Your guidelines for buying up beaters?

[isorry123]

Hey for those that buy old accordions, fixers, and beaters: what are the rules you follow when you buy them (with the end goal to fix it)?

Do you avoid a certain brand? Prefer certain years (post WW2?) Do you like smaller bass systems or full 120 bass? Do you buy blind or open it up? Do you smell for mold/mildew? How much would you pay for a broken box vs how an accordion that might just need a rewaxing? Do you worry about tuning?

Curious to hear your rules when buying old accordions

 

[Ventura]

rule #1

don't ever buy anything that isn't within driving distance

(naturally, legendary or new accordions are worth a plane/boat/train trip)

rule #2

don't ever buy anything that isn't within driving distance

 

[noelekal]

Storage is a consideration.

"Stack 'em up 'till I can't see over the top of 'em:" works well if one has access to climate controlled warehouse space. Otherwise, how many beater instruments do you really want around the house to trip over?

Here, in blazing Texas summers there's no future in beater accordions kept in un-air conditioned storage with reeds melted out of them and heaped in the bottoms of their boxes.

 

[isorry123]

Storage is a consideration.

"Stack 'em up 'till I can't see over the top of 'em:" works well if one has access to climate controlled warehouse space. Otherwise, how many beater instruments do you really want around the house to trip over?

Here, in blazing Texas summers there's no future in beater accordions kept in un-air conditioned storage with reeds melted out of them and heaped in the bottoms of their boxes.

True true

I guess if it gets to the point where I have a dozen or more , I’ll just open a shop in town and sell or rent out the accordions.

Can’t even imagine the carnage of a melted accordion in Texas

 

[KiwiSqueezer]

Well, I'm new to the world of accordions, but already I can see some of the dangers. My experience of this sort of problem is with precision machine tools: very expensive new, but available used for reasonable prices. The work required in restoration can be enormous, taxing, and has to be spot-on. Clear similarities to accordions, however the damned machines weigh half a ton, upwards, so accommodation can be a challenge, and it takes experience to spot or predict hidden defects, and knowledge and skill (and more machines...) to correct them.

Acquisition is easy when things are cheap. It's too easy to accumulate a pile of stuff requiring your attention, money and time. As I age, I am uncomfortably aware that my life-span is finite and I can hear the clock ticking, the pile of stuff is no smaller, time's running out, and I'm acutely aware that disposal is far more difficult than acquisition.

So, my advice to you is to be selective, make each acquisition earn its place (you want it for specific spares, etc., not because it's a 'good buy'), learn to say "No", and don't let things take control. Don't expect to make any money from all the work you put in. Oh, and keep the peace with your partner...

 

[Squeezebox Of Delights]

Unless circumstances are exceptional, I will never buy old Saxony-built boxes because they're almost always mediocre to awful, and not worth repairing. For the record, I have had 5 pass through my hands, and they've all been mediocre to awful, apart from one that looks decent but is in terrible condition. I'll go for anything else though!

 

[debra]

I have a very simple guideline regarding buying up old beaters: don't do it. They are not worth your time to fix up and sell for too little money in relation to the amount of work they require.
Nowadays I even refuse repairs of old beaters because again they are not worth my time and effort. I only repair accordions that can be turned into "nearly as good as new" condition with not way too much work.

 

[boxplayer4000]

I confess to having a soft spot for some old 'beaters', totally dependent on make, model, condition etc.
It's generally accepted that the labour effort, cost of spare parts, etc. are not reflected in the final outcome.
I can empathise with the modern thoughts that say 'we know the value of everything but not its worth'.
Everything can't be measured in money.

 

[isorry123]

I have a very simple guideline regarding buying up old beaters: don't do it. They are not worth your time to fix up and sell for too little money in relation to the amount of work they require.
Nowadays I even refuse repairs of old beaters because again they are not worth my time and effort. I only repair accordions that can be turned into "nearly as good as new" condition with not way too much work.

So perhaps, if it can be fixed easily with rewax/retune?

I agree that matching and fixing key tops, body damage, missing buttons would be a pain

 

[isorry123]

I have a very simple guideline regarding buying up old beaters: don't do it. They are not worth your time to fix up and sell for too little money in relation to the amount of work they require.
Nowadays I even refuse repairs of old beaters because again they are not worth my time and effort. I only repair accordions that can be turned into "nearly as good as new" condition with not way too much work.

I’m looking at this old Moreshi 120 bass.

Cosmetically looks alright, keys look fine, nothing is missing. If it’s just a few fixes, i think I would pay a bit more for a box that’s 90% good to go.

