Fair price and ways to find a teletype

[Randy Dawson]

Hi Brad,

I want to answer this, because it is going to entail a lot more than you expect.

An ASR 33 cost me 1,700 from great guy Wane Durkee, teletypeparts.com.
 He refurbished the whole machine, a complete work-over and it is beautiful.  He made a custom case to ship it to me.

This is a very delicate mechanical device.  In spite of the fabulous shipping crate, the bolts installed to secure the printer, the shipping guys let us down.
The thing had very rough handling, sheared off the shipping bolts, the printer was totally shook up and Wayne and I are working on it to bring it back.

You need to understand, and be prepared for handling a mechanical marvel, that there are virtually no replacement parts.  You will have to be pretty good with your hands, have tools and a shop.  This is a totally mechanical device, and the innovation in it, how it works is so clever you will not get it without some help.

Lots of patience, and when things go wrong (they will) you will need the perseverance to stick with it. 

Mine is printing OK.  It does not read the keyboard correctly because of the shake up.  Stuff was bent (here is answerback key) and I hope to claim success shortly.

Randy


> From: unclefalter at yahoo.ca
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
> Subject: Fair price and ways to find a teletype
> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2015 21:25:55 -0700
> 
> I've been watching a lot of vintage computer videos put up by enthusiasts
> (thanks so much for that).  I have been really fascinated lately by the
> Altair and teletypes, paper tape readers and so on.  Just watching one
> fellow load BASIC into his Altair. you just felt the history and the
> connection to Bill Gates and all the pioneers of an era that was happening
> just as I was being born.
> 
>  
> 
> I only ever see teletypes for sale on ebay, only in the US, and of course I
> don't bite because of shipping costs, plus usually people ask insane prices
> for them.  I am wondering what a reasonable price should be for a unit with
> a paper tape reader, and any tips on how I might go about finding one beyond
> Craigs, etc, up here in Canada.  And anything I should watch out for and so
> on.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks muchly,
> 
> 
> Brad
> 
>  
>