Buying An Accordion from Europe to the USA

[SteveBox]

Not from Thomann, but I once purchased a small chromatic button accordion from a French maker. The value was around $3200 and I paid about $140 import duty plus DHL customs processing fee. I received an email from DHL, paid the fee online, and then they delivered it. However, piano accordions, so I understand, have no import duty. See this discussion.

 

[baldlightning]

Has anyone in the U.S. bought an accordion from Thomann in Germany and were there additional costs to pay (custom/duty type fees) and how do they get paid?

I have not bought from Thomann, but in general duties on international shipments result in a bill from the shipper (e.g., UPS, DHL, FEDEX) landing in your mailbox. If the bill is large, the shipper might not deliver the item until said bill is paid. Until recently (last week?), button accordions had a duty of < 2%. This week--who knows?

 

[kimric]

I have not bought from Thomann, but in general duties on international shipments result in a bill from the shipper (e.g., UPS, DHL, FEDEX) landing in your mailbox. If the bill is large, the shipper might not deliver the item until said bill is paid. Until recently (last week?), button accordions had a duty of < 2%. This week--who knows?

I always wondered how Thomann handled warranty.

 

[Tom]

When I have bought accordions from Italy, like others have experienced, I have received an email directing me to an online duty payment, I think about $45 for the last one. A “friend of mine” bought “something “ and reports that one company, who shall remain unnamed, wrote “repair” on the side of the box and bypassed the duty. Just sayin’.

 

[Ben-jammin]

Has anyone in the U.S. bought an accordion from Thomann in Germany and were there additional costs to pay (custom/duty type fees) and how do they get paid?

I bought an accordion from thomann in February of 2022. The accordion was 566.00 USD and the shipping was 89.35 USD. Shipped UPS on feb 10 and was delivered Feb 14th. It wasn’t a great accordion but it arrived safe.

 

[SteveBox]

My impression is that import duty is based on the country of origin. So let's say Thomann sells you an accordion made in China and declares it as such, does that mean you pay the additional China tariffs? I don't know, that may be a good question to ask if it makes a difference to you.

 

[OuijaBoard]

Does anyone know of accordion stores in Europe that sell to buyers in the U.S.A. besides Thomann? I'm looking to get an alpine/styrian/oberkrainer type accordion with helikon bass and see a few brands overseas but Thomann seems to be the only one that ships to the US. Also, what kind of import or customs fees are there? Thanks in advance. Thomann seems good but I'm also looking for more variety.

A slew of Euro dealers as well as UK dealers ship internationally. The most reputable ones state their international shipping policies on their websites. You can of course follow up by email for more details.

Over the past couple of decades I have purchased a couple of vintage concertinas from the UK. And from Eurozone one small MM Italian-made CBA, and a couple of small Chinese Hohner Nova CBAs not sold in the US. There haven't been any problems aside from some ugly surprises with state tax bills for alleged customs charges I believed were paid and taken care of.

However, right this second I'm feeling gun-shy about buying long distance even domestically due to a negative experience with a US purchase a long ways from my residence. My odds have been very good. But if there was damage or a flaw in something purchased internationally . . . even if you had a written return policy from the dealer (which you should be sure to have), the hassle and shipping expense would be hefty.

I have no experience specifically with Thomann. I've seen people here warn against them, not because of any claim they are dastardly or anything, but they are a big concern that is probably dealing out of warehouses, and it's unclear how much attention to QC you are getting. The other caveat is that a US buyer might be funneled to Thomann UK. And post-Brexit there can be issues with heightened customs charges, no VAT deduction, stuff like that. Is pound sterling exchange rate worse than euro? I think it often is.

 

[OuijaBoard]

I've purchased twice from this dealer in Germany. Chiefly a used dealer but they have mint-rated items, and get the occasional new offering too. They have had Alpine/helikon-bass instruments at times. At the moment the only helikons there seem to be bisonorics. My own purchases were two inexpensive new 30-treble/48 bass 3-row Asian Hohner Nova CBAs, bought a year apart. (In 2 different colors for festival performances. 11 lbs and hugely underrated as folk boxes for grownups as opposed to learner boxes for kids, btw. Lost in a ransacking of my home by burglars a year ago, but that's another story.) My dealings with these folks were fine and the instruments arrived safely in the advertised brand-new condition.

