Fairdeal Accordions of Birmingham

[sjr2]

Does anyone on the board have experience of Fairdeal Accordions of Birmingham? They have a website, but only a mobile number is given. Anyone know who they are?

 

[Soulsaver]

I've not dealt with him personally but some others on here have, he's got a pretty good rep, no bad reports, known as Bierkeller on eBay. He advertises in the wanted sections of Gumtree & the like and seeks out/negotiates bargain buys which he sells-on at a profit. Has his repair work done at the Birmingham accordion centre, name is Nigel and he deals from home in Rednal near Longridge in Brum... He buys low & sells 'reasonable' usually. No connection.

 

[Matt Butcher]

Friends of mine have dealt with him and based on their experience I would go along with what Soulsaver says.

 

[goldtopia]

He's well known and offers money back if not satisfied.

 

[maugein96]

Probably one of the safer sellers at reasonable prices. I haven't actually bought anything but have swopped e-mails now and then regarding CBAs he's had in stock.

Seems a pretty fair guy as per his logo. He's currently selling my old Guerrini CBA for £2250, but it doesn't seem to have attracted much interest. As an example of how things are these days I bought it for £865 about 1985, and traded it in a couple of years later for £500. It's obviously been well cared for over the years and I asked Nigel to explain why it had gained in value of late when I lost a fair whack when I traded it in.

He advised me that since there are not so many accordions built these days, secondhand models in good condition can fetch a price well in excess of their original purchase cost. I deferred to his knowledge of such things but remained unconvinced. However, he itemised how he had acquired it, how much he had to spend refurbishing it, and his reason for charging the asking price. Not many sellers would do that, especially when I told him the instrument hadn't suited me and I wasn't interested in buying it (again).

Most of the CBAs he sells have strong Scottish musette tuning or are Rolands, and that is the only reason I've never made a purchase from him.

 

[sjr2]

Many thanks all for the feedback. Very useful.

 

[smdc66]

Probably one of the safer sellers at reasonable prices
Seems a pretty fair guy as per his logo.
He's currently selling my old Guerrini CBA for £2250, but it doesn't seem to have attracted much interest. As an example of how things are these days I bought it for £865 about 1985, and traded it in a couple of years later for £500.
It's obviously been well cared for over the years and I asked Nigel to explain why it had gained in value of late when I lost a fair whack when I traded it in.he itemised how he had acquired it, how much he had to spend refurbishing it, and his reason for charging the asking price.

i would concurr with this after a purchase of a pigliacampo off him - it turned out i wasnt completely satisfied with the item but this was partly down to the difficulty of purchasing remotely without trying out an item

his sale price is determined by purchase price + refurbish/repair costs although when i dealt with him which was around a year ago his focus (due time contraints) was moving away from repairs and refurbish to selling stock and teaching youngsters to play the instrument

the guerrini story surprises me as believed this sort of thing happens with certain exclusive special makes / models and unsure if this falls into that category

maybe it's over priced :?: :!:

guess i've been unlucky for this (value gain)to never happen to me

 

[maugein96]

The Guerrini certainly doesn't fall into the "sought after" category as it is a bog standard model with no tone chamber. It's apparent selling point was the plethora of decorative diamante adornment, which I actually didn't like. The box was/is very strong Scottish musette tuned, and turned out to be the wrong purchase for me. With hindsight I was "sold" the box, as I couldn't afford what I really wanted at the time. It would appear that in latter years it changed hands via a London dealer and that may have some bearing on the current asking price.

I'm not going to make any comment regarding it's current value, as I no longer have any interest in the instrument.

 

[Accordion Joe]

I have just been on Gumtree, and came across Fairdeal Accordions. Upon browsing a small list of accordions for sale I quickly came to my own opinion that some of them are a little overpriced. Obviously refurbishment costs have to be considered on top of purchase value, and a profit has to be made. However, needing to sell at those prices can only make me think he is purchasing at the wrong price, or his sub contractor is over charging for work done. The only other explanation, is that the seller thinks people will trust his prices as not many people really know what accordions are worth. A general rule of thumb, any accordion is worth what someone will pay for it.

 

[Soulsaver]

Easy - negotiate a price that you are happy with, or walk away. I don't begrudge an honest dealer trying to make a few quid - what you need to watch is the one who sells you a duff one at a 'good' price and won't put it right.

 

[smdc66]

needing to sell at those prices can only make me think he is purchasing at the wrong price, or his sub contractor is over charging for work done.

i did post earlier and stand by that still as had quite a few discussions with him

the only addition i would make is i thought the preperation , postage and packing would have been done to a slightly higher standard with a little more care - it wasnt awful and arrived safely - its just i would have done it a little bit better (and have done when packaging for private sale)

i think he uses a well known repairer that charges a fair price that may not be far from him

dont want to quote names or discuss further too much (and i dont want to offend on subjective matters) as after all my memory may fail me on some finer details

 

[Matt Butcher]

Don't be apologetic, that's why it's a good thing to have forums and share experiences.

I don't want to be an advocate for the guy or anything, I've met him but I don't know him, but to share what I know: my friend bought an Excelsior 4 voice from him which is one of her two main instruments for playing out. Could you get a cheaper Excelsior 4 voice? Probably. Could you get a better piano accordion for the price she paid? Only if you were a bit lucky. Another friend went there and had a go on different boxes and went away buying nothing but enjoyed the experience with no hard sell. A third acquaintance was looking at a Scottish tuned Paolo Soprani 5 row. This is a model I like so I keep an eye on prices, this one was a bit above the average eBay price but played really well and was in tune.

There's a Borsini 5 row on the website now for £1500 (sounds reasonable?), Paolo Soprani 5 row with midi for £1250 (probably a bit over average price but if it's in good nick that could be quite an instrument to play)....

What does stand out on the website is a lot of smaller/cheaper piano accordions for around the £600 mark. Cheaper piano accordions often cause some controversy anyway... My personal feeling is you could probably get £600 worth of music out of a lot of these if they have been well set up. But would there be better ways to spend £600 on an accordion? It's a question that comes up a lot in real life so I'm going to start a new thread.