Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Post(Card)-A-Day 8: The Mythical Valentine


And here is the link to the listing, translated.

10 comments:

  1. Maybe this fellow writes broadcast advertisements for a living! Nice typewriter. If a Valentine comes my way I would like it, but the super inflated prices in the U.S. on Ebay and Etsy keep me from even considering one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good story. I'm glad I didn't have to endure the hard sell in person though; I have a feeling he would have followed me out in the street still yacking away.
    And yes there are cheaper Valentines that are currently available. Here is one such (although there is no explanation as to what the barbed prong at the lower right hand corner is for; the blurb just says that a new ribbon might be needed):
    http://www.tradera.com/skrivmaskin-reseskrivmaskin-valentine-s-olivetti-italien-auktion_2024_148668017

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It looks like the barbed prongs on that Valentine are where the bottom piece of red plastic used to rest; pity it has been lost. I think that might have something to do with the low price.

      The cheapest I have ever seen a Valentine was for 10 euros on a French classifieds site... the owner just had it listed as a "red Olivetti typewriter". Pick-up only, though.

      Delete
  3. Adwoa, I enjoyed this post! I came face to face with a Valentine at a typewriter shop in Berkeley last summer. A+ for looks, it's a design wonder, certainly worth having for the Sotsass added value. But it's a B for performance and feel, pretty much like a toy.

    There's a taupe Valentine currently listed on ebay, I've never seen one that's not red.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ton, the Valentine came in white, red, blue, and green. You can see pictures of the other colors here.

      The white ones didn't age so well, which is why the one on eBay looks "taupe"!

      Delete
    2. Oh, it's dirty white then. ( :
      Thanks for this info, Adwoa.

      Delete
  4. You can't blame a guy for dreaming! Sometimes sellers are very silly, though. On eBay someone has been trying to sell a wide-carriage Underwood no. 3 for $15,000. Right .....

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  5. The Opel ad is great! The Valentine is a heap of ugly plastic, if you ask me. Sottsass himself distanced himself from this little monster he created. Hard to understand why these regularly fetch good prices / around 150 €, I would say.
    Thanks for introducing this auction platform, I had never seen it before. And where do you get these reply buttons?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shhh... not so loud! You might offend the Valentine lovers :( I'm on the fence myself; I think I have used worse.

      Glad to show you Anibis; just don't get to any interesting deals before I do :P It's our little Suisse Romande classifieds site.

      As for the reply buttons in Blogger, they just showed up one day... and I'm not complaining. I don't know how to get them if you don't already; maybe ask Florian? He's a lot better on the technical side than I am.

      Delete
  6. By reading the text it seems that the guy is selling a master piece. Of course I'd love to have one, but I believe the Valentine is overrated.

    ReplyDelete

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