x over it: flea markets

Showing posts with label flea markets. Show all posts

18 Nov 2013

Москва and Mignon: Typewriters in Tbilisi

I'm not actually going to typecast this time. A bit silly since this is my first typewriter-related post in Tbilisi. XD The typewriters shown here were seen in the Dry Bridge Market which is held every weekend in and around a park in downtown Tbilisi. It's pretty much like a flea market and I think the quality and assortment of items is more interesting in general than American flea markets, even the ones aimed at antiques and vintage items. I saw five typewriters on the two weekends I attended.

The first typewriter here is a Москва (Moskva or Moscow) with Georgian language keyboard. I am estimating this dates to the 1950s, and is the model that immediately precedes Richard Polt's Moskva seen here. Unfortunately, it was in very non-working condition. I looked over it and found that typing wouldn't advance the carriage (even when applying pressure to the carriage by hand). That, coupled with its poor overall condition and language which I have no intention of ever learning, meant that I had to pass this over, no matter how interesting it may be.

One thing about the market here in Tbilisi is that you can get things much cheaper than the seller's asking price. He was asking 125 Lari for this, and the same for another typewriter which you will see below. This is equivalent of $74, £46, or 55€. More on this later.

Another machine I saw was quite a surprise to me. It's a Mignon with a Georgian keyboard-pointer-thing. I didn't ask how much the seller wanted, but I can imagine it was over 300 Lari. Prices at the market can sometimes seem very reasonable, but can be unreasonable, too. It has a cyrillic typing element, though, not Georgian, making it pretty impractical! (The alphabet has changed somewhat so even if it did have the original element, it wouldn't be useful for typing in modern Georgian.) It seems to be in decent cosmetic condition, and at least partly working. I couldn't test it out though as the seller insistently said "не трогать".

The language of the market seems to be predominantly Russian. Georgian and English are also spoken, but more foreigners attend than locals, it seems. Perhaps they have no desire for old Soviet relics. They are one of the only countries in the world that adores George W Bush...and has a main street named in his honor.

This was the other machine the seller of the Georgian-keyboard Moskva had. It's a later version of this typewriter, and of a different internal design. It looks similar to, but has some differences distinguishing it from, the later Moskva on Mr Polt's blog post. The seller asked 125 Lari for it, and I countered with 60 Lari. I left with it in hand, having paid 70 Lari, or, $42. This machine, unlike the older model, is in fully working condition and has a Russian keyboard so I can use it! Obviously it is very dirty and will be needing a thorough cleaning, lubrication, and I will have to adjust some typebar springs. I'll be taking more about this typewriter after I get back to the United States.

I also saw two other typewriters. Both were late Olympia SFs in the boxy style with Russian keyboards. One seller was asking 100 Lari for a nice one, but I didn't attempt to bargain as I'd already found the one typewriter I wanted. It's not quite as perfect, or as old, as I'd hoped the typewriter I would find here would be, but it's mine and it's quite a nice machine.

30 Jul 2013

Massed Typewriter Sightings

Prepare yourself to see a lot of horrible photos of typewriters that I didn't buy! It's taken many months, but I finally seem to be finding typewriters locally. It's been almost a year since I moved and I had not found any typewriters locally that were fairly priced for a good 6 months, and certainly nothing special until this month. Before now it was all morbidly overpriced Royals, pretty much. The Fremont Sunday Market, on the other hand, seems to be out there to prove me wrong. (The two photos above were taken the first week of the market. The Contessa had no lid and no price.)

There's this guy who is selling a lot of his typewriters, there every other week. (First week's photos are above. I bought two--see if you can guess which!) The first time I went, he had, for the most part, rather reasonable prices. The second time I went, the prices were increased overall, sometimes significantly. There were a couple that caught my eye, but I decided against buying any because none had the right balance of price vs. interestingness vs. condition. There were plenty of special typefaces, script and techno mostly. But I have typewriters with both of those, so I don't want any more.

I'm showing photos of both the first week and the second week, and you can see some didn't sell the first week. Counterintuitively, some of them had significantly higher prices the second time around.

I did, however, get to try out two Everest K2s! One was absolutely horrible, and missing it's ribbon cover. (He later withdrew it from sale because apparently he had the ribbon cover at home) The other was quite nice though not superb. I would have bought the nicer one, glossy burgundy, had it been in better condition, but it had some chips of paint off the ribbon cover and the E in Everest was missing it's little curlicue. The price was $100. If it had not had those cosmetic faults, I would have paid $80 top. I definitely want one now, but I am going to have to try it out first before buying to make sure it isn't one of "those" Everests.

After the lack of luck the second week, I checked out the rest of the market. I was even more glad that I didn't find anything because of what I saw next! Stay tuned to find out which of these four beauties (seen directly below) found a new home with me. I took type samples of some of the typewriters I saw, and I've blurred out places that are a bit revealing things that are supposed to be surprises.

The horrible shadow over the whole affair was that at some point when I was carrying the find back to my car, my wallet got lost. I drove home (45 minutes away) before I noticed the loss, and I spent the rest of the afternoon frantically searching, driving back, waiting for lost and found to open from their 2 hour break, and finding out that it's probably gone for good.

When I was waiting for lost and found to open back up, I popped into the Fremont Vintage Market which was swarming with 8 or so typewriters. All were below $60 except for one, a Royal standard. Fremont, the supposed centre of the universe, definitely is a major node for typewriters. The Sears Achiever was a surprisingly nice typewriter, and I would like one some day. I think it's by Brother. The Olympia looks pretty in the photo, and it was only $55, but it sadly had a lot of rust behind the SM3 instruction manual in the platen. (It was obviously placed there to hide it so I moved it out of the way in case if somebody bought it without checking!)

So tons of typewriters, and though the day (and admittedly the rest of the week) is tarnished by the wallet incident, it wasn't that bad. The only true loss is the $43 and the actual wallet. The cards and my license can all be replaced.

If anybody out there wants a $40 Olympia SM9 with a special typeface, let me know. If there are any left (chances are, yes) next time I go, I could snag one for you. I'll make sure everything works and it looks nicely, too. You'd have to pay the $40 plus the shipping from Washington, of course.