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Author Topic: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?  (Read 37662 times)

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Pat.

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #20 on: February 04, 2012, 07:11:18 PM »

Andy  ,I take your point but I still think my point is valid .I believe they are to expensive the way they have gone up in recent years is incredible I have heard sometimes it is because of the Euro but they never bring the price down when the Euro is more favourable do they. With handmade boxes the price can be justified ,  but some of the other manufacturers prices are making them financialy restrictive for what they are and I do not mean cheap chinese boxes either.
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SteveC

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #21 on: February 04, 2012, 07:16:02 PM »

I think we can all compare the prices to other goods and average salaries but at the end of the day an item is worth what people are prepared to pay for it and this is dictated by the age old economic equation of supply and demand.

As long as we all want Costalotti boxes and are prepared to save to buy one the prices will remain high.
I'm not saying they are too high or low, I'm just saying the price is dictated as much by the behaviour of the buyers as the sellers.

I agree with BobtheBoat, expensive as my box has been it has given such great pleasure it's worth the cost.
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mory

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #22 on: February 04, 2012, 07:19:50 PM »

Yes

Nice little potted history Mike do tell us more

Thanks Ian for the kind permission not sure if I can meet your demand for the criteria mentioned or would care to though  (:)

Its not just high end boxs either just look at some of the asking prices for revamped Hohners and such like mory
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Andy Simpson

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #23 on: February 04, 2012, 07:23:12 PM »

Andy  ,I take your point but I still think my point is valid .I believe they are to expensive the way they have gone up in recent years is incredible I have heard sometimes it is because of the Euro but they never bring the price down when the Euro is more favourable do they. With handmade boxes the price can be justified ,  but some of the other manufacturers prices are making them financialy restrictive for what they are and I do not mean cheap chinese boxes either.

I disagree. In real terms, melodeons are, at the very least, as affordable to the average person as they've ever been. What has really changed is how much the average person expects to have or, dare I say, even feels entitled to.

As Quebecois pointed out earlier, his father bought his first Hohner at a cost of more than half his monthly wages. Even full list price on a new Hohner today is a lesser proportion of an average person's monthly earnings.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2012, 07:25:19 PM by Andy Simpson »
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mattsmee

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #24 on: February 04, 2012, 07:38:31 PM »

The reason melodeons cost as much as they do at the moment is the Euro. All instruments went up by, on average, a 3rd a few years ago. My bass was one of the very last Warwick basses in the country to be under the old price tag of £800. They are now £1400. This is what I have been told by industry people and also during my studies at university.
So melodeons have gone the same way.
I do believe that some melodeons are well priced, because of the specialist detail needed to engineer one (not necessarily building it). However, there are some companies that I think over price their boxes. Dino Baffetti is my main source of concern on this matter. Also once you get to nicer boxes, in general, the price suddenly rockets up way more than necessary.

george garside

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #25 on: February 04, 2012, 08:39:39 PM »

compared with piano accordions melodeons are expensive  on a price per reed basis! &   & that without factoring in  the complex mechanism for stradella bass compared with 8 buttons & some bits of bent wire on a melodeon.  The piano box also uses more material & labour in the bellows & more wood & plastic for the body.  It presumably costs more per unit to ship from China.   & has a lot more buttons & keys. eg (2009 prices) scarlatti 72 bass 3 voice  5 couple piano acc  £439  v scarlatti 8 bass 23 button plastic melodeon£350.   Similer price differentials also occur on 'posh' boxes

george
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oggiesnr

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #26 on: February 04, 2012, 10:30:36 PM »

If you divn't want to pay £xxxx for a melodeon then the choice is yours. 

A Chinese melodeon is relatively cheap, ditto a Chinese accordion but if you compare a top end Italian accordion (£10,000+) with it's comparative Casta then the sums look different.

Maybe the problem is that busking "wages" haven't gone up with inflation over the last forty years.

Steve
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TomB

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #27 on: February 04, 2012, 11:27:20 PM »

I seem to remember a few weeks ago, a Melnet discussion on the failing quality of some 'top end' boxes. It would seem that buyers of melodeons are not only prepared to accept inflated prices but also shoddy workmanship as well.
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savantuk

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #28 on: February 05, 2012, 12:39:16 AM »

I have the Saltarelle Neuilly, which is the stepped 2.5 row, essentially the Oceane with half a row less.

I could afford it because I bought it used from our host.

Saved me £1500 on RRP.  I could never have afforded it new.
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juker

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #29 on: February 05, 2012, 02:58:36 AM »

By some standards at least melodeons are indeed expensive. Here in Australia my husband bought a second hand, five and half foot Yamaha grand piano for $Aus4000 (about 2700 British pounds). That amount of money would not buy a melodeon of equivalent quality. Not here anyway.
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waldoB

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #30 on: February 05, 2012, 07:17:54 AM »

If melodeon prices are a concern don't get the Anglo Concertina bug
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juker

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #31 on: February 05, 2012, 10:05:52 AM »

I love my old, out of tune Hohner. Fortunately for me ;D
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Tom

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #32 on: February 05, 2012, 10:51:09 AM »

Melodeons feel expensive to me (as a beginner) because there are comparatively few available.
If you want to learn, say, violin you can buy a working second hand fiddle for £50 and then carry on up the 'quality ladder' at £5 increments until you reach the £20,000 mark. If you play guitar or drums it's even easier because the whole rig is modular - a guitarist can buy better strings, pickups, amp, cables, fx boxes and so on.