 

[Ventura]

there is a very handy fella on here.. mid SW USA.. he buys all
kinds of crap junkers cheap off eBay and other sources sight unseen
yet somehow seems to manage to get them all working enough to be played

but this is in the CONTEXT of "working" meaning in a very basic
sense, useful to beginners who largely cannot afford anything
over a couple hundred $$

his repair methods and materials used no doubt make many here squirm
and hope to God never to have to re-repair any of these 2 or 3 years
down the road, but they are helping beginners and wishers to get started

someone working on any actually valuable accordion would do well
to use only practiced, time tested materials and methods, but then again
it is nearly impossible to sell a mid-priced accordion for enough to
compensate for serious work invested in it's restoration.. as you can
glean from other threads, marginally/vaguely "refurbished" often overpriced
accordions seem to be all the rage..

the everyday folks who try and learn some quality repair techniques, pick
a classy old box to focus on, take their time and do it right over a year
or so represent perhaps the majority of tinkerers here

choose your end result and position yourself accordiongly.. but if you end up
playing around with junkers and re-waxing reeds with glue sticks, please
spare us the overly risque and sometimes horrifying details !

and always remember.. Dremel Tools should never actually be turned on
when working near an Accordion

 

[Ventura]

re; the Moreschi

a very slightly better quality student box, but is any 2 reed treble
gonna sell for more than a couple/few hundred $ at best ?

a beginner accordion is a beginner accordion.. how much time do you feel
like investing to marginally fix the obvious squeaks and squawks to make it
honestly useful to a student or other beginner ?

one could easily end up with a dozen of these ready to go in a garage,
and be listing them on marketplace ad infinitum..

 

[isorry123]

five years from now I think I’d like to have a dozen student accordions ready to go and rent/sell those out of a shop.

I think one of the barriers to accordion in the USA is that “good” accordions are regularly $800+ and for a lot of newbies that’s a pretty big commitment.

I think if you can get a good price on old student accordions and let them go $300-$500, you’d get a lot of business. Plus the student accordions must be easier to fix than a professional instrument with 11 registers lol

re; the Moreschi

a very slightly better quality student box, but is any 2 reed treble
gonna sell for more than a couple/few hundred $ at best ?

a beginner accordion is a beginner accordion.. how much time do you feel
like investing to marginally fix the obvious squeaks and squawks to make it
honestly useful to a student or other beginner ?

one could easily end up with a dozen of these ready to go in a garage,
and be listing them on marketplace ad infinity’s

 

[Ventura]

good for you having this goal/concept

at the current time, however, adult "students" are in the majority,
some for curiosity, some for ethnic reasons, and this with other
trends means the 3 reed LMM treble 3/4 size is the sweet spot
of "old student accordions" then LMM full size, then MM student size

so i would generally urge you to be somewhat patient and don't get
overstocked with LM or LMH models, but sure, go for it..

 

[Big Squeezy Accordions]

Avoid anything pre-WW2. Assume, at a bare minimum, that it will need all new wax and leathers, new bellows gaskets, and a full tuning. That means that any additional repairs will be on top of 25-40 hours of essential work. If the bellows need work and the pallet pads need to be replaced, forget it. 99% of unrefurbished old accordions in the US are not worth more than $50, if that, given the amount of work necessary to get them in shape. I've been known to pay a lot more than that, but it was always out of a desire to help out some desperate person, not because the accordion was worth anything to me.

 

[Big Squeezy Accordions]

five years from now I think I’d like to have a dozen student accordions ready to go and rent/sell those out of a shop.

I think one of the barriers to accordion in the USA is that “good” accordions are regularly $800+ and for a lot of newbies that’s a pretty big commitment.

I think if you can get a good price on old student accordions and let them go $300-$500, you’d get a lot of business. Plus the student accordions must be easier to fix than a professional instrument with 11 registers lol

If you are doing this as a vocation and not a profession, good for you. By all means, release more functioning accordions into the world. Putting 40+ hours of work into an accordion and selling it for $300-500 makes no sense from a business standpoint. If you are trying to make even a poverty wage, you basically have a choice between charging a minimum of $700-800 for a refurbished and tuned LM student accordion (assuming you got the accordion for less than $100 in the first place) or a selling crappy, out of tune instrument for less. Personally, I choose to do the necessary work to get every accordion to a standard where it's enjoyable to play, and am constantly having to explain to people why I don't have any $300 accordions for sale. As for affordability, I will always work with someone to help them realize their accordion dreams, allowing them to pay in installments, or sometimes through barter.

 

[isorry123]

I’ve been to your site a few times haha

I hear what you’re saying - there’s a 7 register Galanti out here for $450 with two sticking keys. I look at that and figure it would probably be easy to fix (assuming that’s all). And then what, try to resell it for $800? As you said, it’d be more of a vocation or hobby rather than a job

One problem I keep running into, and it was mentioned on the recent liberty bellows post, is how do you price such a thing without good comparisons. Since there are thousands of makes and models.

 

[cat]

I've bought most all my stuff used, online. When buying accordions - I simply ask for video demos. Typically, I had to write specific instructions for a demo enough for me to assess its tuning.

 

[noelekal]

My problem is that my ears don't have capabilities to hear accordion tuning through any sort of video recording well enough to assess its quality. Since I don't have any intentions of repairing a stable of accordions I'll avoid buying an instrument "sound unseen."