Naturally the data isn’t perfect and some of the numbers broadly track the manufacturing numbers of some of the most widely made models across the 20th century, particularly models which, though they changed in style and design over time, kept the same model name for decades. Despite this, the list of the top 50 doesn’t seem too far off of what one might expect.
Which models would you have expected to see more of? Which less? Does your taste in machines track the most “popular” by this measure? How does this list compared to the Rarity vs. Desirability list from ETC Magazine with respect to your collection? What other measures or benchmarks might one consider in collecting?
Have you uploaded all of your own examples to the Typewriter Database to help “even out” the data? Even if you don’t add them all, which favorites will you add to help your “favorite team” move up the rankings?
1. Royal Quiet De Luxe (610)
2. Smith-Corona Sterling (400)
3. Olympia SM3 (381)
4. Hermes 3000 (363)
5. Olympia SM9 (340)
6. Underwood 5 (304)
7. Olivetti Lettera 32 (262)
8. Corona 3 (252)
9. Smith-Corona Silent (246)
10. Remington Portable (244)
11. Olivetti Lettera 22 (241)
12. Royal P (240)
13. Hermes Baby (227)
14. Royal 10 (225)
15. Smith-Corona Skyriter (213)
16. Smith-Corona Silent Super (211)
17. Underwood Universal (175)
18. Royal KMM (163)
19. Remington Quiet-Riter (150)
20. Corona 4 (143)
21. Smith-Corona Standard (140)
22. Olivetti Studio 44 (139)
23. Olympia SM4 (137)
24. Underwood Portable 4 bank (136)
25. Royal O (136)
26. Hermes Rocket (134)
27. Olympia SM7 (129)
28. Underwood Portable 3 bank (118)
29. Smith-Corona Clipper (116)
30. Smith-Corona Classic 12 (115)
31. Royal Futura 800 (114)
32. Olympia SG1 (113)
33. Hermes 2000 (112)
34. Groma Kolibri (112)
35. Royal HH (106)
36. Royal Arrow (105)
37. Underwood Champion (103)
38. Remington Deluxe Model 5 (99)
39. Continental Standard (94)
40. Remington Noiseless 7 (93)
41. Olympia SM2 (92)
42. Olympia SG3 (91)
43. Oliver 9 (87)
44. Underwood 6 (86)
45. Royal KMG (86)
46. Remington Portable 5 (85)
47. Royal Aristocrat (84)
48. Olympia SF (83)
49. Smith-Corona Galaxie Twelve (81)
50. Remington Portable 3 (80)
Very cool data! I had looked a bit and couldn’t figure out where the link to this is…or maybe you did some data scraping and derived the data at hoc.
I have all but one or two typewriters of the 50+ I have in the database. I did see I’m in about the 10% percentile of collectors with about 850 points.
Broken down by maker:
10 – Royal
8 – Olympia
8 – Smith-Corona
6 – Underwood
6 – Remington
4 – Hermes
3 – Olivetti
2 – Corona
1 – Groma
1 – Oliver
1 – Continental
Muito obrigado Chris, bela lista… Eu sou português … aqui na Europa a realidade é um pouco diferente. Dos modelos da lista, eu possuo 25 ! Por aqui, os modelos mais comuns são, naturalmente, os europeus, especialmente, alemães e suíços. Daí não constarem da lista modelos que eu reputo de excelentes: Rheinmetall, Alpina, Torpedo, Erika, Voss, Triumph/Adler… as Smith-Corona são raras por cá, p.ex.. Em todo caso, concordo com os 3 primeiros lugares, apesar de pessoalmente, detestar as Royal QDL dos anos 50 (que são as que possuo).
Eu não sou colecionador de raridades apesar de gostar muito de as ver. Eu sou essencialmente um utilizador… e, para mim, a melhor máquina é aquela com a qual eu sinto maior prazer quando estou a escrever… presentemente, uma Olivetti Studio 45… abraços a todos ! (espero que o tradutor funcione… melhor escrever em bom português que em mau inglês 🙂
A minha colecção (algumas já não estão comigo, naturalmente)
https://typewriterdatabase.com/typewriters.php?hunter_search=5539
Chris, I disagree that these numbers are a measure of popularity–I say they are a measure of availability, the brands that a person “encounters”, as opposed to “shops for”. We no longer can go into several stores and pick out exactly what we want. If we could do that, then “popular” might mean something.
