This question has been coming up a lot recently, and I'd like to answer it here very clearly. I have strong feelings about this, as you’ll see!

Never buy from anywhere other than a violin shop -- not a general music shop, not Ebay, not Costco.

If you buy from any of these places, what you get will have about the same level of craftsmanship as a kazoo. A teacher I know calls these instruments VSOs -- Violin Shaped Objects. They are junk and they are all but unplayable.

"But," you say, "I'm [or my child is] just a beginner. Isn't it okay just while we're starting out? Does it really make such a difference?"

The answer is no, it's not okay, because yes, it makes a significant difference, a difference that matters as much when you're first learning as it ever can.

Here’s why:

The junk violins -- the ones that are as glossy as candy in the photos or hanging on the wall -- make a big echoey ringing sound instead of the substance and tone of a true violin. The problem is that the big echo doesn't give you any information: it just booms at you, so that it will fool you into thinking, "This sounds great, let's buy it." It keeps booming at you when you're trying to learn to tune the strings, so that you really can't hear the difference in the vibrations when the strings are in tune or out of tune. It keeps booming at you when you're trying to learn to place your fingers, so that you don't get any feedback from the instrument about which spot has the increased resonance that comes with being in tune. It keeps booming at you when you're trying to learn how to use the bow, so that all you get is "on" or "off" -- no gradations of sound, no expressive differences, no feedback about how tense or relaxed, healthy or unhealthy your developing bow arm is.

The other problem with these instruments is what violin people call setup. If the different small pieces of wood that hold the strings in place aren't carefully adjusted by a violin maker/repairer, the violin will have all kinds of problems. It might not physically be possible for the player to do some basic things on it: the notes might be in different places on different strings, for example, rather than the same place. The strings might be so far above the fingerboard that it takes a ridiculous amount of finger pressure to make the notes, so that it's impossible to develop healthy technique. You can't see any of these things unless you are trained. Even a violinist doesn't necessarily know what to look for; I've learned the hard way over my years as a teacher, when violins that seemed okay enough really turned out not to be. A violin that is poorly set up can sometimes be helped, but not if the instrument is just too low quality to begin with.

I know a great fiddle player who had a terrible experience as a student because of all the things she could never do on her instrument, despite teacher after teacher’s good advice and years of hard practice. It was only years later than she learned -- while working in a violin shop -- that the problem had been the violin all along, not her. Many people would have quit and never known what they were missing. It is hard enough being a beginner on the violin, making frustratingly unrefined sounds until you get the hang of it. It just doesn’t make sense to make these first stages any more challenging than they are.

If you didn't know what to look for in a used car, would you buy one off of Ebay for $50 and send your teenaged child across the desert in it alone?

What to do?

If you want to purchase a violin that is worth playing on -- worth the money you’ll spend on lessons and the time you’ll spend practicing -- you can expect to pay not less than $500 for a kid-sized instrument, more for a full size. For an instrument for a teenager who’s been working and progressing for several years, a base line $1000-$2000 is reasonable if you can possibly afford it.

To put this into perspective, a professional violinist in the classical scene would expect to pay upwards of $10k for their instrument. The priceline is lower in the trad music world, where the energy in the bow can be more important than the instrument’s still sustain; but a handmade instrument whose production requires specialized knowledge and craftsmanship just isn’t cheap. Even good wood is surprisingly expensive.

You can consider buying from an individual, a student who has physically or musically outgrown their instrument, but in that case it it very important to take the instrument to your teacher and especially to a violin shop to get their opinion on its price and condition.

Consider rental instead

If cost is a concern, I would encourage you to rent from a violin shop; the rates are reasonable, and if you do decide to buy, you can apply your first several months’ rental to a purchase. Here in Seattle, Bischofberger Violins is still the most reliable source, particularly for kid-sized instruments. Do not rent from a general music store. They may tell you they know about violins, but they simply don't, and the instruments they rent often have the same problem as Ebay violins. Always rent from violin-family specialists.