“The gleam of chrome is as irresistible to a man as the word ‘sale’ is to a woman”

– Raymond Loewy, automotive designer

Sunday, July 17, 2011 — There’s no truer statement when it comes to the world of semi-automatic Morse sending machines too. For proof, simply follow the sales trends on eBay — a Vibroplex DeLuxe will nearly always sell at a higher price than its standard finish brethren.

In the photos that accompany this post, we have Vibroplex Original DeLuxe SN 264,366 — a key manufactured about 1970 while the company was still based in New York. The company was purchased and moved to Portland, Maine about 1979 until it was purchased about 1995 and moved to Mobile, Alabama.

When I was watching this key, I thought I would take a chance on it; the photos showed a key that was extremely dirty, and the chrome appeared hazy at best. But the key was one from the collection of a key collector’s estate; I reasoned it was worth taking a chance, even if I had to part the key out.

As you can tell from the accompanying photos, the key really is immaculate and in great condition.

Earlier today I decided that to do the key justice I needed to tear it down completely. I disassembled it completely and using Flitz, I cleaned all the chrome and polished it with a soft cotton cloth. You would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between this key and a brand new one. The one difference you might see is the difference in the color of the older red finger & thumb pieces compared to the current ones.

This one looks so nice now that I’m trying to figure out how to keep it dust free and clean! Perhaps now’s the time to start a business to reproduce the old key boxes, eh? I can be my first customer.

I still have a new key awaiting the clean-up treatment — another Vibroplex Original DeLuxe, this time its a 1951 model in its case (see below). I’ve been watching auctions on eBay over the weekend, and seen some nice deals on keys; I’ve got a room full of deals, and unless it is something particularly unusual, I don’t need another Vibroplex/Speed-X/McElroy key (I’ll keep telling myself that and hope I believe it, hi hi).

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