[GreenKeys] Model 15 in Gardner, MA on ebay

[David Burns]

The funny thing is, I bought that machine shown on eBay (230727737944) 
back in January (showed up in person in Gardner and met Steve G, the 
proprietor of "oldradiosnstuff.com"), and he hasn't bothered to remove 
it from eBay (it seems to be on 'automatic resell').

$25 would have been a better price, but I'd never laid eyes on one 
before and didn't know how to assess it.  I did check to see if the 
gears were stripped and whether the rust was too intense.  Looked OK to 
me, and when I threatened to get one 'for free' from Steve Garrison 
"later in the spring", he let me have it for $40.  Threw my back out 
getting it out of my car, and had to spend $150 at the chiropractor (!), 
but "I'm OK now"!!  So it's a $190 machine at this point!

He had /no clue/ about the machine, nor a typical price.  He loathed the 
idea of boxing it up to ship, so any dickering with him that gets down 
to the wire but then includes "pick-up", he'd probably go for.

I believe I set the price (in his head) for a M15 at $40 by this sale.  
He has a TG-7B 
<http://www.oldradiosnstuff.com/communication/teletypewriters/tg-7-b-teletypewriter-signal-corps-tg-7-b-teletypewriter> 
(which I saw, and does indeed have broken glass) at his warehouse (for a 
while, it was for sale on eBay too).   I didn't look very closely at it, 
but I doubt it is in better shape than the one I bought from him.  
(Broken glass makes me wonder?  Slammed the cover down, or entire 
machine dropped?  I just don't know.)  Not listed on his own site, is 
this reperforator 
<http://www.ebay.com/itm/Model-14-Keyboard-Typing-Reperforator-and-the-Model-14-Transmitter-Distributor-/230727742409?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35b871f3c9> 
which I declined to even look at in person. (Note: This eBay listing for 
the reperf has mixed into the images, pictures of the TG-7B!  It's all 
very confused! He's not familiar with the equipment. )

His prices are high because /he just doesn't care much anymore!/  He has 
a vast (multiple room) old warehouse (he might own it, I dunno...must 
date from the 1920's) /full to the gills/ with old radios, old military 
gear and old ham radio gear of all sorts.  He started out playing with 
them, and built the business buying and selling over 20 years.  He was 
very entertaining (we chatted for more than an hour) and he had great 
stories to tell.  (He has an entire section of the warehouse devoted to 
old gasoline station signs!  Sells to guys like Jay Leno [to decorate 
the car museum with period signs] and sells to movie production 
companies for use in movies set in yesteryear.  Minimum price for an old 
Texaco sign?  $3K!  Teletypes /do not move the meter/.)

He has a guy who boxes stuff up, his son works for him and he has a 
technician that he thinks highly of for repairing solid-state equipment 
for resale, and that was my impression of his operation.  He's having a 
blast!  (He knows /exactly/ what he's doing with old radios 
(particularly old military), but the teletypes sort of fell into his lap 
as near as I can tell.)

Now that I have my M15 apart, it is apparent that at some point, 
somebody /dropped the print carriage/ on it's head, and bent the bracket 
that holds up one of the ribbon spools.  Whoever did it (it was a 
military unit), got it working again, as I've had it apart and (after 
freeing up some bearings), it's clear the mechanism should work OK, but 
"it ain't right".  The whole thing is gooped up in MFP sealant, and 
there is major "congealed lubricant" everywhere, but /I will get it 
working!/  (My first big adventure in rehabbing a teletype.)

I liked Steve G...very personable guy, and adept at recognizing and 
striking a deal in radio gear, but his collection of teletype gear seems 
to have come from one or two hams, and it is a side-line.

If you could show him a recent eBay sale (for say, a Model 14TD that 
went for $15 recently...somebody on the list I believe), he'd probably 
sell you the one he has listed on his own site for $20 -if- you picked 
it up.

-Dave in Boston

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20120512/e8ebbca5/attachment.html