Uwe wrote:

KatLondon wrote:

So at the last moment I just put in a bid which I thought was going to get gazumped, too...

I think I understand what you're saying, but just to be sure, did you think there was a shill bidder in the auction? I'm convinced that happens more often than people realize. In the good ol' days of eBay you used to be able to see who the other bidders were and do a little investigating, but now you can only go by the feedback scores. I'm immediately suspicious of any bidder with a low feedback score who keep bumping up the selling price, and like you I have been guilty of intentional pushing that person higher. It can be a dangerous game - and I'll admit that I ending up winning an auction accidentally that way once - but more often it sticks it to the shill.

Yes, I've done the same. To me one of the marks of a shill is the single other bidder who finds your high bid by going up a few dollars at a time - either a shill or an annoying fool and the reason I have sometimes bothered with last second bids. Not quite a shill but my second favorite type of dishonest seller is one who "loses" or "breaks" the item when you win on a low bid and they find it inconvenient to keep their end of the bargain.

Picked up my second Olympia SG1 late last week, a 1957 -- identical to the one I have in that it's missing the paper support (oh well) and has the Congress 11 pitch typeface, which is very handsome.

This one was in pretty rough condition, though -- complete (except for that paper support), but rusty and grimy. The seller is dealing with his parents' house and barn, which are full of tchotchkes of all types and sizes. I think this SG1 might have been out in the barn uncovered, based on the rust. Many of the slugs have rust, but not on the type surfaces themselves. Just about every exposed screw head is rusty, but not terrible; the ribbon followers that ride on the ribbon, and the tips of the ribbon spools likewise. The line spacing lever's chrome is cracked and corroded; the paper charger handle, and carriage release levers, are rusty.

But it's working better and better each day -- lighter fluid on the segment, and cleaning the typebars, has made typing pretty smooth. More use will smooth it out even more. The carriage glides smoothly; the bell is lovely to hear. The tab mechanism is pretty good (keys generally pop right back up), and tab brake seems fine. The platen is rather hard, but it'll do, and the feed rollers are in beautiful shape. The margin setting mechanisms have responded to cleaning. Mechanically, really the only thing that's kind of a problem is that the double spacing mechanism requires a very deliberate "hit key firmly and release" technique to get it to space properly -- typing at the normal speed will not work. So I'm trying to figure out how to make it work right. Maybe just continued use (and a little light oil in the escapement) will get it sorted.

Cosmetically, it's dirty, but I will work on that too. Rust on the paper tray, which I don't think I will spend too much time worrying about. I should mention -- the guy was asking $25 for it, but when he found out I'd traveled about 50 miles to see it, he let me have it for $15. 

Hi Uwe, I will have to figure out how to do it. I know you have posted the how-to link any number of times; I'm just more technically unsavvy than you would think!

Thanks, will do. But I don't want to burden you with my own lack of savvy about these things.

I think what happened is that I couldn't figure out how to set up a Photobucket account and gave up.

Huh, never heard of it. I'll check it out.

That SG1 in your picture is like night and day from mine, I have to say!