pinky keys, so the only remaining question was how much Best would give me for my YTS-23. I figured that if I sold it myself (eBay, Craig's List, whatever) the absolute best I could get for my YTS-23 was $900 (it really is in great shape), and that would mean holding out for the best possible buyer. They (Best Music) offered me $700 - right in the middle of my assumed range - so that put the actual price (after trade-in) of the YTS-82Z at $1960 + tax. SOLD! It's the standard lacquered brass model, but I don't think I'm anywhere near being able to distinguish between that and silver or other options. This may very well be the only sax that I need for a very long time... Thanks to all for the input/feedback.