Your first month of typewriter collecting
Most new collectors buy the wrong first machine and spend their first month fixing it instead of using it. Here's what to buy, how to assess condition, and what the hobby actually feels like once a machine is working and ribboned.
By Colin B. · Published June 7, 2026
Photo by Vadim Mityushin on Unsplash
Typewriter collecting has a reputation for being a rabbit hole, and the reputation is earned. One machine turns into three, three turns into a shelf, and somewhere along the way you’ve developed opinions about West German key mechanisms versus Swiss, and you’re on forums discussing the correct viscosity of typewriter oil.
But that’s month six. Month one is simpler: find a working machine, get it running, and actually type on it.
Week 1: Find your first machine
The single most important rule for a first purchase is this: buy working, not cheap. A $20 machine that “just needs a little cleaning” will cost you a weekend and $40 in supplies before it types reliably. A $90 machine that someone has already cleaned and confirmed working is a better deal every time.
The best starter machines are portable typewriters from the 1950s through the early 1970s. Portables (as opposed to desktop standards) are compact, come with their own cases, weigh 7-10 pounds, and were produced in such quantities that parts and ribbons are still findable. The three most forgiving brands for beginners: Smith Corona, Royal, and Olympia.
Where to look:
- Local thrift stores and estate sales (best prices, but condition varies wildly)
- eBay (widest selection; search for “tested working” and filter accordingly)
- Etsy (many sellers specialize in cleaned and serviced vintage machines; you pay more, but the machine is ready to go)
- Facebook Marketplace (often priced below eBay by sellers who don’t know the market)
What to check before buying:
- Every key types cleanly (no sticking, no double-striking)
- Carriage travels smoothly in both directions
- Carriage return lever works and the mechanism advances the line
- Margin stops hold position
- The platen (rubber roller) isn’t cracked or completely hardened
If you’re buying locally, bring a sheet of paper and ask to type a line. If buying online, look for a seller who has specifically typed a test line in the photos or video. “Works great” without evidence doesn’t count.
Week 2: Get it running properly
Most vintage typewriters benefit from a quick cleaning before use, even if they were sold as “working.” Fifty years of dust and dried oil accumulates in places that affect typing quality.
The basic cleaning process:
First, compressed air. Hold the carriage at one end and blow out the keys, the typehead area, and the carriage rails. You’ll be surprised what comes out.
Second, the type slugs. These are the small metal stamps that actually hit the ribbon. They fill with dried ink over years of use and produce blurry impressions. Use a stiff nylon brush (an old toothbrush works; a dedicated typewriter brush is better) with a small amount of denatured alcohol from any hardware store. Clean each slug individually. This is the most time-consuming step and the most immediately rewarding: before-and-after impression quality is dramatic.
Third, the platen. The rubber roller dries and hardens over decades. You can’t restore serious hardening, but you can clean off surface grime with a lightly damp cloth. A conditioned platen feeds paper more reliably.
Fourth, light lubrication. A small amount of Tri-Flow or similar lubricant applied to carriage rails and key pivot points with a toothpick (not sprayed, never poured) keeps mechanisms smooth without attracting the dust that gums them up over time. WD-40 is not the answer here. It dries sticky.
The ribbon check:
If the machine came with an old ribbon, replace it before you assess the typing quality. Old ribbons produce faint, uneven impressions that make a perfectly good mechanism look broken. Fresh ribbons are cheap. Most vintage portables use a standard 1/2-inch spool.
Weeks 3-4: Learn what you have
Once the machine is clean and ribboned, the real education begins. Look up your machine’s serial number on the Typewriter Database (TWDB at typewriterdatabase.com). You’ll find the exact production year, factory of origin, and often the original color options for your specific machine. A Smith Corona that types well becomes much more interesting when you know it was built in 1962 in a factory that also produced machines for the US military.
This is where the hobby deepens. Typewriter collectors tend to fall into one of a few camps:
The typists use their machines daily for letters, journals, and first drafts. They’re interested in key action and reliability. They tend toward machines with excellent mechanisms (Olympia SM series, Hermes 3000) and don’t care much about cosmetics.
The collectors are interested in completeness, rarity, and design. They seek out specific color variants, unusual models, and pre-war machines with distinctive styling. The visual identity of mid-century office design is the point.
The mechanics have a toolkit and a box of parts. They find machines in bad condition, restore them, and understand every linkage in the mechanism. For them, the acquisition is just the beginning.
You’ll figure out which type you are by how you spend your second month. Most collectors start as typists and migrate toward collection over time.
What makes this hobby unusual is the tactile permanence of it. A page typed on a 1960 Hermes still looks like a page typed on a 1960 Hermes. The machine doesn’t depreciate in any meaningful way. It’s an artifact that also produces artifacts, and that combination is genuinely rare in collecting.
Common mistakes in the first month
Buying a restoration project first. The forums make restoration look straightforward. It isn’t, the first time. Buy working, learn on it, then decide if you want to learn repair.
Over-oiling. More oil doesn’t mean smoother. A drop on a pivot point is right. A spray inside the mechanism is how you gum up a carriage you just cleaned.
Obsessing over model rankings before you have opinions. The Hermes 3000 is excellent. So is a clean Olympia SM9. So is a well-adjusted Smith Corona Silent. The ranking matters after you’ve typed on three or four machines and know what you’re actually comparing. Before that, you’re comparing descriptions, not experiences.
Using the wrong paper. Vintage typewriters work best with standard 20-lb bond paper. Very thin paper tears and wrinkles; very thick paper strains the platen. A ream of ordinary printer paper is fine for a first month.
What happens next
By the end of month one, you’ll have one working machine you’ve cleaned, ribboned, and typed on. You’ll know roughly what it cost, what the community thinks of it, and what a “good example” of your model looks like.
Month two is when the second machine enters the picture.
Ready to buy? Our typewriter collecting gear guide covers the specific machines, ribbons, and cleaning supplies worth buying first.