Update of a Typewriter Update: It Pays to Ask

"Retro vintage Typewriter", the listing header said when it appeared in my eBay alert last night. The starting price was $120, so naturally I assumed it was something special. Here was the listing image:

Looks very, very special, I'm sure you will agree. Nonetheless I contacted the seller and said I that if I was going to invest $120 of my hard-earned on this "retro vintage typewriter", I'd need to have a better look at it. Sure enough, this morning the listing image changed:

Yes, folks, it's a Silver-Seiko Royal 200, real value $12. I suspect it was a glimpse of the case we first saw:

*** 

At the time of posting my July update on Monday,  I was still trying to work out the true make of the Esselte Compact 350 that Richard Polt saw in London. It is an Antares Compact 350:

Now oddly enough, Esselte is based in Stamford, Connecticut, home of the Blickensderfer. Esselte Corporation is a privately held holding company specialising in office products. It owns several companies, including Pendaflex, Leitz, Oxford, Xyron, Rapid, and an operating company also called Esselte.

Not sure about the German brand Hanseatic, but most of its typewriters appear to have been Czech Consuls. The first two listed below, the 1500s, look decidedly Oriental, and the last one is surely a Robotron?:

***

Someone is determined to win this "1908 Remington Model 10". There have now been four bids and the price had rocketed from 99 cents to $5.50! Steve Snow's comment after my update on Monday seemed to indicate he was well in the race for the prize possession. Winning it is sure to make for an amusing blog post:

***

This Picht Braille machine has had a bid at 500 euros on German eBay:

It was designed, I believe, by Oskar Picht (1871-?):

***

The keychoppers appear to be out in force in the US, and targetting old Underwoods in particular. Last night alone three sets of Underwood keys came up on an eBay alert. That's six sets in the past three weeks - at two mutilated Underwoods a week, we'll soon run out of them!:

Saltponddude in Sweet Springs, Missouri, claimed "Underwood No. 3 to [sic] bad to save the rest". It's sickening, all right!

Americana60 in Minot , North Dakota, and Sunflower in Canton, Ohio, have also been brutalising lovely old Underwoods:

Castration would seem far too gentle a punishment! Still, the necessary tools would be available in this Underwood technician's kit, which fetched $356 in Kansas last week:

The appropriate tool is just above the ribbon tin. Or maybe a we need a firing squad?:

***

OK, putting thoughts of eunuched keychoppers to one side, here's another Miss Typewriter to be going on with:

Goodness, I wish we could lie in the sun in Canberra right now!