Musik-center- Accordions & Guitars Onlineshop

www.musik-center.de

 

[OuijaBoard]

The small Italian-made CBA I mentioned above, I bought about 15 years ago from this dealer in Germany. They appear to have more than one brick and mortar locations, and they have this big website listing a ton of brands you can click on and see what they've got on offer at the moment. With that purchase they wanted some kind of authorization document and there were big duty charges--those eat up the VAT deduction, so you don't want to buy something with no VAT deduction, and take a hit on currency exchange, duties/custom, and shipping on top of it.

The bottom line is that there is a cosmic unfairness and struggle with finding and shopping for accordions. They are so unavailable to try in any variety, and so far from where one lives that there are big challenges, aren't there. Of the very few dealers in the US, few are anywhere I wish to burn all-too-scarce vacation time and money flying to in order to use up precious time off in an accordion store you can't saunter into a reasonable distance from home on the weekend. It's challenging.

Hamburg, Berlin, München - Akkordeon Centrum

www.akkordeoncentrum.de

 

[OuijaBoard]

By "Styrian" do you mean the same thing as "Steirische"? The German dealer Musik-Center I mentioned above has four pages of those, maybe a half-dozen with basses that do look Helikon type. Again, I have only dealt with them for inexpensive new Asian Hohner CBAs. But it went fine.

Here's a link to the first page, you can scroll through the pages to see:

Search results for: 'steirische'

www.musik-center.de

One is this gorgeous Mint Beltuna. I think what they call C/F/B is really C/F/Bb, but not sure. The whole Steirische thing is not my niche. But this is so lovely:

Beltuna Alpstar II DeLuxe C-F-B

Harmonika

www.musik-center.de

 

[Pipemajor]

By "Styrian" do you mean the same thing as "Steirische"? The German dealer Musik-Center I mentioned above has four pages of those, maybe a half-dozen with basses that do look Helikon type. Again, I have only dealt with them for inexpensive new Asian Hohner CBAs. But it went fine.

Here's a link to the first page, you can scroll through the pages to see:

Search results for: 'steirische'

www.musik-center.de

One is this gorgeous Mint Beltuna. I think what they call C/F/B is really C/F/Bb, but not sure. The whole Steirische thing is not my niche. But this is so lovely:

Beltuna Alpstar II DeLuxe C-F-B

Harmonika

www.musik-center.de

I notice, as soon as you get the "trumpets" on the bass side, the price virtually doubles. The trumpets have no effect on the sound and are purely for decoration.
I've seen the trumpets for sale as separate items. There's a market opportunity here for someone

 

[Scuromondo]

I notice, as soon as you get the "trumpets" on the bass side, the price virtually doubles. The trumpets have no effect on the sound and are purely for decoration.
I've seen the trumpets for sale as separate items. There's a market opportunity here for someone

There’s definitely been a recent correlation between trumpets and tariffs.

 

[OuijaBoard]

When I Googled "Styrian" I got a definition that included "Streirische." But still not sure if that is what the original query wanted. That Beltuna I linked above is the prettiest thing I've ever seen.

 

[Sunglow]

Thanks for all of your help. I ended up getting a Fismen (which had everything I was looking for) from Kevin Solecki at Carnegie Accordions in Pittsburgh. Kevin was really knowledgeable and helpful. Thanks to Ventura for putting me in touch with Matt Sepesy who put me in touch with Carnegie Accordions.

 

[Scuromondo]

Sweet! Will you share a photo or two!

 

[Sunglow]

I will when I get it!

 

[kimric]

The small Italian-made CBA I mentioned above, I bought about 15 years ago from this dealer in Germany. They appear to have more than one brick and mortar locations, and they have this big website listing a ton of brands you can click on and see what they've got on offer at the moment. With that purchase they wanted some kind of authorization document and there were big duty charges--those eat up the VAT deduction, so you don't want to buy something with no VAT deduction, and take a hit on currency exchange, duties/custom, and shipping on top of it.

The bottom line is that there is a cosmic unfairness and struggle with finding and shopping for accordions. They are so unavailable to try in any variety, and so far from where one lives that there are big challenges, aren't there. Of the very few dealers in the US, few are anywhere I wish to burn all-too-scarce vacation time and money flying to in order to use up precious time off in an accordion store you can't saunter into a reasonable distance from home on the weekend. It's challenging.

Hamburg, Berlin, München - Akkordeon Centrum

www.akkordeoncentrum.de

This is sort of self sustaining. Between Italian companies undermining their own dealers in the US and companies from overseas selling into the US there will never be a large number of accordion shops.
This also means that there will also always be a limited number of repair people. Guitar Center does not train repair people they just sell stuff. I have actually been contacted by companies like Sam Ash to do warranty for them , I suggested they pay me to train somebody for them since I am all ready backed up months.