Blast from the past! Found an old accordian as we pack to move.

[CTyankee]

dark yellow, black keys. Roma appears as its brand name. Leather (worn) strap.

By today's standards, this thing is ugly. However, is it old enough to be considered an "antique"?
Sorry, no picture (I'll have my moving guy take a picture of it and email it to me and maybe I can post the picture).

Anybody here know about the value of these old accordians?

[Easterncedar]

1. I tried to sell one in the 1990s

It was really pretty, keys looked like mother of pearl (though probably not). Fifty bucks was the best offer. I was told then they are just hard to get rid of.

I think the market might be better now, actually.

[CTyankee]

3. Thanks. Fifty bucks is more than we paid for it! And, honestly, this thing is so ugly it hurts my eyes.

Musical instruments can be beautiful. One of my books on art dwells on how artists loved to paint musical instruments, esp. in the 19th century when the modern symphony was being developed.

The accordion is now considered corny and tacky. But that might be considered OK and downright amusing...

[3catwoman3]

2. Do you play?

If not, why do you have it.

[CTyankee]

4. It was the property of my husband's family from Wisconsin. He is of German descent. I can see how Germain-Americans can

hand down such an instrument. But no ielderhosen, however...

[Easterncedar]

5. I have my father's lederhosen

Bought as a tourist in the early 60s. Good and jolly times.

[CTyankee]

7. I thought i was "Liederhosen".

But I don't know German...

[Easterncedar]

8. Liederhosen would be pants for singing (which would be cute!)

Lederhosen are made of leather.

[CTyankee]

9. I shudda known. Lieder is a song (or maybe just Lied). I don't know German.

But I did study Latin, French and Italian at various times in my life. I must say Latin really helped with the French and Italian, altho I hated having to take two whole semesters (OMIGOD) of it. Now I'm glad I did.

[Easterncedar]

10. I studied Latin from middle school to grad school

Never got the hang of it. But it does help with grammar!

[CTyankee]

11. Hubby never had to learn Latin as I did. He hates when I use my Latin to figure words out so I am careful not to flaunt

it.

[Easterncedar]

6. My mother-in-law as a young mother got the accordion to play around with her kids

She was a force of nature

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Could Be Worth Something

But, accordions are a tough sell, unless they are pristine.
I inherited one from my father-in-law and got one from a guitar student who inherited it from his grandfather.
Both name brands, both in pretty good shape, but...
They both had a degree of "reed rot".
On one of them, it affected 4 or 5 buttons & the other 2 bass notes and 2 keys on the manual.
If they were in full working order, they'd have been worth over a grand a piece.
With the reed rot, they were worth nothing!
A reed set, installed, was $600-700 per instrument.
I tried for a year & a half to sell them on several different platforms. I got down to a hundred buck on one & $75 on the other. No takers.
I needed the space for guitar cases and a couple spare amps so I just had to junk them.

[CTyankee]

13. Thanks for the info. I might just leave it behind and let the movers trash it. UNLESS...

hubby objects (he is emotionally unable to leave some stuff behind).

[ProfessorGAC]

14. I Get It

When my b-i-l had to move into assisted living, we moved his stuff out, grabbed some other stuff & left the rest for the "we buy as is" real estate company.
I grabbed the accordion (still thinking it was worth something) and my wife and her cousin grabbed the brother's guitars.
When I got home, I looked at the guitars. They were total junk. I told her she should have just left them, but she said "We couldn't just leave them behind."
Since I know a lot about guitars & knew they were worthless, , I just let that go and gave them to a guy I know who has a campground spot.
Told him they'd make good kindling.

[Lars39]

15. Slightly off-topic...take photos of the "hard to let go of stuff"

Sometimes just having a visual of an item is enough to satisfy the memory urge.