Olympia typewriter with click-tastic Marquardt “butterfly” switches

[jacobolus]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201533714996
Auction starts at ~$50 + shipping. These things are quite rare, so I have no idea what a fair price is. MSRP when they were new was like $1500 or something.

The Ebay auction has a horrible photo, and it’s hard to judge exactly what condition the switches are in, but the typewriter should be similar to this one of HaaTa’s:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/triplehaata/sets/72157636880588075

HaaTa also has the more expensive “Professional” cousin:
https://plus.google.com/photos/113845661925823397356/albums/5788604832670527921

Here’s a video of the switch in action:

[Firebolt1914]

I might actually try to get this...

[Firebolt1914]

I won the bid, but /apparently/ the seller dropped the typewriter and it broke, thus can't sell it.

[CPTBadAss]

I won the bid, but /apparently/ the seller dropped the typewriter and it broke, thus can't sell it.

Bummer city. I would have loved to have this. Wonder if there's a way to get it to work over USB...

[jacobolus]

You should see if they’ll send it to you anyway for a discount. Most of the switches and keycaps are likely fine, at least enough to build some custom keyboard out of.

[Firebolt1914]

You should see if they’ll send it to you anyway for a discount. Most of the switches and keycaps are likely fine, at least enough to build some custom keyboard out of.

I may have low balled for shipping only afterwards so I kinda burned down that bridge 

[jacobolus]

What’s he going to do with the typewriter? Just make sure it doesn’t get thrown away!

[Firebolt1914]

What’s he going to do with the typewriter? Just make sure it doesn’t get thrown away!

The seller is sketchier than I thought; when they 'dropped' it, all 7 typewriters for sale were deleted. The seller did message me that they were going to get it checked out. I still have a slim chance of being able to get it, but I'm doubtful.