reply to u/psitaxx at https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1ui2vvo/does_it_even_count_as_a_second_typewriter_if_its/
You're right that sometimes 1+1 is not equal to two.
For example 1 pile of laundry plus 1 pile of laundry is still 1 pile of laundry (just bigger), or 1 cloud merging with 1 cloud is still 1 cloud (albeit a different cloud). Sadly this is not the case with typewriters. 1 typewriter plus another 1 typewriter is 2 typewriters.
According to typewriter collector Keanu Reeves, you don't have a collection yet. That happens when you have 3, something you could never accomplish unless the math worked in the standard way.
Would that 1 typewriter + 1 typewriter = 1 typewriter! Then my collection of well over 30 wouldn't bother my wife, and I could say that I only have 1 typewriter...
Of course I can commiserate with your mint condition typewriter conundrum. Sometimes there's nothing better than getting something in mint condition, but often we all have hopes that it's not mint for one reason or another. I too was disappointed by a recent $21.95 purchase of an Olympia in perfect condition. Perhaps, as Frank Navasky said in You've Got Mail (Warner Bros., 1998), "I needed a backup."
Another graph:
