Brother Student-Riter XL-1

Date of My Acquisition: September 2004
Price of Purchase: Free Gift
Date of Manufacture: circa~1980
This was my first typewriter. It was a simple electric model with correction that worked fine. When the ink ribbon cartridge ran out, I put it in storage, because I did not need it any more. I can remember the stange joy of using a typewriter, instead of a computer. As a matter of fact, I learned to type on this. Because it could correct mistakes, I used this typewriter for typing letters for about a year until the ink ribbon ran out. By then, I had obtained the Smith-Corona Silent. As of 18 April 2009, this Brother has found a new home. I sold it to somebody who didn't always like to have to boot up their computer just to type something out. It is in a good home now.

Canon Typestar 6

Date of My Acquisition: February 27, 2009
Price of Purchase: $8
Date of Manufacture: 1984
I bought this amazing little typewriter from the Goodwill store in Coldwater, MI. I paid $8 in February 2009. It was manufactured in 1984 and it uses a little dot-matrix printer instead of a standard typing element. It's uniqueness it the main reason for it's acceptance into my collection. It is VERY small, about the size of a thick laptop computer. I plan to use it only on the train, mainly because of the price of ink ribbons ($25 for two!). (Update: I traded this and got the Olympia B-12 back.)

IBM Selectric II

Date of My Acquisition: September 2006
Price of Purchase: Free Gift
Date of Manufacture: circa~1970
The Jonesville District Library was kind enough to donate this electric typewriter to my collection in September 2006. I received it in good overall cosmetic condition, but it did not run. After trying about ten times, I finally got this giant of a typewriter running. The only problem at that time was that "Return" didn't work. I do not recall what I did to bypass that, though, because I used it frequently. It is made solidly of metal. Sadly, something went terribly wrong inside, and it just would not work one day. So, I reluctantly lugged it out to the trash after taking this picture of it. I was moving away, and just could not lug this very heavy paperweight around with me as I moved.

Olympia Model B-12

Date of My Acquisition: June 2006
Price of Purchase: $5
Date of Manufacture: circa~1978
I purchased this nice portable manual typewriter at a garage sale in Duck Lake, MI in June 2006 for $5. It was previously owned by a Mrs. King, who was a teacher. It was in fair condition, and needed some serious cleaning, because it looked like it had been soaked in oil and had collected a lot of junk. After some work, I got it working very well. The Olympia was the only Pica manual typewriter I ever owned. This typewriter was produced in Germany around 1970, and is of mainly plastic construction. Just recently, I gave this one to a young cousin who took a fancy to it as soon as he set his eyes on it. (Update: It has been taken care of well.)(ANOTHER Update: I have it back--at the expense of the Canon Typestar. It was a fair trade.)

Olympia CE-12

Date of My Acquisition: April 2006
Price of Purchase: Free Gift
Date of Manufacture: circa~1970
In April 2006, I received this electric typewriter from my grandpa, who used it as his home typewriter during the seventies and eighties while he worked as a salesman for Curtis Industries. He later told me that it was purchased at the typewriter store at the Arborland mall in Ann Arbor, MI. He kept very good care of it, and it works perfectly. It is a larger portable typewriter of metal and plastic construction, and was made in West Germany. This one is the one I type out letters on (As of April 2009).

Remington Standard Typewriter No. 7

Date of My Acquisition: August 2007
Price of Purchase: Free Gift
Date of Manufacture: 1896
I got this 1896 typewriter from my Grandmother who found it in her brother's barn. It was in hideously awful condition, but it looked OK! I kept it for a while, but ended up throwing it away because there was no hope of me ever repairing it. I was sad to let it go, but I had to make room for new additions. I regret throwing it away, now that I know of it's value, but the past is the past. ;)

Royal Arrow

Date of My Acquisition: 12 August 2009
Price of Purchase: $30
Date of Manufacture: circa~1940
NEW! I bought this beauty at the Allen Antique Mall's "Old Mall." It is in near perfect condition with no scratches on the finish, and needing only a new ribbon, which I will gratefully supply. It types very well, and I noticed an unusual thing about it. It has the "Shift Freedom" shift keys that I read about somewhere. Also, the "font" is the exactly the same (except faults) as my Underwood Champion, very unusual!

Royal KMG

Date of My Acquisition: June 2009
Price of Purchase: Free Gift
Date of Manufacture: 1951
NEW! I finally got this from my grandparents in Colorado. It is a nice solid desktop typewriter with a special shift key that may make it more valuable. It says "Pueblo Typewriter Exchange" on both shift keys, Pueblo being a city in southern Colorado. It works fine, but needs a new ribbon which I eventually will supply. Thankfully, it has the special ribbon spools that are needed, instead of the standard typewriter spools. This typewriter is a real workhorse, and I love how it feels when I type on it.

Royal Empress

Date of My Acquisition: march 21, 2009
Price of Purchase: $2
Date of Manufacture: 1965
This large Royal desktop typewriter has no letters on the alphabet keys, because it was used in a school to teach touch typing. I purchased it on the 21st of March, 2009 at Michiana Antiques in Allen, MI for $2. the lady there told me that she had used it in high school to learn typing, she remembered that she had to type the Presidents many times. It uses a non-standard 2 3/8" ribbon spool. It is in great mechanical shape, and looks OK, but has scratches. I have made a webpage that explains how to convert a standard ribbon to work in a Royal Empress, Royal 440, and others. Check out Royal Empress Ribbon Modification. (Update: I am selling this on eBay.)

Royal Safari

Date of My Acquisition: April 11, 2009
Price of Purchase: $3.50
Date of Manufacture: circa~1970
I got this Royal portable at the Michiana Antiques store in Allen, MI, where I purchased the Royal Empress. It is their last year open, sadly. It has been my favorite antiques store because downstairs they have a huge antique bookstore with road maps... my other collecting hobby. It is in OK condition, and I got it just to type on in places I wouldn't take one of my nicer typewriters. It is missing the top cover, and it has a paper support broken, but types solidly. My Royal Safari came with a blue case missing it's handle. (Update: I gave this to a friend to type on.)

Smith-Corona Silent

Date of My Acquisition: October 2005
Price of Purchase: Free Gift
Date of Manufacture: 1953
This was my second typewriter, and I received it from my grandmother, who bought it for college. It was produced in 1953 in the USA. It was kept in good condition in it's nice case. This is the typewriter I use second most. The Smith-Corona Silent (a part of the "Super-5" series of typewriters) was rated the best portable typewriter by Will Davis, prominent typewriter collector. Visit his website here. The The keys stick a little, the letters don't line up well when typed, and the typer has some scratches and ink marks on it. It is a solid metal construction manual portable that weighs 12.5 lbs, not including the case. It is the oldest typewriter that I currently own. More information about the Smith-Corona Silent.

SCM Smith-Corona Stering Super

Date of My Acquisition: 6 August 2009
Price of Purchase: $3
Date of Manufacture: 1966
NEW! Another Smith-Corona portable typewriter! It came with it's case in good condition, just a few marks on it. I bought this blue one at a yard sale in Quincy, MI. The yard sale was a part of a Michigan US-12 yard sale on the weekend of August 7 & 8. Just an hour before at another yard sale, I stepped out of the car and saw a Hermes Rocket! I was overjoyed! But just before I got there, some lady picked it up. :( And at $2 it was a steal! With life there comes disappointments.

Smith-Corona SE 100

Date of My Acquisition: November 2006
Price of Purchase: Free Gift
Date of Manufacture: circa~1980
I received this typewriter from a friend in November 2006. It is a solid portable typewriter made in USA. It has a marvelous keyboard, but I am going to give it away because I don't want to have to deal with its problems. The daisy-wheels don't line up right and only part of the character is typed. Since it doesn't work right, it's not worth selling. Another reason is that I don't collect daisy-wheel typewriters anymore. (Update: I still need somebody to take it.)

Smith-Corona DeVille 700

Date of My Acquisition: March 2006
Price of Purchase: $10
Date of Manufacture: circa~1990
I purchased this electric memory typewriter at a yard sale in Jonesville, MI for $10, March 2006. It was previously rented out by the couple who sold it to me, who owned an office-supply business. It was in good condition, with a few marks on the exterior. I gave it to my sister a while back (in 2008) because then she didn't have a computer yet. It can store up to four documents in it's internal memory. This portable Smith-Corona uses a daisy-wheel for interchangeable type.

Underwood Champion

Date of My Acquisition: 1 May 2009
Price of Purchase: $15
Date of Manufacture: circa~1923
This Underwood was purchased at the Capitol Antiques mall in Allen, Michigan. It was in good condition, and it functions well after a good cleaning. It is my first truly antique typewriter to work well, but I am assuming that it is not worth that much! The crinkle paint is nearly blemish-free, and the smooth paint is in good condition. The white paint on the keys is discolored and worn, but still visible. The mechanical functions of this typewriter are in good working condition, with sharp type imprints. I use this to type frequently.

Webster XL-500

Date of My Aquisition: September 20, 2008
Price of Purchase: $6
Date of Manufacture: circa~1965
This portable manual typewriter was produced by Brother in Nagoya, Japan at around 1965. I purchased it at Goodwill Industries for $6 on September 20, 2008. I received it in great condition, because it had been well maintained, and after that, kept in it's nice blue zippered case. It works absolutely perfect in every way, and I use it for my everyday correspondence. It is very small, 11" square with a maximum height of 4" making it very convenient to carry. It is of solid metal construction, and is very sturdy feeling. My Webster tips the scales at 9 lbs. not including the case.

Xerox 6030 Memorywriter

Date of My Aquisition: November 2008
Price of Purchase: $4
Date of Manufacture: circa~1985
I purchased this large electric typewriter produced in 1987 from Goodwill Industries for $4. It came with the manuals and extra correction tape, plus a floppy disk. This typer will function as a word processor, but the system disks are missing. It functions very nicely as a regular electric typewriter, though. It is very large, and is of plastic. It was sold by Polack Corporation of Lansing, MI. I later gave it right back after experiencing a few problems, and not wanting to have to fix anything because it was not a portable.