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Author Topic: "Antique" Store Finds  (Read 14157 times)

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juker

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #20 on: November 29, 2009, 05:45:48 AM »

I was given the single row pokerwork that I started on in December last year. For fourteen years I thought it was an ornament or kids toy ;D :|bl
Ah well, I know better now and it DID get me started on a great obsession.
Also I bought both of the boxes I now own without trying either of them. Two main reasons for this.
1. I couldn't play well enough to tell much about them even if I could have tried them
2. Australia is a big country and I couldn't afford to travel the several thousand miles I would have needed to to try them out  so decided to risk it.
 The G/C Hohner is great and I love it and the Weltmeister (which was very cheap) has new  Cagnoni D/G reeds in and is sounding good, so I am very happy. I have spent less that $1000 (five and fifty hundred pounds) on both of these instruments together so consider them a risk worth taking and at this stage of my playing they are good enough for me to play reasonably well and find out if I will stick with it long enough to invest several thousand in something better.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2009, 05:53:40 AM by juker »
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Accordion Dave

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #21 on: December 14, 2009, 01:09:03 AM »

I visited an "Antiques Mall" over the weekend. There were two dreadful accordions that have been there for years with the same ridiculously high price tag.

One is an ancient Italian two-row with missing buttons, bent parts, smashed grill, cracked wood, and rotten bellows. Price: $295 American.

The other was a red 120 bass piano accordion. All of the bass buttons were stuck. I gently tried to urge them back to normal position with no success. Apparently the springs are worn out. Price $495 American.
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old geezer

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #22 on: December 14, 2009, 09:45:44 AM »

OK... put your hand up

who bought the DG Morgane on evil*** for $400US this morning

Cheep is not the word, daylight-robbery sounds more like it
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Jack Murphy    beyond the black stump

Malcolm Clapp

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #23 on: December 14, 2009, 11:35:14 AM »

Looked at it very seriously, but something didn't seem quite right.
On the basis of "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is", I decided not to bid.
I think a lot of others may have had similar thoughts.....
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old geezer

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #24 on: December 15, 2009, 09:41:10 AM »

yes, exactly my thoughts.
I set up an auto bid on Sunday night and, canceled it after an hour or so....

I also have 2 boxes in-transit from the states; a 4 stop was cleared by OZ customs this morning and, an dark red lilliput somewhere over the pond (I hope, an' not in it)(nor special delivery via Geoffrey Edelsten)
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Jack Murphy    beyond the black stump

Andrew Culwell

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #25 on: December 15, 2009, 04:51:57 PM »

Ah so your were the lucky one who got the Lilly!  Beautiful!
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Tattyjacket

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #26 on: December 15, 2009, 05:41:06 PM »

Similar experience to 'melodeon'.
I was once asked to take an adult education class; introduction to the Internet.
First night I turned up.....and there were all sorts of clients there. People who wanted to use Ebay, a lady who wanted to use the Telegraph on-line crossword....all sorts.
An old lady waddled in using a zimmer frame. She must have been well into her eighties. SHe settled herself down at a computer....and it soon became obvious that she'd never touched one before.
A little later, I walked over and asked her, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but what do you hope to achieve from this class?"
Her answer nearly floored me.
"I want to find out as much as I can about the English Button Melodeon."
"Right," I said. "You have indeed come to the right place. Switch that computer off."
She explained that her father had left his instrument to her in his will and she wanted to find out what it was worth. Apparently he'd got it from a German private soldier during the first world war. I didn't aske her whether he'd given him bayonet or bullet in exchange.
She brought it in the next week and.....well, it was very similar to the one that started the thread except that it still carried the smell of Mustard gas in its bellows.
It was very hard convincing her that it had very little value but she did persist in searching herself....so at least I taught her something.
I noticed it in a charity shop window a few weeks later.
Strangely though, it didn't stay there for long.

All the best,
Phil
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Accordion Dave

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #27 on: December 20, 2009, 03:37:16 AM »

Back to the subject of antique store finds....

Today I found a 1-row Hohner pokerwork for around $70, that has a lot of potential.

The finish is natural wood rather than the black with gold inlay. The bellows is in reasonably good shape. The metal corners are intact.

I need to cut up an old leather belt to replace the strap on the bass side and the thumb strap on the treble side.

All of the notes work. One sounds a little off. I hope it's only a bit of dust inside.

I do not yet know for sure what key it is in, but it sounded like "C" when I tried it in the store. I wasn't able to play it easily because of the broken straps.
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melodeon

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #28 on: December 20, 2009, 03:49:18 AM »

Often the key is stamped on the bottom end of the  treble fingerboard, particularly on the old ones.
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old geezer

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #29 on: December 20, 2009, 06:55:48 AM »

Often the key is stamped on the bottom end of the  treble fingerboard, particularly on the old ones.

or,most usually, the bottom end of the bass hand strap ............
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Jack Murphy    beyond the black stump

Theo

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #30 on: December 20, 2009, 09:23:25 AM »

Often the key is stamped on the bottom end of the  treble fingerboard, particularly on the old ones.

or,most usually, the bottom end of the bass hand strap ............

On the fingerboard if it is wood,  on the bass strap if the fingerboard is plastic.
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Accordion Dave

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #31 on: December 20, 2009, 03:14:19 PM »

It is indeed stamped "C" along the bottom edge of the keyboard.
however the last pokerwork I purchased was also labeled "C" but was actually "B-Flat".
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TonyRussellDavis

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #32 on: December 20, 2009, 05:09:14 PM »

A few years ago, maybe as many as 10, I found a pristine red D/G Erica in a green Hohner case in a second hand shop. Although dissapointed not to have found a B/C#, I bought it. Marked up at �60 but I only had �45 on me - he took it!
By the way I did check out locally (fearing it may be nicked) and found it was brought in by a woman clearing out he late husband's "junk". He'd got it new and never learned to play. I dread to think what the storekeeper gave her for it but, while he obviously underpaid, he was clearly unaware of the true value anyway. Not being "my" tuning I sold it on but should'a kept it to learn D/G. Tony.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2010, 03:55:04 PM by Clive Williams »
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Accordion Dave

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #33 on: December 20, 2009, 05:28:38 PM »

I have some random thoughts on "true value".

Is the price that someone in Tokyo paid for something on e-bay the value of an item?

Once someone pays a price that is substantially higher than was typical, is that the new true value of an item?

Often I will see an item at a flea market with no price.

The vendor will say "Make me an offer."

I might say "Fifty dollars."

The angry response: "I can get ten times that amount on e-bay!!!"

I always dread asking the price of an unmarked item.

Once a person somewhere in the world pays a high price in an online computer auction, is that the new value of the item?
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Accordion Dave

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Re: "Antique" Store Finds
« Reply #34 on: December 20, 2009, 05:35:06 PM »

Some more thoughts...

To me the value of a musical instrument has everything to do with its condition.

I need to consider how much time and effort is needed to make it playable.

I am not in the business of buying instruments for re-sale, so sound is everything.
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