Final Contina Summer Sale





[ ... today was the last sale day ]

I'm confused,
What is this, why is it in History?
Is this stuff you recently purchased? or were selling? where was it listed?

Sorry I don't understand this post.

davhamm wrote:

I'm confused, Sorry I don't understand this post.

If this is an old pic from Contina, what's that above the machines? Why, it's Murff's "Briefcase Demo Box" - the very one we've been calling fake in the other thread. So at least one of these was sold by Contina, it's not some guy making them in his basement.

That's my read, anyway. If the pic is Murff's stuff from his personal collection then he's just pulling our legs!

Confusing you was not my aim...

but honestly... an ironic / humoresque title like Final Contina Summer Sale is not so confusing, I think.

And I posted it in History because it wasn't fit
- For Sale (I have nothing to for sale...)
- Wanted (I'm not searching for another Curta...)
- Service (nothing to offer here... nor needed)
- Scams (no Scams to report...)
- General Questions and Help (no open questions on my side... nor anything to answer)

So... it must be History

(PS: this is a new picture - dated Sunday 2nd of September)

So Is still confused.. What was the sale? when was the sale? did you buy all these in one Sale?

I would assume this is a boast post about what you scored in some end of summer sale? I think it should be in General.

If this were a historic thing like the final sale Cortana did I would get it all, but as you said its not.

It appears to be a picture of a sample of your collection? which then I have no clue what it has to do with History, or a final sale?

History:
Contina AG sold a lot of NOS Curtas at the end of their days (1971/1972).
Jo (I know the real name) bought a big lot of Curtas and even demo models and sample cases.
Some years later Jo wrote an essay about Curt Herzstark and the Curta Calculator in a professional journal. Later he sold a part of his collection to Jim and to other collectors in his local area.

Recently Murff bought a part of this still NOS stuff on a so named Final Contina Summer Sale (which was not announced nor was it public) ...

There is a direct line between Continas clearance sale and this part (of a part) of a big lot of sold NOS Curtas, demos and original documents (No one - not even Jo and Jim - has changed, added or removed anything - it's all original Contina origin...).



PS: Excuse my boast about my fat collection - I'll try to avoid that in the future ...

I got no problem with someone talking about how big theres is or how many they got. I think its cool.

Thanks for explaining the title. So you just bought everything in that picture? Wowser.

So how big is your, collection?

OK, so it's a new PICTURE but not a new GROUP. And if that briefcase was in the original group, it tends to support it being contemporary...but Murff, I still don't know if it supports it being a Contina factory-produced item. It is a far cry from the green demo boxes in terms of complexity and variety and appearance (that pine!!), and from a cost perspective, I'd think the demo boxes would be simpler to produce...they had the materials, expertise, and staff right there in house and had already made dozens of the demo boxes, what's a few more?

I'm sticking with my guess of these briefcases being the creation of some wholesaler or importer, to help sell Curtas in their local territory. Anyway, as always, thanks for the pics and the info, Murff!

Yes it is also interesting that the 2 displays appear from the pics to have mounted the 10.243 Counter Stage 1 - Carriage assembly step 1 differently.