Luanne- The key thing here is to avoid being ripped off - in any fashion. If your daughter has a private teacher you might feel like trusting him to help in your horn search. Or the teacher at school may know of a good deal on a lightly used sax. If you want to try eBay, be sure to refer to the forum in here titled Jim's List of Approved Brands in the High School section. There is lots of advice in this discussion. The main piece of advice is: do not try to save too much money. It's unusual to find a decent horn for less than $500. Try to find a brand on the approved list. Read as much as you can in here about brands --- there is plenty of discussion. Yamaha YAS-52 and even YAS-62 saxes in lightly used condition are available frequently for less than $1000, sometimes far less. YAS-23 beginner models are maybe $300-$500 in lightly used shape. Not much need to buy a cheap Chinese horn. 7th grade is when I was lucky enough to get a pro-line sax --- a 1961 Selmer Mark VI tenor. This horn has served me well for 45 years. If I had gotten a cheap eBay horn - or the like - I may have never had my own bands or even kept playing all these years. Something to consider. If you have access to a large music store, you might have your daughter take her own mouthpiece, reeds and cleaning supplies to try a buch of horns before buying, if you think she plays well enough to be discerning. Or take a musician with you. They can be found. I'd go play a bunch of different saxes and give my opinion to help a student if I had time that week. Good Luck.

Hey, Luanne, I have a Yamaha YAS 23. Which is a student sax. I purchased it from a family that had it for their son & he didn't like playing. I only bought it to see if I could still play before I took the plunge and bought a really expensive sax at the ripe old age of 47.. I am looking to sell, I think it's a decent instrument. It has a few use marks, mostly near the thumb rest. For a high school student it would be a good choice. I'd like to get around $200. for the instrument + shipping. I'm in Central PA, my camera isn't avail. right now, but I'd be glad to send you a pic in a couple of days. My e-mail is: [email protected]

If you're buying a student horn on ebay, a yamaha ( made in japan ) is by far the safest bet. there are other adequate brands out there but you need to have a bit of knowledge ( ie, in what country was a particular vintage made, USA or china etc ) in order to eliminate the dogs and rip-offs.

I'm sorry, but I wouldn't recommend any horn from an ebay annonomous source. YAS-23 or otherwise. It could arrive needing hundreds of dollars of work to be suitable. Some problems would not be apparent to those who were not experienced.