Well, the couple selling it was willing to let me check out the machine before sealing the deal, and they brought it to my workplace.
It was smaller than I expected and looked to be in beautiful condition besides the fact that it's very, very dusty inside from sitting on a shelf as a decoration piece. I decided to buy it. The carrying case is missing, but they remembered seeing it before and haven't thrown it away, so they still probably have it somewhere. They promised to let me know if they find it. The machine used to belong to the middle-aged woman's deceased father.
The lack of an apostrophe (or am I just missing it?) means I cannot really write English with it, or cannot properly insert a quote inside a quote, but I like the fact that it has the option to do umlauts yourself, which is lacking from my other typewriters. Also no $, which is interesting.
That felt padding inside the ribbon cover looks and feels like new.
Size comparison with the Adler Tippa S. Taller but narrower.
I am a bit baffled by the fact that it looks exactly like that Optima Elite featured above in the photo I posted and in the link Pete shared, except that it reads Olympia and is missing the Elite logo. I haven't found another example like this online. The serial number starts with a 7, which seems to mean it was made in the 1950s? But didn't Olympia stop producting the Elite after 1948, or am I missing something?
Also, where on earth is the carriage lock? I haven't found manuals for this model. I saw that some different looking models have one poking out from under the machine, but not in this one. The only way I was able to kinda lock it was by setting the margins so it leaves no space for it move sideways, but this still leaves the carriage moving up and down, as it's carriage-shifted. Besides, having to mess with the margins every time you want to lock the carriage seems a bit counter-intuitive.
JJH wrote: