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I bought 2 accordions at last night’s auction for about $100 each with cases. Both are Italian made in very good (looking) condition (a Frontalini Celeste and a Titano) but I will be seeking a local expert to check them both out.
On shows like “Pawn Stars” they regularly call in an expert to evaluate items, but I’ve not heard of many of us scavengers doing this. Do you have any stories to tell? Should we pay for such “help?”
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I feel like on those shows, no one is paying anyone. Its part of “the show”. Or these guys just form friendships with other dealers and help each other out.
I just feel once you start paying money for “experts”, you can really eat into profit. I wouldnt do this unless you really thought the item was worth it. It’s just as easy to do some online sleuthing and then list high with “make offer”.
Just did a quick search on one of your accordians. A really “very rare” one is worth under $300: https://www.ebay.com/itm/VERY-RARE-FRONTALINI-MOTHER-OF-PEARL-ACCORDIAN/282894590944
That being said, you could always try to make friends with local dealers who may know more. See if they’d give advice for free (like people do here).
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I sold one earlier this year on eBay for over $500, and it was not as nice as these. Locally on Craigslist Titanos are listed for $800 – $1300. I’ll do well.
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And just a quick story: when we first started scavenging higher end goods, we once went to an auction house to get an appraisal on some art. We thought we were going to the “experts”. Thankfully it was free, but all the guy did was go back into his office and look up stuff on the internet. He told us exactly what we had already researched online.
Maybe this won’t be true for all experts, but it’s incredible what we can all discover with the collected knowledge online.
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I got some fur jackets once upon a time and took them into a local “furrier” to confirm what kind of fur they were. She gave us lots of great advice on furs, and confirmed the ones I had were junk because the hide was dry rotting. It was a cool experience talking to the lady and looking around her store. I even learned that she had what was basically a giant humidor in the basement where she charged people to store their furs year-round. They are treated and stored in a climate/humidity controlled room. When the people need their furs, they call ahead of time to pick them up or have them shipped out.
Depending on the item, you would be better served to tap into the hobbyist groups to find the unbiased true experts. Take my specialty, arcade games. If you called an “operator” – a company that sells machines or puts them on routes in restaurants and such – you are likely not going to talk to someone with a passion for the objects or the history. Most of them are more interested in making a buck to keep their business alive. You would be better served to go online and find a hobby group. TONS of extremely knowledgable people there who truly care about the old machines and want to see them in the hands of people who truly want them. Many of them will even bend over backwards to put you in touch with a local expert to help you out.
So yeah, sometimes going to experts can be handy.
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The accordion I sold recently was obtained from the prior owner who played it regularly. He was at his own auction, selling most of what he had prior to moving into assisted living. I had a conversation with him about the brand, history of use, condition, and so forth. One take-away I got from him is that these are wind instruments, taking in air and pushing it out, and many parts inside are made from wood. Dust, humidity,and smoke can cause reeds to stick or not close, and same goes for the keys. You can’t really tell by just looking at the instrument to know how good of shape it actually is in.
In the current case, an expert can be anyone such as an avid local accordion player (free), to a music store owner who plays and sells both new and used accordions (small charge possibly). By playing these accordions, these experts can identify issues that my ear and inexperience can not. They also would have a current view of the value of these particular models given the state they are in. Seeing that these are pricey and heavy, I want to do a good job describing and pricing the instruments so that they indeed sell when listed, and will not be returned. Musicians are PICKY!
The risk of just listing things like these at a high price w/ Best Offer, is that when you get an offer you still don’t know if you are leaving $100s of dollars on the table, and you run a good chance of having it be returned. And if it does come back, do you then go get it checked out?
My point is that there are times it is wise to get an assessment from people who have hands-on experience and more knowledge than can be obtained by online searches and checking solds.
I’m sure others have cases similar to my musical instrument example. Perhaps art, certain collectibles, and even Levi’s!
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i once got an instrument to resell on ebay that i took to a repair shop to be fixed prior to listing. i can’t imagine they would be able to tell you more about an instrument’s worth than what you could find online yourself, but if you got them both serviced you could add to the listing “recently professionally serviced” and up the value on them on that basis alone.
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