I have for sale a 38 key C/G jeffries concertina. I have had it for about 8 years now I guess and it had been a great instrument.

I have just had it down to Richard Evans here in Australia who builds the Kookaburra concertinas here and he has built me a nice new set of 7 fold bellows and given it a good all round clean and service. It has come back looking great and it plays better than ever. Richard has worked on a number of jeffries concertinas and he said that it plays like one of the better jeffries concertinas.

I have also had work done on it in the past by Malcolm Clapp who is a repairer of concetinas and does A1 work. He reset the action and rebushed it etc and that was about 4 - 5 years ago.

In all it is a very nice instrument. I am hoping not to go down the ebay road so I will offer it here. Based on the what I have seen in recent times for unrestored instruments I am looking for 5,500 pounds paid in Australian dollars.

I have attached one pic but can send more. I have trouble posting them due to the size of the files.

I am off to work tomorrow and I will not be back home until about Sunday so please be patient looking for replies but I will answer them as soon as possible.

Scott Fineran
Brisbane Australia




Click to view attachment

There seems to have ben a lot of talk regarding the price of Jefries instruments in another topic on here. I have put a price on it based on the prices I have seen achieved on ebay for other instruments that are not resorted. I am however open to offers. If I feel that the offer is sufficient to part with it then it will be sold.


Maybe ebay is the way to go with the sale of these instruments. Let them find their own value based on demand.

Scott

Scott,

Perhaps you could post a sound file - some scales and a tune or 2 either up to a post here or on YouTube?

It might help to get people hearing it.

Dan

If I was a bit more technically minded I would. I'll have a look at the youtube thing but I am not sure how I will go. I do have an older type vodeo camera but i am not sure if I can put it on the computer that easily.

Scott

I have put a couple of basic tunes up on youtube on the concetina. Nothing to flash but it will give you an idea of the sound.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=28YeTmkoeTE

I hope that the link works.

I have not heard much via this site to date so I am probably going to put it on ebay tonight or tomorrow when I get more time to do it.

Scott

Think you might have been a bit too close to the mic, hence that breathey sound as if the air button was stuck open.
(Unless, of course, the air button was stuck open!)

MC

No I think it has more to do wth how I was playing it. I have been used to playing with bellows that leak a lot and I need to play more with the new bellows and get used to not using the air botton. Air buton works fine. Mind you I was in a small room with my young bloke running around yelling. I might try another one tomorrow when I have more time, less children around.

Scott

Well, no sale. I wonder what the perceived downside of this one is or has the bubble burst on expensive concertinas?

I am not sure why there was no interest this time. It is the first one I have seen not sell and the price is less than I have seen others sell for recently.

I wanted the $ 10,000 for it but if i can't get it I'll just keep it and put my other plans on hold. I don't think it is worth parting with for less than what I want.

I have had offers outside ebay but they are not quite enough to make me part with it at this stage.

Scott

Well, this is the biggest sale I've seen with the fewest details... 5500 pounds and only one picture to help you decide if you're willing to spend 11 000$ :-)

At today's exchange rate it's actually GBP4826.

Perhaps Busmick was on holiday!?

Scott,
How about some another listing with better pics (close ups and in focus) with pics of the reeds and action. Big emphasis on "In tune and ready to play".

Seems to me that there are four crowds of potential Jeffries buyers out there:

1. Bargain hunters
2. Those who are looking for an unrestored instrument with (hopefully) unlimited potential for personal use or resale
3. Player looking for a good playing instrument
4. High end buyers/dealers (Those who want the best or those who have an outlet for resale at a very high price.

I'd say your target group was #3. If so, the high opening probably dashed the initial enthusiasm of a large portion of that group. Those still in the running may need lots of reassurance that their expenditure will bring a very nice instrument indeed.

Your reluctance to accept Paypal is understandable but even with all its drawbacks Paypal does make a purchase just a few clicks away. And you want to eliminate as many excuses as possible for potential buyers not to participate. (Many people make choices by exclusion)

I think you tried to add some reassurance with Richard Evans' comment and the "restored" heading. Maybe potential buyers needed a bit more convincing.

Or maybe the folks putting $300. of gas per week (you do the math for the year!) of gas in their cars to commute to work now figure a Jeffries is beyond their reach?! { 1 Prius - 1 SUV = 1 Jeffries and break even in 5 years } Perhaps we need cocusflute to explain the math to them!?

At any rate, best of luck!

Greg

I thought the photos where in focus but anyway, like I said in the listing, I am happy to send as many photos or information as required.

The problem I have with ebay here in Australia is that they seem to be making it hard to deal with them. I was happy to put a lower price if I have the ability to put a reserve on it so I had some control of the sale. They will not allow a reserve to be put on it here in Aus. I did not want to put a lot less on it than I was prepared to accept in the hope that it would reach my required price an be obliged to sell it. Whilst I take on board what you are saying, I would have expected that these instruments would generate a reasonable amount of interest and people would request any additional information required. I have seen them sell for more than I asked for when people are not even sure what key they are in and they have required bulk amounts of work to make them playable. At this stage it looks like selling for less than the $10,000 anyway.

I also thought about the effects of increased petrol prices and the state of the US economy. I guess it effects everything.

Scott

Australia Blocks eBay's PayPal-Only Bid
'Consumers are in the best position to decide.'


http://www.auctiva.com/edu/entry.aspx?id=A...PayPal-Only-Bid

Good news though EBay is still a monolithic institution.
It primarily seeks to serve super sellers and tends to ignore people who use their service infrequently.

In the UK, it's possible to list on eBay in other countries...
I suppose you might be able to list from Oz onto the UK or US site, and set the reserve you want.

You'll have to list in the "local" currency, though.

Just a thought,

MichaelB