Our club's special event station went fairly well. One of the members who was bringing equipment wound up in the hospital Friday night, so we only had one station. That worked out well, because we didn't have enough operators to keep both stations busy for long.
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I'm trying to stay away from eBay, but not having much luck. I still enjoy watching Morse key auctions, and the trend in Vibroplex keys is on an “up” cycle.
A 1962 Vibroplex Blue Racer DeLuxe in good shape brought $146. A 1975 Presentation in top shape brought $144, which was an excellent price. A 1944 Vibroplex Original in good shape with the carrying case topped both of these key prices, selling for $164. A nice key, but I wouldn't pay that for a standard key, particulalry since I several nice wartime standard finish keys.
The real bargain was a McElroy CP-500 key in excellent shape. This key was one of Mac's last keys, and it is nearly an identical clone of the Vibroplex Original. Not many were made, and few show up on eBay. It was a bargain at $103,50. It was manufactured by the McElroy-Halligan consortium Telegraph Apparatus Co. of Chicago.
Another 1944 Vibroplex Original in decent shape premium price of $107.50. The key was equipped with a Hill Vari-Speed attachment, an original, not a duplicate. The Vari-Speed was an arm that attached to the pendulum. It stuck upright, and you put the weights on the Vari-Speed. By adjusting the arm you could fine-tune the speed, and even slow it down by angling the weights back off the rear of the key.
The RAREST key I've seen on eBay in a while is another second-year-of-production Vibroplex Original. I wrote about one recently that had been repainted. This 1906 was in original as-found condition — a wonderful find. An owner years ago made some funky homebrew bakelite paddles for the key, but the rest was original. I tried to bid on the key but came up woefully short. It sold for just under $400.
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I've been watching a Mon-Key electronic keyer all week. I have one but was willing to buy a second one in good shapee. The Mon-Key is acknowledged as the first commercial automatic electronic key for the amateur market. Well, my hopes were dashed in the final seconds — the thing brought $74, well more than my bid and way, way more than I thought it was worth. One man's trash is another man's keyer, I guess.
A rather hard-to-find Vibroplex Model X sold this weekend for $103, which wasn't a bad deal. I expected it to go for more than that. The seller did not use “Model X” in his auction heading. He did used “Vibroplex,” but not the model, which would have likely drawn more high-dollar collectors.
Lastly, a 1990s Vibroplex Original DeLuxe — from the period when Vibroplex was in Maine — sold for $142.50 — a premium price in my book. It was a very clean key, but the Maine period keys typically are less sought after. It's not the mechanics of the keys, they're all the same — the difference is cosmetic. During its time in Maine, the company quit using pins or rivets to hold down the ID tags on the base of the key. The result? Virtually every Maine-era key will have the ID tag either loose or one or more edges will have lifted. And true to form the ID tag on the key that sold was lifting along its lower edge. It's a huge annoyance because you don't want to lose the tag and sometimes they'll simply fall loose. I have a nice DeLuxe key like this one and the ID tag won't stay put. I don't know what they tried to use for glue, but its not been effective.
Vibroplex also slightly moved the ID tag closer to the terminal side of the key base. It always looks out of kilter to me. Typically the midline of the tag was very close to the midline of the key base. Not a bad key at all, but it sold at a price higher than I would pay.
INCOMING! The key at right was one I had been watching all week, the Dentsu Seiki K.K. Swallow BK-50. This key was produced about 1950. It shares a resemblance to the Skillman bug which followed it some years later. I've only seen a few of these ever show up on eBay. There were two versions of this key, one with a metal pivot frame and one with a plastic one. This one has a plastic frame. It didn't bring much, perhaps it was the timing (a mid-week auction), or the listing title, which simply mentioned a Japanese semi-automatic key. Nine times out of 10, that key will be a Skillman bug. I did my usual sniping (no bidding until the last 3 or 4 seconds), but there was no one else bidding against me at the moment. Maybe I'm a fool going for a key that has no collector interest? Frankly, my interest in the key is the only reason I bid on it anyway, I'm pretty happy I didn't have to pay more for the key.
Speaking of Japanese keys, that Skillman bug I pieced back together is still playing fine. It's got good action, but it isn't very forgiving. You need to keep your wrist movement pretty snappy … if you start to slow down, you'll wind up getting a partial extra dit at the end of a string of two or more. My main key is my old 1920s Lightning Bug … at least for the moment. I've not used the 1921 Blue Racer or the Cedar Rapids bug lately. I may swap them out for a couple of others, just for variety.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z … dit dit …