Buying, selling & appraising

Appraising an accordion in Australia

The most commonly asked question we see is “how much is my accordion worth?”. In most circumstances, your accordion, however cherished it may be, would be only worth up to a few hundred dollars, as most used accordions in circulation are mass-manufactured student accordions, most of which were made between the 1950s and 1970s, with vibrant red or blue colours and other marketing gimmicks from the time such as glitter or elaborate decorations. This includes accordions made in highly respected factories from Italy or Germany. Student accordions were produced with lower quality materials to cater for a growing student market in the first half of the 20th century. Therefore, even a “Scandalli” or “Hohner” brand will not inherently mean that it’s worth more than a few hundred dollars if it’s a generic (or not sought after) model, especially if it’s in bad condition. However, there are some non-professional level accordions that can still fetch a reasonable price (up to around $1000) if they're in good condition, but condition is very important. These include accordions like the Hohner Verdi, Hohner Atlantic, vintage Paolo Soprani models, and mid-range Scandalli models among others (there’s too many to list).

New accordion players often have limited knowledge and are drawn to buy brand names they have heard of, like Hohner, Scandalli, Paolo Soprani, Giulietti, etc. Interestingly, one collector noted that while trying to sell an LMM Sonola and a Hohner simultaneously, the Hohner sold quickly, but the Sonola, despite being a top brand among experienced players, had less interest and remained unsold for a long time. This highlights the importance of brand recognition, as rarer and less recognisable brands can be harder to sell. The second-hand market for accordions has been getting more expensive lately, possibly due to inflation. While a neglected accordion left in a wardrobe for 40 years may only be worth up to a few hundred dollars, a well-maintained entry-level instrument like a Hohner Verdi that is very playable could be worth quite a bit more.

Usually due to neglect, even if stored in good conditions, your accordion may need many hundred or up to a thousand dollars worth of repair work by an experienced accordion repairer, in order to restore it to a playable and durable condition (and this may not necessarily raise the value of the instrument by the amount that you paid for restoration). Therefore it is not uncommon to ask for only a few hundred dollars, or even under $100, for an accordion which you don’t know anything about, and have discovered from a family member’s belongings, especially if it has several problems and is not a sought after brand or model. The most common issues found in old, neglected accordions include internal moisture, warped wood, curled reed leather values, dried glue, and so on. 

It is very uncommon to come across an accordion within a family member’s belongings, or an op shop or a garage sale, that is an expensive, high quality concert instrument. Usually such sought after accordions are already sold by the performer themselves when downsizing their instrument collection.

Despite these nuances, the average person seeking an evaluation may mistakenly believe they have found a treasure in an old accordion, but usually, this is not the case. Accordions that play well eventually sell, but there can be a long wait for the right customer to appear. Melodeons, on the other hand, are very hard to sell for a reasonable price and should be considered in their own category.

That said, if you’d still like your accordion appraised, please note that accordion organisations such as the Accordion Society of Australia do not offer appraisal services - these are performed by accordion stores, or individuals on accordion forums or Facebook groups (as listed above). 99% of the time however, you will receive the same response to the effect of “not much”.