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Relative price for duets


Don Taylor

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I was also wondering if concertina prices might be dropping - or rather if supply is outstripping demand and that consequently prices will begin to fall.

 

Chris's price drop of 50 pounds to 850 pounds is not huge, but may be significant. It will be interesting to see if he gets any takers this time around.

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He's also listing a rather nice early Lachenal crane duet, in need of some work, but a similar one I tried (very inexpertly) some time ago had a lovely mellow tone.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lachenal-48-Key-Crane-Duet-Concertina-No-10-/251133486047?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL&hash=item3a78b8e3df

 

Interesting to see what this sells for

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Looking through the "completed" listings on Ebay today it would appear that people are holding on to their money because there are many fine concertinas that did not sell. Why is this.... wrong season.. ecconomic uncertainty ???

I think that's really a different topic from relative price of duets. And as it's been asked more than once over the past few years, I would suggest that's simply part and parcel of the general economic malaise that has been trickling down since various financial bubbles have burst.

 

Are people "holding on to their money" because of "economic uncertainty"? I'm sure that's the case for some, though for others it's more because of an economic certainty... that they have less money to hold on to. Some now know that their house, which they "knew" that they could always sell in a pinch for some extra cash is now worth less than their mortgage obligation. Others now have less "free" cash, whether because of pay cuts, forced change in employment, entering the unemployment rolls, higher fuel prices, or even having a personal business that has become less profitable. Even those who aren't facing such a hardship may have close relatives or friends in need, to whom they are more committed than to a concertina purchase. Of course, a concern that any of these situations might happen in the near future brings us back to the "uncertainty" category.

 

I'm not going to try to assign responsibility, but it's clear that at least in Denmark the general economic situation has changed, though it didn't happen here as soon (or as "quickly") as was reported elsewhere. On streets where there was always a queue for available shop space there are now several shops which have been seeking tenants for a year or more. Some shops that had been fixtures since before I moved here in 1995 have recently suffered financial loss and closed, while a few have moved to smaller, less expensive locations. Even several local supermarkets -- neither as large nor as numerous as in many parts of America -- have reduced both the variety of their offerings and the quantities they keep in stock. Apparently people simply aren't buying as much of even staple items as they were just a few years ago.

 

If the general population is buying less of even food than they used to, then it doesn't surprise me at all to see a reduced demand for concertinas.

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there is also the fascinating speculative question of whether the phenomenen (scarce jobs in many fields but also big changes in consumer spending behavior) is "systemic or temporary." i guess there could be a "systemic or temporary?" thread about concertina prices...right after the "are prices actually declining?" thread....

 

perhaps, on the "systemic" side of the ledger, in addition to people not having cash, people in the post-crash, supposedly "post-Recession" era, are looking differently at questions concerting whether or on what to spend extra dosh if they have it. and perhaps concertina value measurements are adding up differently to potential buyers. there has been quite a bit of debate about this issue among economic pundits, though not focused on concertinas to date.....

 

in the Classifieds section of www.banjohangout.org there are dozens of top-name used banjos languishing for months which are not going anywhere. the subject is also a topic of discussion over there. i don't believe it is only that people don't have cash or don't feel safe letting go of any spare cash they have. i believe a sobered consumer sector is viewing the prices of many used or vintage items, particularly musical instruments, with a jaundiced eye and a "get real" attitude toward the sellers in the post-apocalpyse era...

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I wonder if the price is falling back.

 

I am sure there are more duets on the market now than there were a few years ago. Better instruments and more of them hit Ebay these days. I reckon this is easy to explain if you believe, as I do, that a lot of them used to get bought by players of other systems (or players of other instruments even) who acquired them in less straightened times. They tried them, didn't apply themselves sufficiently to maintain enthusiasm and went back to the old instrument, whatever it was. The duet is then left to sit in the cupboard, literally in the 'too hard box'.

 

Then times get hard. People have a look at their assets to see what they can raise a few bob on and , "Oh yes, there's the duet, that's worth a bit." The trouble is there are very few people in the market for a good Wheatstone duet at any time, and probably in easier times a fair proportion of the more expensive ones would be bought by existing players upgrading or acquiring a spare instrument. The players can do without for a while, they have an instrument and don't want to spend money, while the speculative buyers ("Will I get on with it?" they think as they write the cheque) can certainly do without too. Both ends of the buying spectrum are suddenly very much smaller than they were.

 

I wonder if the market is simply saturated, all the slack has gone, and selling a duet at all at the moment is a good trick, not easy to achieve, and requiring hard nosed discounting or a lot of luck.

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According to a survey, that was made on this site last year,there are something like 70 players of the Maccann worldwide. That is, I suppose, players known to members of C.net. This is not a large pool of potential customers !

