Dear Olivetti

Link to original listing

Result!

Patience, luck and Auction Sniper (thanks for the tip, Richard and the encouragement, Bill).

Now to work out the logistics...

London buses

The saying about London buses goes: you wait for ages and none arrives, then three come at once.

But in this case, two Hermes 3000s.

 

So, this item is a good price and "buy it now". Imagine the temptation.
Being described as faulty, but could just be a simple ribbon or drawband replacement,
or the seller doesn't know where the carriage lock is...

 Then there's this one, no claims to be working but a much nicer case and with a price
approaching the top end of my limit.

 

Tages Anzeiger: Questions 5-8

See Retro Tech Geneva where this thread began.
See Manual Entry too.

Tages Anzeiger: Questions 2-4

See Retro Tech Geneva where this thread began.

Tages Anzeiger: Question 1

See Retro Tech Geneva where this thread began.

Spaced

Olivetti pmc elite 44 on eBay UK for £65

Having wondered about the Jet Age's influence on the naming of Cameron's Webster XL-747, you have to wonder about the Space Age influence on these two Sottsass Olivettis. They could easily have been the first typewriters in space, if styling is anything to go by. I have never seen anything like them before, and now two at once.

The leather-look trim on satin metallic echoes SLR camera design, the covering aids grip. But the font on the keys of the machine above is pure sci-fi and much more at home here than it was on the Valentine. For these reasons, and my complete lack of a portable Olivetti, I'm tempted... if only they weren't priced so highly. 

The pmc elite is the better looking (and has a silver/black, leatherette case!), but the DL has the Olivetti logo up front. Is the pmc a licensed clone?

I think they are stylistic variants based on the prolific Lettera 32 print engine.
The best info I can find is on DE SCHRIJFMACHINIST.

Olivetti DL on eBay UK for £90

Channel blues

Have good photography and an active Typosphere helped to inflate prices of used typewriters? You quite often see people on ebay offering, say, a Remington Noiseless Portable with a reserve of £300 - needless to say, they don't sell.

I was I was keeping an eye on a Corona 4 in Duco Channel Blue on ebay - just idle curiosity, you know - and which did sell for a very high price, as did this pretty ordinary-looking Underwood from the same seller.  I have ones just like them which cost around £20 a few years ago.

Then there's the article posted yesterday on Technorati about old typers being a good investment. Anyone starting to think about insurance yet? And so much for my dreams one day of finding (and affording) a Lavender and gold C4! 

Has the sad day may have arrived when a used typewriter costs many times more than the postage?

This is what a £113 Corona 4 in Channel Blue looks like and...

...this is what a £20 Corona 4 in Channel Blue looks like