deskthority

We have 2 of these Selectric IIs sitting in our office that were pulled from departments no longer using them. One has a dust cover for it, and there are several print balls (some still in packaging). My question is if there is still a market for these things, as I'm worried they'll be tossed in the garbage.

Yes

They can be hard to give away depending on your local area but yes there is definitely a market for these and they should be saved by you preferably. They are not worth a whole lot unless they have been cleaned and serviced by a professional or you happen to come across a particularly rare or sought after variant. I regret not picking a couple of these up when I had the chance to pick them up locally.

Do keep the "golf" balls, they are probably worth $10-$20 each, and are not bulky or heavy.

I would like to have a good clean Selectric but shipping is prohibitive.

minimally save the keycaps. I believe they are compatible with beamspring keyboards.

You could probably expect to get somewhere in the neighborhood of $50-100 on ebay plus shipping which is not nothing. The one's that have been serviced go for about $200+ currently.

I was able to get a date on them - one (the shiny uncovered one) is from 2000, the other (textured, looks brand new) is from 1987.

2000??? Wow, I thought they stopped making Selectrics in the 80's.

Right - I might have misread it - hard to see as the label is faded. It might be last date of service.

Ok, I went back and looked a bit better. The Selectric II says last serviced 10/80. The newer looking one is actually a Selectric III. It does appear to show last serviced in 2000.