 

Another problem for the Duet players in general is the very sparse numbers of restorer/repairers who do play these systems. I feel it is one thing to set up a concertina in a generic manner, as a mechanical device, and quite another to set the instrument up for playing.

I find I almost always have to set up my instruments to suit me, even when they have been restored.

Edited by Geoff Wooff
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...having a Maccann that starts at Middle C on the Right hand is very practical. I took this "buy a 57" advice and am pleased I did.

But an important aspect of this instrument that didn't sell is that although it's only 55 buttons, it does go down to middle C, though the "standard" 55-button Maccanns from Lachenal do not. So in practical terms, this appears to be a "57", just missing the highest F# and G in the right hand. (As it happens, this is exactly the range of a standard 55-button Crane duet.)

 

I'm surprised it didn't sell. Did potential buyers only look at the number of buttons and ignore Chris' statement about the range?

 

He didn't help himself by failing to quote values for the weight and the size across the flats, as these are its selling points. The lightest 'normal' 57-button instrument that I've weighed was 62oz (a flat-ended Wheatstone 6-sider, and I think it was less than 7" across the flats), so it would have to be noticeably better than this to interest me.

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...having a Maccann that starts at Middle C on the Right hand is very practical. I took this "buy a 57" advice and am pleased I did.

But an important aspect of this instrument that didn't sell is that although it's only 55 buttons, it does go down to middle C, though the "standard" 55-button Maccanns from Lachenal do not. So in practical terms, this appears to be a "57", just missing the highest F# and G in the right hand. (As it happens, this is exactly the range of a standard 55-button Crane duet.)

 

I'm surprised it didn't sell. Did potential buyers only look at the number of buttons and ignore Chris' statement about the range?

 

He didn't help himself by failing to quote values for the weight and the size across the flats, as these are its selling points. The lightest 'normal' 57-button instrument that I've weighed was 62oz (a flat-ended Wheatstone 6-sider, and I think it was less than 7" across the flats), so it would have to be noticeably better than this to interest me.

 

 

 

The 'New model' Lachenal that I tried earlier this year was a good bit lighter than my 57 Aeola, which weighs 67oz. It was also the standard concertina size of 6.25" across flats!

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62 oz? that's pretty great for somebody yearnng for a small CBA, or something that would do much that a small CBA would do. i know that's not how most people think of unisonoric conertinas, but....the lightest CBA you can get is about 9.5 pounds, a single-voice box akin to an accordion-reeded concertina...and that is certainly pretty darn light compared to most unisonoric acccordions. but one then starts fantasizing about how great it would be to have something much lighter that would still do a lot of things a CBA can do....the 46-button duets seem to me like they might be frustrating in the long run....but just under four pounds (let's say, four pounds) for a 57-key? from a concertina standpoint i guess that's "heavy," but from a CBA standpoint it's a mere slip of a thing....

Edited by ceemonster
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He's also listing a rather nice early Lachenal crane duet, in need of some work, but a similar one I tried (very inexpertly) some time ago had a lovely mellow tone.http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3a78b8e3df

Interesting to see what this sells for

Sold for £550,

 

Which was a bargain. Just a shame that I have to keep my instrument collection thin at the moment.

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He didn't help himself by failing to quote values for the weight and the size across the flats, as these are its selling points. The lightest 'normal' 57-button instrument that I've weighed was 62oz (a flat-ended Wheatstone 6-sider, and I think it was less than 7" across the flats), so it would have to be noticeably better than this to interest me.

For a wee bit on weights and sizes, check out this post in a thread from 2007.

 

For purposes of comparison, 62 ounces is just a hair over 1.76 kg.

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He's also listing a rather nice early Lachenal crane duet, in need of some work, but a similar one I tried (very inexpertly) some time ago had a lovely mellow tone.http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3a78b8e3df

Interesting to see what this sells for

Sold for £550,

 

Which was a bargain. Just a shame that I have to keep my instrument collection thin at the moment.

 

Elegant actual example of one of the effects that I was suggesting is depressing the duet market at the moment Rod! We'll only have some spare money to buy another one once the prices have already started rocketing again, I'll bet you!

 

There really do seem to be some serious bargains around recently. I don't care because I'm sorted and not out to offload any of my stable, but anyone wanting to sell is going to have to bite the bullet and price to tempt, I think.

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they are probably the ones attempting to play it like a piano, that is to say harmony in the left hand and melody in the right hand

That's not the way I'd play the piano either... B)

 

Neither would I. ;) Many do though.

 

How would you play a PA or CBA or even a melodeon?

Edited by tony
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