great yarn

What a great article chronicling the establishment of your letterpress shop! It is indeed a wonderful avocation and, despite all the trauma, will likely give you an enormous amount of enjoyment in the years to come. While I'm not sure that I myself would have started out buying a Lino and a Kelly, I certainly applaud your enthusiasm (and yes, every word you wrote about eBay was on target!) For your edification, and perhaps for that of the readers of your series, I am taking the liberty linking here to a short guide that I have put together over the past few years with the help of the Letpress mailing list, comprised of some 700+ letterpress enthusiasts from all over the world. It is intended to help people like you short-circuit some of the trial and error in the process you are now undergoing. It also provides some great sources for material, supplies and above all, information. I hope that Gene, and other letterpress fans who stop by here, will join the list. You'll find a worldwide community of avocational printers who would be simply delighted to assist you in your efforts. Good luck with your shop!

Introduction to Letterpress Printing in the 21st Century:

http://www.fiveroses.org/intro.htm

This sounds very much like my father buying a print shop from the widow of a friend. I think he paid about $1000 or so, but I got recruited to help load, move and setup the equipment, then got drafted as a typesetter. (Hey! You can pick that up in no time...)

He had been a career technical writer who was frustrated because the local printers never seemed to be able to follow directions. When he was on the other side of the press, he gained an almost instant clientele from the other tech writers in the area. He just had to learn how to "do it."

Needless to say, it ended up involving every member of the family. <grin> Some of them even got paid.

As to eBay - I learned long ago that I can resist anything except temptation. My younger son found out over the Christmas holidays what I meant. His shopping excursion ended up costing about twice what he made from his job in December and he has stacks of audio gear still sitting in his bedroom while he tries to find buyers for it.

In short, I agree with you about both eBay and the obtaining of the printing equipment. I wish you lots of luck and hope your experiences turn out at least as well as my father's.