Buying a Cajun accordion off of eBay -- bad idea, unless it is a Savoy (or one of the other top makers) AND you can see from the photos that it is not too banged up AND there is a return policy. The only way to know whether an accordion is any good is to play it. The mechanism is inside -- there's lots of stuff that can break, including reeds -- bellows can be leaky, etc.

I don't know what the new Chinese ones are like but the Chinese-made one I bought (from Marc Savoy!) about 15 years ago was barely playable. I had to fix all kinds of things and finally got fed up, sold it and bought a hand-made one from Marc which I have been happily playing ever since.

Another person who is making really good accordions these days is Ed Poullard (brother of Danny) who lives in Beaumont, Texas. I have played a few of his and they are very good, if I ever order another one I'd order it from him. He has a "Myspace" page:http://www.myspace.com/poullardaccordions

I can't see how to contact him but I bet he's listed in the phone book.

Super nice guy and a GREAT musician on both accordion and fiddle.
Good luck,
Suzy T.