The Masspro's feed roller has a small flat in it, which started causing some spacing issues. Someday I'll get it and the platen restored.
I could have (and probably should have) gone into a heck of a lot of detail about the idea of economics (to get my college degree I ended up having to take 4 godawful years of the stuff), but I'll leave that for future times when my fingers aren't frozen from the cold.
Finding Olivers is not a bad thing. The last Oliver I saw "in the wild" around here was in nasty condition and far too expensive ($175 or so).
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking of the economics of typewriters too these days. I like to sell a few machines from time to time. I enjoy seeing how excited people are to get a typewriter- often a gift for a friend or child who is keen on writing. It's also nice to get a little cash for my hobby. So what are these machines worth? I found a Olivetti 21 for $5, inspected it, cleaned it, and rolled a new ribbon on the spools from my gigantic Baco spool. I sold it on Craigslist for $50, which seems like a going price for an Olivetti 21 in excellent shape. I think that was worth my time finding the machine, cleaning it and installing $1 worth of ribbon. Now let's say I came across a 1941 Royal QDL on an auction site and had the great fortune of getting it for $45, including shipping (this has happened to me!). I could pass it along in the same fashion and probably get $65 for it in the wilds of Vermont. Someone in the know would see it as a more valuable machine, but it's just a pretty typewriter to everyone else. Sure, it would go for $150 plus in Boston, but that's not the point. I had fun and made someone else happy. My retirement plan of opening up a typewriter shop needs some work ;-) By the way, I'm hanging on to that QDL!
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