Fortunately, a good pair of bolt cutters costs more than the current bid of $19.99 (20 minutes left).
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| Turns out it was loved after all! Final auction was well above key chopper range with lots of action in the last two minutes. The potential buyer is still a Monster in my book. |
Auction ID: 140625925248
Questions from other members : VINTAGE CONTINENTAL TYPEWRITER WANDERER WERKE GERMAN
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Now that was a real halloween shock! What an awful person, incredible. I'm glad the machine sold for $93. :)
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your blog feed problem - guess I have missed a few updates!
ReplyDeleteAbout the keychopper's question to the seller: you know, I once saw an auction for a beautiful Hermes 3000 (cursive typeface, even) where such a question was being asked. The potential buyer wanted to know whether the seller could ship the green plastic keys and the typeslugs to France, where he already had an AZERTY Hermes 3000 that he wanted to convert into a franken-QWERTY one. The worst part? I knew this potential buyer - he is a regular on the Yahoo typewriter forums, and is a well-known collector. I don't know if he won the auction - the whole thing left such a bad impression on me that I didn't want to think about it any further.
Sometimes keychoppers are much closer to collectors than you would imagine!
Ooh, that sound painful. Really sorry to hear.
ReplyDeleteTypo: "sounds" painful (I need to caffeinate!).
ReplyDeleteThe only way that I could approve of keychoppers' methods is if a typewriter was in irreversibly, totally trashed condition. Not like this obviously serviceable machine.
ReplyDeleteI breathe a sigh of relief that this Continental has probably escaped the keychopping fate.
Franken QWERTY: That could be the subject of a horror story. Could you type that in Fraktur, please?
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of caffeine: I had actually given it up for many years. Now, just a few long and horrible winters shy of 50, I am totally dependent.
And I totally agree that key chopping and technology art junk should be reserved for basket cases. Non functioning multi meters are my favorite.
I was glad to see this sold to someone who obviously appreciated it. I might had rescued it myself but for buying two Olympias recently: SM3 in italic and an SM9 in Senatorial/Robot to gift.
Key chopping... kind of like taking a '59 Caddy that needs a paint job and minor repairs and parting it out for its horn ring, tail lights, etc. Only I guess the key chopping is even worse because the keys would go to craft bazaar "art" and not be transplanted into a needy machine... truly heinous!
ReplyDeleteIf you're trying to get rid of an old typewriter, there are two things you should NEVER do.
ReplyDelete1. NEVER sell it to a keychopper. Keychoppers (as you know) harvest the keys from usually fully-functioning typewriters to make jewelry out of them an throw the rest of the typewriter in the trash. I feel like I'm getting kicked in the balls each time I see and auction on eBay for a near-new condition typewriter that says, "will cut off keys and send for reduced shipping." DON'T SELL YOUR TYPEWRITER TO A KEYCHOPPER.
2. NEVER give it to Goodwill. Yeah, you can go to Goodwill a week later and it will still be there, then be gone the next day. That does NOT mean someone bought it. It might mean it was sent to Goodwill Outlet. If you go to Goodwill Outlet, you'll see it's pretty much just a bunch of bins full of the rejected stuff from Goodwill stores. Merchandise is sold by the pound. You probably don't want to know what happens to the stuff that isn't sold at Goodwill Outlet, but I'll tell you anyway. First of all, I'd like to say this: merchandise at Goodwill Outlet a shelf life of three hours. If your typewriter goes to Goodwill Outlet and isn't sold in three hours, it MOVES ON TO THE NEXT STEP. What happens to the rejected stuff, you might ask. IT GETS PUT THROUGH A GIANT CRUSHER AND THE METAL AND PLASTIC IS SOLD FOR SCRAP. That's WAY worse than keychopping. At least someone gets to appreciate part of a keychopped typewriter. Oh yeah. If you give your typewriter to Goodwill, it might get sold to a keychopper. There's a slim chance it will fall into the hands of a collector, but it will most likely BE PUT THROUGH A GIANT GRINDER.