And availability has two components: quantity made and quantity that turn up in a buyer’s locality, including online. I don’t even see many Olivettis here, though I would love to have a 22 or a 32. It will be interesting to see how these lists vary by where they come from.
The tws that people have acquired are often quite different from what they desire to acquire, and the database’s numbers do not subtract what typewriters people have gotten rid of, the opposite of popularity. And some tws are counted twice or more as people sell one, change it from Own to Sighting, and the new owner adds it to the DB (a minor point, covered by your disclaimer, but real). Is a tw popular if it changes hands a lot? As many people don’t want it as do. Ted, can you track how many times a particular serial number is entered in the galleries?
Here’s a list of what brands have passed through my hands in New England since 2010:
Smith-Corona (94)
Royal (70)
Underwood (31)
Olympia (26)
Remington (26)
IBM (13)
Olivetti (13)
Sears (9) (Smith-Corona and Brother, mostly)
Remington Rand (8)
Brother (7)
L. C. Smith (6)
Tower (4) (Smith-Corona)
Facit (3)
Hermes (3)
Olivetti-Underwood (3)
Adler (2)
Canon (2)
Consul (2)
Oliver (2)
Antares (1)
Corona (1)
Juki (1)
Kmart (1) (Brother)
Monarch (1)
Montgomery Ward (1) (Brother)
Optima (1)
R. C. Allen (1)
Torpedo (1)
toy (1)
Webster (1)
Western Auto (1)
Western Stamping Co (1)
Xerox (1)
From US in the DC suburbs. https://typewriterdatabase.com/typewriters.php?hunter_search=5653&collection_search=My+Collection
We’ve added most of ours, early days I didn’t log the ones we gave away, but we’re diligent now! I know at least one of mine moved from my collection to sightings and another collector added it to her collection. That would be fun to see the history of each machine as it moves from one collector to another. Although most of our machines go to people who don’t collect.
I personally know two local collectors who haven’t added their collections to TWDB, so there’s that!
What a conversation to have! Love this! Personally, I’m almost offended more standards didn’t make it to the list, but there’s a reason I have a bad back
This gave me the curiosity – what would original sales numbers reflect versus what managed to survive? I’ll have to comb stacks and see if Peter Weil ever found anything on sales numbers for each brand…
Most Collected Typewriters on the Typewriter Database | Chris Aldrich – sh.itjust.works
@ahelper: Yes, for instance I recently got a ’68 MW300T from a fellow hunter, serial #K8179939. if I go here:
https://typewriterdatabase.com/typewriters.php
I can use the search box just above the list and type in K8179939, and behold, you see the machine entered twice, once in my collection, and once as a sighting for the previous owner. If anyone else had entered it also, they would show up as well.
It’s important to note that the search box only searches the result list you have currently up, so typing that serial on this list:
https://typewriterdatabase.com/typewriters.php?mfr_search=72&model_search=Quiet+De+Luxe
none would show because there are no Royal QDLs with that serial number.
Regarding the numbers of portables vs. standards, it’s important to note that while standards very much outsold portables (until sometime in the 70’s, I think), standards were business machines that got used up and often scrapped at the end of useful life, while portables are often rarely used and kept in cases that are usually kept inside. Additionally, I was curious about the discrepancy years ago and asked a few typewriter dealers about it, and was told that in the late 80’s/early 90’s, there were guys that drove around to typewriter shops, bought up unwanted, usable standard machines for scrap prices and drove them to Mexico to sell to businesses there that still wanted them. So a whole lot of them got shipped south and probably used up & scrapped there. For me, that tracks with what I saw in the printing business around the same time as digital copiers started supplanting small offset printing presses. Those got bought up to be shipped to countries that still had good use for them.