How much is an accordion worth?

[LibraryJoe]

Over in the Digital-Midi side of the forum, a user asks about a good price for a Roland 4x. I assume the writer is asking about the piano accordion configuration.

One way to determine a “good” price for an accordion, is to follow Ebay. Generally the market determines a product’s worth, though of course, there is the occasional outlier—where the Ebay user may feel seller’s or buyer’s remorse.

I own an old Roland 3s, but wasn’t completely happy with it, and over the years I’ve found myself devoting myself to my (growing) collection of new and used acoustics.

The Ebay seller is offering his 4XB accordion—chromatic—for what could be an amazing offer. He’s including his FC300 pedal unit, cable harness, flash drives, and user instruction with no reserve. Right now the current price is $102! Of course, I expect it to go much higher.

The seller is the former product support person from the now closed Roxys Music Store in upstate NY. I know him from my purchases of the old US School of Music instructional lessons that he converted to DVD. I purchased the accordion instructions from him, and when I mentioned I was learning guitar, he included those lessons at no charge. Later I purchased the piano lessons from him. I believe him to be a trustworthy Ebay seller, based on my transactions, his positive Ebay reviews, and via his YouTube videos.

I truly believe a product—especially an accordion---is worth the price someone is willing to pay for it. I will follow this sale and see if my belief rings true. Right now with nine days to go on auction—it looks like an amazing deal.

 

[JerryPH]

Personally I am not a big fan of using eBay as a form of evaluation of an object. Often some things are wildly under or overvalued. Of course, your example of an FR-4X with accessories for $102 is good example. This is not a value, it's a "hook" to get people interested. The real value is the highest price that the new owner was willing to pay for it.

I think a fairer statement is that eBay is a medium that shows how much people are willing to pay for something more than what anything's intrinsic value is.

In the end, the only value an accordion really has is in how much the current owner values it at. For example, my Hohner Morino VI N is not worth a lot (somewhere between a low of $4000CA and a high of $10,000CA), but if someone gave me 10 times the highest value I'd refuse it without even thinking about it, that accordion has incredible sentimental value to me and no amount of money could pull it away from my hands. Other people drag Hohner Gola accordions across cement floors in demonstration of their imagined musical prowess and all I can do is cringe and feels sorry for it.

 

[Scuromondo]

I wouldn’t consider eBay pricing to be a good indication of pricing or value. For repairers/restorers who want to buy an old accordion at the lowest price and then make it playable—for themselves or for a profitable resale—eBay may be a very good choice. But most buyers want to buy an instrument that is ready-to-play, in tune, and with some sort of guarantee; and on eBay, you get none of that. While I do not doubt for a minute that some buyers have gotten good deals on an eBay purchase, for most buyers that comes with a lot of risk.

 

[Valski]

Personally I am not a big fan of using eBay as a form of evaluation of an object. Often some things are wildly under or overvalued. Of course, your example of an FR-4X with accessories for $102 is good example. This is not a value, it's a "hook" to get people interested. The real value is the highest price that the new owner was willing to pay for it.

I think a fairer statement is that eBay is a medium that shows how much people are willing to pay for something more than what anything's intrinsic value is.

In the end, the only value an accordion really has is in how much the current owner values it at. For example, my Hohner Morino VI N is not worth a lot (somewhere between a low of $4000CA and a high of $10,000CA), but if someone gave me 10 times the highest value I'd refuse it without even thinking about it, that accordion has incredible sentimental value to me and no amount of money could pull it away from my hands. Other people drag Hohner Gola accordions across cement floors in demonstration of their imagined musical prowess and all I can do is cringe and feels sorry for it.

Ebay and other on line video virtual sellers have in the past, often priced something well above suggested retail prices for items readily available from a bricks and mortar store. This is true for accordions and for other products. It seems that people are drawn in by claims of "amazing prices ". I think that potential buyers flock to those sites because there is a myth that they offer the best prices.

Personally it has been my experience that the very best value would be from the local dealer who specializes in the Roland accordions. They will determine if the instrument that you have in mind is defective and if you ask them, the specialist dealer will inform you when one comes up for sale because they will be the most likely place to get used accordions. You may also decide to purchase new because the discount for used model may not be as much as you assumed it would be.

 

[JerryPH]

There are definite reasons to chose a dealer over eBay, and I agree that eBay is not a true indication of value (thats what I was saying in the first post), but the one thing that eBay will have more than most Roalnd dealers... used V-Accordions... for either a fair or unfair price.

 

[Ben-jammin]

I think the eBay prices are how they are because it’s easy and convenient for someone that decides to buy an accordion casually without necessarily doing enough research. This is driving up prices and combined with general ignorance of both sellers and buyers making prices less condition sensitive. I hope this is just a bubble that is near bursting.

In my view market value is the amount of money a commodity can regularly be expected to trade for on a marketplace. As much as I dislike the way the market is going on eBay and Reverb I can’t deny the fact that a hell of a lot of instruments trade on those markets, and being internet based can be influenced by multiple geographical markets. I see the following reason why using eBay prices as a reference is problematic.

Until an item sells it’s just an asking price. You can search completed “sold” listings which doesn’t show the price when a “best offer” was accepted.

Described condition is frequently not accurate

Post sale conflict history isn’t transparent. I imagine there’s some frequency of items being returned for a full refund or both parties agreeing to a partial refund for instruments arriving other than described.

Can’t see how long an item had been on the market prior to selling.

 

[Dingo40]

When considering eBay, the old expression of "never buying a pig in a poke" comes strongly to mind.?

 

[Ben-jammin]

When considering eBay, the old expression of "never buying a pig in a poke" comes strongly to mind.?

My experience has been pretty decent with purchasing instruments on eBay. I pay with PayPal which affords some enhanced buyer protections and I’ve never had issues getting refunds when they were warranted. I also try to do my due diligence and only buy stuff at a price that makes sense, if there are unknowns it’s going to be a low price or I’m not going to gamble on it. The issues I’ve had were when something was not in the same condition as advertised. At such times I have no problem putting it back in the box and getting my refund while the seller is paying double shipping costs to get their item back.

 

[Valski]

Ebay and other similar sites are self administered by users so there won't be follow up with accurate sales records. From what I've seen, it would seem that some sellers are purposely and/or unwittingly posting ambitious prices. My favorite postings are when the accordion is listed as "vintage ", which tells me that the seller has no idea what it's worth.