I wonder if this self-doubt about added value is merely a result of the scene being small enough that most of your online social interactions are with other enthusiasts who also tend to know where to find cheap machines in the wild. The actual audience for the added value is far larger (at least from my reading of stats) and is somewhat silent. *We* might cringe at the thought of paying north of $50 for a machine, but there's a vast number of people who are happy to pay a reasonable price for not having to worry about what they're buying and don't love scrounging enough to spend the required time to have a reasonably encouraging hit rate on good typewriter finds.
I agree. Once you find an Lettera 22 for $2 in a local Bargain Boutique, it's hard to look at a $75 dollar machine and open your wallet as quickly. These are the spoils that come by scrounging, and that is where much of the fun lies for me. At the risk of offending the faithful, I'll tell as story about a typewriter conversation with my son. I was telling him how cool they were and that I had found a really valuable model. When I said that really valuable was $200 he said, "Ok, $200..." and walked away with that look that your children give you. I guess this goes to say that value is in the eye of the beholder. And I love to behold my typewriters.
Typewriter prices are strange. Seems everyone on line (at least on Ebay and Etsy) think they have something special and really worth a bundle, and people with credit cards are willing to pay the high prices for any typewriter. Then there are the sellers who genuinely clean, repair, adjust, add a fresh ribbon,and may even fully restore the typewriter with a very detailed cleaning and even a recovered platen. Those are the machines demanding hundreds of dollars. If many of the buyers really knew what they were buying the prices would likely fall. There are some good condition cheap ones though. I recently got a nice Classic 12 for $5 and my Underwood No. 6 only cost me $30. Neither of those were on line. The Classic 12 will be cleaned and then going to a charity here in KZ for the children to use.
I wonder if this self-doubt about added value is merely a result of the scene being small enough that most of your online social interactions are with other enthusiasts who also tend to know where to find cheap machines in the wild. The actual audience for the added value is far larger (at least from my reading of stats) and is somewhat silent. *We* might cringe at the thought of paying north of $50 for a machine, but there's a vast number of people who are happy to pay a reasonable price for not having to worry about what they're buying and don't love scrounging enough to spend the required time to have a reasonably encouraging hit rate on good typewriter finds.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Once you find an Lettera 22 for $2 in a local Bargain Boutique, it's hard to look at a $75 dollar machine and open your wallet as quickly. These are the spoils that come by scrounging, and that is where much of the fun lies for me. At the risk of offending the faithful, I'll tell as story about a typewriter conversation with my son. I was telling him how cool they were and that I had found a really valuable model. When I said that really valuable was $200 he said, "Ok, $200..." and walked away with that look that your children give you. I guess this goes to say that value is in the eye of the beholder. And I love to behold my typewriters.
DeleteTypewriter prices are strange. Seems everyone on line (at least on Ebay and Etsy) think they have something special and really worth a bundle, and people with credit cards are willing to pay the high prices for any typewriter. Then there are the sellers who genuinely clean, repair, adjust, add a fresh ribbon,and may even fully restore the typewriter with a very detailed cleaning and even a recovered platen. Those are the machines demanding hundreds of dollars. If many of the buyers really knew what they were buying the prices would likely fall. There are some good condition cheap ones though. I recently got a nice Classic 12 for $5 and my Underwood No. 6 only cost me $30. Neither of those were on line. The Classic 12 will be cleaned and then going to a charity here in KZ for the children to use.
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