Meanwhile, you decide to take up the melodeon (you ask around and figure out you need something called a "D/G", whatever that means) and very quickly figure out your purchase options are pretty limited. For less that £250 you can pretty much forget it. £250-£450 you can have something new from China (that most of the internet are pretty damning of) or hope to find a second hand box (but only two or three a week seem to come available). Around £500 you can have a new pokerwork and then pretty much nothing until the £800 point where your options start to open out.

That's my experience of it. That and my wife getting grumpy about our eBay 'watch list' always being full of melodeons....
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Rob2Hook

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #33 on: February 05, 2012, 11:06:09 AM »

I believe that the current situation is typical of retailers/importers during a recession.  As with all luxury goods, the trade has dropped off during the recession, so the retailers raise their prices to increase their income from a reduced turnover.  Sadly this is unavoidable as with the populace's disposable income verging on zero, holding lower prices is unlikely to tempt anyone in a marginal situation into making a purchase.

Look on the bright side, in the leisure marine industry instead of amortisation of development costs of new technology bringing lower prices, new models come out annually maintaining the prices!  Rather like mobile phones with so many buttons and new features every year, you can't work out how to make a phone call...

Sorry, grumpy about the grey mess outside this morning - stops me doing anything useful.

Rob.
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Anahata

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #34 on: February 05, 2012, 11:15:17 AM »

My first melodeon, a Hohner One Row in G, cost £67. We bought it from Neil Wayne in Belper  (Dec '77). Since that time I've seen the price increase by a factor of 10.

I would estimate the price of beer (my usual standard for these things) has risen by the same amount. In 1977 you could easily buy 3 pints for a pound and get change.
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Theo

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #35 on: February 05, 2012, 11:17:33 AM »

I believe that the current situation is typical of retailers/importers during a recession.  As with all luxury goods, the trade has dropped off during the recession, so the retailers raise their prices to increase their income from a reduced turnover. 

There is also another change with the big retailers that they seem to be holding less stock, especially for example of top range Castagnaris.  What has also changed is that the Castagnari factory now seem to be quite happy to sell direct to individuals in the UK, and you can make a big saving by buying direct from the maker.  There are practical disadvantages of course, but this discussion is about prices.
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Rob2Hook

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #36 on: February 05, 2012, 11:30:49 AM »

Most of the time it seems to go further than that!  Most UK suppliers advertise perhaps two Castagnari models, but still don't actually hold stock.  Unfortunately that means you don't get to try before you buy and boxes that still need fettling go out as sales, rather than the defects (albeit small) being brought to the attention of the retailer whilst they have the opportunity to fix them in-house.

Buying direct from the manufacturer has the same potential disadvantage, although I've been lucky when I bought a special order Castagnari - it is still pretty much perfect after several years. 

I suppose Dino Baffetti should be a good indicator of trends as they sell a good range of their own, as well as manufacturing badge engineered ones for a number of the other "major" manufacturers.

Rob.
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oggiesnr

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #37 on: February 05, 2012, 11:42:03 AM »

I believe that the current situation is typical of retailers/importers during a recession.  As with all luxury goods, the trade has dropped off during the recession, so the retailers raise their prices to increase their income from a reduced turnover. 

There is also another change with the big retailers that they seem to be holding less stock, especially for example of top range Castagnaris.  What has also changed is that the Castagnari factory now seem to be quite happy to sell direct to individuals in the UK, and you can make a big saving by buying direct from the maker.  There are practical disadvantages of course, but this discussion is about prices.

Been there in the days I used to retail top end kites (£100 to £750).  I gave up because I had no interest in spending my time demoing products that people then bought on-line or direct.  When asked why I didn't price match the answer was simple, I had paid MY cash for the product on the shelves and I had to make a return to pay the rent etc, buy on-line and many times the seller is using YOUR cash to buy the product after you have ordered it.  Likewise buy direct (or order) there is minimal financial risk to the seller or maker because it's sold, they don't have their money tied up in specific stock.

The downside became that (going back to kites) shops stopped selling top end kites and most shut so now the UK kite market is smaller and with less choice than ever.

If I ran a music shop I sure as hell wouldn't bother stocking many top end melodeons so people could try them and order direct.

Steve
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Mutt

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #38 on: February 06, 2012, 05:25:38 AM »

If melodeon prices are a concern don't get the Anglo Concertina bug

Having lived in both worlds,  may I say "AMEN!!!"
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George Knight
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Mutt

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Re: Do Melodeons Cost Too Much?
« Reply #39 on: February 06, 2012, 05:28:19 AM »

My first melodeon, a Hohner One Row in G, cost £67. We bought it from Neil Wayne in Belper  (Dec '77). Since that time I've seen the price increase by a factor of 10.

I would estimate the price of beer (my usual standard for these things) has risen by the same amount. In 1977 you could easily buy 3 pints for a pound and get change.

That is one of those rare bases of comparison that makes sense to me. Thank you!
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George Knight
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