Cheap Concertina Price Difference.

[LangGang]

Yes, I am new to concertinas, but for the cheaper, poor quality concertinas I have seen the same exact pictured instruments on e-bay for sometimes more than half the price of the same pictured cheap instruments at Lark in the Morning, or the Button Box.

 

I have read here that these more expensive cheap instruments have been re-tuned, fixed, etc before sale, but my cheap box is all glued (no screws). Do they unglue them, adjustment them, then glue them back, or are they just charging more money because they are a "store"?

 

I have looked all over town (Houston, TX) for a quality instrument to try, and all that is available are the cheap 20 button ones. Maybe I'm not looking at the right place.

[Chris Allert]

Yes, I am new to concertinas, but for the cheaper, poor quality concertinas I have seen the same exact pictured instruments on e-bay for sometimes more than half the price of the same pictured cheap instruments at Lark in the Morning, or the Button Box.

 

I have read here that these more expensive cheap instruments have been re-tuned, fixed, etc before sale, but my cheap box is all glued (no screws). Do they unglue them, adjustment them, then glue them back, or are they just charging more money because they are a "store"?

 

I have looked all over town (Houston, TX) for a quality instrument to try, and all that is available are the cheap 20 button ones. Maybe I'm not looking at the right place.

 

this question has come up quite a bit and the general concensus on cheap concertinas is to only buy one from the button box or from wim wakker ( www.concertinaconnection.com ). the jackie and the rochelle are made in china to wakker's specifications and are different from other cheap concertinas that may look exactly the same in a photo.

 

the button box is worth the extra price because they weed out and fix all the lemons before selling them. from what people on this forum have said, a button box stagi may not be any better than a jackie or rochelle.

 

the only advantage i can see to buying a concertina from lark in the morning is that you can actually visit one of their stores and try every cheap concertina they have in stock until you find a playable one. the premium you pay with them is for their high-rent retail spaces in seattle's pike place market and san francisco's fisherman's wharf. you probably won't encounter a salesperson who knows anything about concertinas at any of their shops, so you should bring someone knowledgeable with you if you go this route.

 

your experience of what shops in your area have to offer is not surprising. the only kind of shop where you'd likely find a 30 button anglo or english system concertina is one specializing in accordions. petosa's in seattle keep a few of the better stagi models in stock. and if there's an accordion shop in your area, maybe they'll have a few concertinas as well. but my guess is that if houston is anything like most american cities, you won't find any mass produced concertinas other than 20-button anglos for sale anywhere.

[LangGang]

thanks.

[Richard Morse]

Yes, I am new to concertinas, but for the cheaper, poor quality concertinas I have seen the same exact pictured instruments on e-bay for sometimes more than half the price of the same pictured cheap instruments at Lark in the Morning, or the Button Box.

 

I have read here that these more expensive cheap instruments have been re-tuned, fixed, etc before sale, but my cheap box is all glued (no screws). Do they unglue them, adjustment them, then glue them back...

The Button Box does fix them up but doesn't have to "unglue" them. Every concertina seems to be put together with screws or pins ("nails"). Maybe you're thinking of the wax that secures the reeds as "glue"? Wax is easy to remove and replace though we usually can do any reed adjustments with the reeds in place.

... or are they just charging more money because they are a "store"?

The Button Box does charge more because it *is* a store. We do work on the boxes we sell and pay our employees (and associated taxes, benefits), and depreciation of tools/machinery/furnishings, the store/shop space (rent), and utilities (heat, electricity), premisies services (snow plowing, yard work)... all sorts of overhead plus we like to add a small percentage on for "profit". Oh yeah, we also guarantee ALL of our new instruments for a minimum of A YEAR. Even the cheapest ones we sell.

 

The Button Box is real people providing real services. The vast majority (all?) of eBay sellers of cheap concertinas provide no services and don't account fully for their overhead. They usually don't even have a clue as to what concertinas are or how to play them. To them they're a commodity. They buy in bulk, probably stash them in their garage and ship one out to you without even glancing at it once.

 

And that is fair. You pay for what you get. I find it interesting that we routinely get boxes in for repairs from people who had bought from others *after* talking with us at length for advice on what model/make to get!

 

-- Rich --

[chainyanker]

if you want to make it up north to dallas, i have a 20 horner, a 30 button Lachenal you can try. Herrington Brothers is just north east about 30 minutes which is a real nice gentel man.

[LangGang]

No offence was intended.

[LangGang]

My company is sending me to Dallas in a couple of weeks for some training, if I can I'll try to stop by. Thanks.