Donna June! Wherefore hast thou forsaken me?

I’m currently obsessed with the idea of owning an accordion. I’ve been staking out eBay for two days. (And doing work in between checking the auctions.) I found this one awesome accordion for fifty dollars, and was going to bid on it today. But someone opted for the “buy me now” choice, and so the accordion of my dreams was lost to me forever. sigh. She was so beautiful. Blue and silvery-white, nice ornamentation… so what if the seller had no idea how they work, or if it was tuned properly, etc. There was no manufacturer’s signature or insignia, only a name plate that said “Donna June.”

Perhaps it is risky buying a musical instrument on eBay… the accordion crowd is small (relatively) but fierce. While there are sellers that don’t know much about accordions, most of the buyers, however, are quite informed, and I’m trusting the judgement of the other bidders. If they bid on an accordion that I am watching, then I know it can’t be completely worthless. However, most accordion enthusiasts know how to get repairs done, and tend to also like having accordions around even if they’re inoperable. So, perhaps my trust is misplaced.

I’m going to check out a few antique stores around here to see if I can get my hands on one there. I’d rather hear it myself than buy one blindly from the internet. I don’t know… there’s this other one (an Orpheus, I believe) that has some history to it, and the woman selling it has gone into great detail about the instrument, even though she’s never played it. She’s owned it for years, but never got around to playing it. It’s really neat looking: pink and grey flowery details with little colored gems all over it. Hmmm, perhaps it can measure up to Donna June… we’ll see.