My latest eBay “must haves” arrived in this morning's mail — a 1919 Vibroplex Original and a Cedar Rapids bug.
The Cedar Rapids bug was won long ago. The seller was holding it, apparently unaware I had paid for it until I sent a couple of e-mails asking where the key was. The key needs new finger and thumb pieces, but I've got brand new replacements. I'm a sucker for a bargain, and this one was dirt, dirt cheap. He kinda zinged me on the shipping, which is another lesson to re-learn and another one of “Jim's eBay Rules of Auctioneering” — always ask the shipping and handling before sniping an item. Most sellers these days either use the eBay calculator or as I do, figure a flat rate for domestic shipping.
I don't mind paying for good packing, but this guy simply wrapped the key in a layer of newsprint and shoved it diagonally into a USPS small square shipping box with a few wads of crumpled paper. The fact that the key was lodged in place in the corners of the box probably is what prevented damage, so it probably was a good thing.
The Cedar Rapids keys are built like tanks, almost as rugged as the McElroy Mac Keys. The Cedar Rapids keys were definitely the low-priced leader from the 1930s into the 1950s, and the only bug sold solely as a kit. They'll operate over a slower range than the typical Vibroplex, which is a good thing for us under-30 wpm guys, hi!
The second key that arrived today, the 1919 Vibroplex Original, is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, the key has the rather rare “t damper” — which was only used for two or three years around 1920. The t damper was used on all Vibroplex keys during this period. The rest of the key's parts are identical to others made before and after this period.
The base of the key is nickel plated, which is one of only a few nickel-plated based keys I have. The nickel is worn down through to the steel base in areas where the operator handled it a lot. The front edge and the top area by the circuit closer switch are worn down to the steel. The plating looks pretty good on the rest of the key. It's clear this key, like most keys sold during this time, worked full time at (most likely) a telegraph office. Spark was still king, and you couldn't send 20 wpm with a spark transmitter. Besides, the contacts on Vibroplex keys were pretty small compared to those used on the big spark transmitters of the day. I've heard you could use a bug with a spark txmtr by using a relay setup, but that relay better have some big contacts.
The t-damper bug is complete with the exception of the thumb piece. It has a late model Vibroplex oval black thumb piece, which I'll have to swap out for the right one. This isn't an exceptionally rare key, but its rare enough to me to attract my bid. It sold for much less than the average vintage bug, which is honestly the only way I would have won the auction.
There were three of us at the auction's end trying to snipe it. The top bid — with one minute to go — was about $35. Sniping requires you to submit the highest price you're willing to pay for an item since entering a bid in the last 3 seconds of an auction doesn't give you a chance to re-bid.
My fellow snipers only entered bids a few dollars over the high bid showing, which won't win many competitive auctions. One of the reasons so many people lose auctions in the last few minutes is due to the fact they increase the bid in small increments, much the way that you might take part in a live auction. It's not unusual to see the winning bid creep upward by a dollar or two several times during an auction's final minutes.
When attempting to snipe an auction, I try to know well in advance what my top limit is, which I usually calculate to be the price I could get for the item if I put it back on eBay. No matter how low the bidding is in the final seconds of an auction, I enter my top bid. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In a recent auction for a rather rare key, my snipe bid was outbid by hundreds of dollars — I think more than 8 bidders submitted snipe bids in the auctions final 10 seconds. The formula for success: Deep pockets + good sniping technique = winning bids.
Ultimately, it boils down to a single question: “How badly do I want that thing?” I wasn't willing to get into kilobucks for the key, and it's probably dumb luck I won it at all. The auction listing was sparse, and that may have prompted some bidders to look elsewhere.
I'm going to clean up my new keys and replace the missing correct parts. 73 es CUL … de KY4Z … dit dit