Saturday, July 7, 2012

Raining typewriters in Northern Kentucky

It's raining typewriters -- and adding machines -- in Northern Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. This guy has a collection of many machines which he'll sell for $150 -- for all of them. But you have to take them all, you can't cherry-pick. I think I see an Oliver, an Olympia SG1, a Remington 12, etc. Maybe someone in the typosphere would like to rent a truck and come out to get these?

Here is the craigslist ad.



12 comments:

michaeliany said...

Wow - thats a deal!
Much better than this one:
http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/atq/3080365925.html

The original ad said that all typewriters were $30 and i contacted him and said i wanted to come over and check it out.
Maybe i was too enthusiastic bc a few hours later he had updated his craigslist ad to read that some typers are $100.

HA! he'll be lucky to sell those for $100.

As for this craigslist ad: i think each and every one of us would go for this deal if we had the space... and the uhaul truck to pick it up :)

Richard P said...

Michael -- looks they have a Secor? Get that one even if it's $100.

As for the typewriters here, I don't have space and it would be too much trouble to find homes for them all ... if there were some great gem among them I might go to the trouble, but it doesn't look like it.

Anonymous said...

Why doesn't anything like this come up where I live?

Bill M said...

What a deal. If he would have used a link to larger photos posted on a photo site I bet the machines would already be gone.

michaeliany said...

Richard,

i just came back from the guy's house. It was full of supposed "vintage" items. He was basically using his home as an antique mall and repair shop. And it probably was a nice home before he put all this junk in there. It was in an affluent neighborhood and the houses were likely built within the last 5 or 6 years.

Anyways, i have bad news:

Keychoppers have bought the Secor, just earlier in the day. It was sold this morning.

I've never heard of a Secor but a quick look at Will Davis' site where i found your Secor No. 2 - gave me a quick education.

After that i decided to call the guy and go to his house.

He had maybe 10 typers left: various black Remington Portables for $80, a Rem Junior, a Remington #5, a Rem-riter, a late 40s flattop Corona Sterling, a late 60s Royal Royalite, and a Royal Mercury.

He said that lots of people have bought from him. But you cant ever believe a salesman.

i almost bought the Corona Sterling since he only wanted $30 and it was in working condition and it was the best looking of his machines but i dont have the space for any impulsive acquisitions. The rest of his machines had many things wrong with them: many missing a ribbon spool or a platen knob, or its spacebar was nonfunctional, and the Underwood 5's carriage didnt move. And of course, they all had sticky keys and needed cleaning.

When i mentioned these problems to him, he asked, "oh you want to use them? i usually sell them for their keys or as decoration."

and thats when i mentioned the secor, which i described as an upright black machine with glass keys that resembled the underwood No 5... thats when he said that a lady earlier in the morning had bought it and meant to use it for jewelry making.

Today,
Keychoppers - 1
Typewriter Insurgency - 0
(however, ebay results have yet to be tabulated)

but its still early in the day

L Casey said...

After several phone calls to the seller, and several closer pictures that he sent me, I have decided not to make the trip. I was all about it, but factoring in gas and tolls, it would be a near $400 trip, typewriters included. Considering the condition, the countless doubles, and how common the machines are (not to mention not sleeping again until at least 8PM tomorrow night), I just cannot swing it. Damn...
Of course, he has to sell them by next weekend, as he is moving out of the house. Otherwise, to the scrapyard they go.
The seller inherited them from his father, and said these are the last of at least 500. The cover for the Caligraph, in the back near the suitcases, is unfortunately empty. Also, he has some form of a Gundka index typewriter in there as well. After I called back to let him know I would not be coming, I told him about it, as he had been so helpful. I am hoping that, if everything else goes to the scrap yard, he may choose to keep that one. Hey, it's small and would keep a very small part of his father's collection with him. :)

L Casey said...

Also, anyone interested in some of the closer pictures that he sent me can email me at
kknot5889@gmail.com
with your phone number. I can forward the texts to you, if you like.

Richard P said...

Ugh ... such sadness ... Secors don't come along every day, and although they are kind of ordinary looking at first glance, they have some impressive engineering. Not a machine that deserved to be mutilated and dumped.

The typewriters here are probably doomed, because I don't think I can handle them.

And how did I not know about someone across the river with a collection of 500 typewriters?? I've lived in Cincinnati for 20 years and always thought I was the only serious collector within 100 miles.

shordzi said...

Too bad for the Secor. I also only discovered it, only to see it is lost.

Mark said...

What was the one with the flat rectangular ribbon covers near the adding machines? I have never seen a machine like that. Can someone identify it and post a link with a better picture of a similar one?

L Casey said...

That is a Demountable No 2. Quite a neat machine, and taking it apart is a breeze. Here is a link:

Demountable

Hope that helps. I am not sure who to credit with the website, as it is on Alan Seaver's sight, yet is done by Will Davis. So...both of those guys!

Mark said...

That is incredibly cool, thanks for the link above. I had never heard of those and now I kind of want one.

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