Compare UK Telex availability to Germany

#1

Morning friends,

Prompted by the Museum clearance thread in the offered section, where it seems some machines may have found their way to scrap, rather than to interested collectors, i thought it might be interesting to share the differences between the collecting of machines in the UK against the situation that appears in Germany.

Let's first be clear that this is a generalised topic, and not an attack against anyone, or any group.

In the UK access to complete Telex Machines, with control units, or any machine in generally good condition, is normally limited to maybe three or four opportunities in one year - most machine that appear for sale, or for saving from scrap do not have their matching FSG, or are in so poor condition that a full rebuild is required.

In the time that I have been active with I-Telex, I have only one machine (299709 Antosh G) that is in complete and mostly servicable condition - this appeared on eBay and was notified on the Greenkeys Mailing list - Only thanks to Henning calling me was it possible to save this machine from AFU operators. All of the other machines I have are either incomplete, or in such poor condition that they are almost scrap.

When machines to appear for sale, generally they are either very expensive - Anyone want to spend £750 to buy a Creed 444? Or, they are not suited to Telex use - The British version of the T1000 for instance is really a 50bd terminal machine with a strange almost RS232 interface, but not quite....

So, why is this important to all of our Telex collecting friends in Germany?

Well, let's compare the situation - a quick look on Kleinanziegen just now shows 10 machines for sale in the past month plus some documentation - some prices may be a bit sporty for the German market, but generally they are very fair. eBay DE normally has at least 3 or 4 machines for sale every month...

If we then consider the number of machines offered here in the forum it is clear that the German market for machines is very good.

It is however a real pity that as we have seen in the Museum clearance, there were so many unclaimed artefacts, okay not all are interesting for our group, but there was certain to be material that were worth saving. My own misunderstanding that the clearance offer was not open to private individuals meant I missed out on an opportunity to help save some of this equipment.

I guess the real point of this post is to try to show that any chance to save machines, spares and documentation should be taken - None of this is being produced any more, and even the stores of Henning and Werner cannot last for ever. I have collected far more German equipment on my three or four visits over the years than I ever have in the UK, this is to try to build the I-Telex participation over here as well - if people are interested and want to take part, then I have machines available that will work, and are affordable.

Perhaps we as a forum of like minded collectors could make a better effort to save every machine that comes under our vision - I'm happy to play my part, even if it means travelling thousands of km to do so. The problem with this, is that I cannot strike where collection and clearance is in only a few days....

Is there a useful discussion to have regarding this topic?