If you pay more you get quality, and that makes 'em easier to play. Okay, there is an argument for learning on a banger, because it makes you appreciate the quality when you eventually get there... but it ain't necessarily so, as you may give up before you get there!

Apart from small (48 bass and less) accordions and Hohner pokerwork melodeons, you'd expect to pay upwards of £400.00 GBP for a half-decent box. My concertinas are worth over two grand apiece, and my 120 bass Hohner Musette IV (I have two) made in Switzerland weighs in at around a grand. When I bought one of the Hohners new in 1970 it was £550.00, which would be at least twenty times that by today's values.

I have a Delicia 48 bass which is hard work to play compared with the Hohners... apparently minor details such as the black keys being a little fat, so my fat little fingers can't easily fit between them... and the bellows are rather stiff with being more cheaply made.

The Hohners need very little bellows pressure to sound a note, but the Delicia needs much more... the reeds aren't as carefully regulated.

I could go on... and on... and on...