Advice request concerning 8 Chemnitzer concertinas for sale

[blatherskite]

I found someone who has a lot of 8 Chemnitzer concertinas for sale. He's got at least 2 Pearl Queens, a Polonia, all seem to be played, some in worse shape than others (missing buttons etc).
I play English concertina and B/C accordion so I know nothing about them. He's asking $1000 for the lot.
If anyone is interested he is in Northern Indiana, and I'll connect you.

Is there anything I can do remotely other than get pictures to see if they are worth going to see? I don't want to make the 3 hour drive to see them unless there is a chance they are worth anything.
 

Here are pics of a few of them

 

[Stephen Chambers]

Theodore Kloba was probably the only person here who knew much about these, but he hasn't posted since 2015, and hasn't visited the forum since 2019... 🙁

 

[Theodore Kloba]

Google Alerts to the rescue...

 

Not much I can say about these instruments with so few photos, but if some are playable the $1000 price tag might be OK.

 

Is your goal to learn how to play, to learn how to repair and maintain, or to resell?

 

If the Pearl Queen were in good shape and a 52-button (rather than apparent 39-button), it would easily be worth the $1,000 all by itself.  It might be a fun instrument to play, but with the older keyboard layout you may find it limited, depending on the type of music you play.  (It won't be fully chromatic.)

 

The Lange/Uhlig may have a different keyboard layout from the one that's more-or-less standard among US players.

 

The Polonia is a "private label" for a music store that used to be on Chicago's Southwest Side.  I'm not sure who built instruments for them, but since they were already in business ca. 1920 it was most likely one of two "big names" in Chicago at that time: Patek (also built Pearl Queen) or Star.