Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011, 10:30 p.m. — I should be getting ready for bed at this hour; instead I’m thinking of conspiracy theories about Vibroplex nameplates and such! Ah, the twisting and wretched rantings of the insane mind.
On eBay recently I saw something I had never seen for sale before: A brand new Vibroplex Knoxville nameplate — unused and pristine. It’s so new it has no serial number stamped on it. I couldn’t pass it up — it had a reasonable Buy It Now price, so why not??
In fact, I have never seen just a Vibroplex nameplate for sale — not a new one. Some years ago there was an eBay seller in Scandanavia who was parting out several Vibroplex bugs. I bought a damper assembly from him; he also had two or three nameplates for sale, seems like these were from keys manufactured in the late 1950s or mid 60s. I didn’t buy one, but I did run across a key that needed one; fortunately, in my eBay scavaging I purchased a base with nothing more attached to it than a nameplate from the same era as the key. It worked fine.
But all of this got me thinking about the change in Vibroplex nameplates. I remember discussion online about Mitch having problems with the nameplates and getting them stamped. I don’t doubt those issues, but I’m thinking it was more serious than that.
Check out the quality of the embossed parts of the “old” Mobile, Ala., nameplate, particularly on the much later keys like the 100th Anniversary keys. It would appear the tooling to stamp the nameplates was simply worn out; it appears unable to create the sharp reliefs that are found on earlier keys — earlier keys, in fact.
The new nameplate’s debut was met with some unhappy buyers, who expected the “normal” nameplate, i.e., the stamped brass. I imagine that Scott Robbins, the new owner, was pretty much facing the issue of supply for the old-style brass … plus the fact that a new die had to be created for the new location.
The silk-screened nameplate still doesn’t look at classy, but I’m guessing that Scott was looking at how to do run the company in a cost-effective manner — and retooling for brass nameplates was probably something that would eat into the bottom line.
I read one collector’s comments regarding the plates and he commented how the new plates make these some of the rarer keys. I don’t know about that, but they’re certainly distinctive — and unless I’m wrong, I think they’re the first Vibroplex nameplate to say “Made in USA.”
That same collector commented that the Maine-manufactured bugs could also be deemed collectible since those nameplates too aren’t so common. I always found the Maine nameplates to be good quality, but the move to glue rather than rivets to secure them was a very bad move. I have wondered if the Maine nameplates are actually brass; they seem to be a completely different material.
I have still pondered the idea of buying (yet another!) 100th Anniversary bug, but get this one with the jeweled pivots and the new nameplate.
After seeing the quality (or lack of it) on some of the later nameplate stampings, I think Scott may have indeed made the most cost-effective decision to change the material and type.
“Different” isn’t always “bad,” but it can take a little getting used to.
MON-KEYING AROUND ON EBAY. While I have been generally staying away from eBay (the buying part, especially keys), I continue to look around every few days. And as you might guess, I ran across something that caught my eye …
A seller listed a Mon-Key, like the one at right. The key is missing the finger and thumb pieces, but its otherwise complete. I decided to follow the listing, just to see what happened. Surprise, surprise, no one seemed to interested in it — except me!
The key arrived today in decent shape. The finger and thumb piece were already broken off, so its not like there’s much left fragile to break. The Mon-Key had no bids for the week it was listed until a few hours before the end of the auction period. I decided to try a snipe on this one, to see if I could snag it without going too high.
Apparently I was the only person watching it, as my last-second snipe was the second bid entered — and as luck would have it, my rather low bid was only $1 higher than the first bidder’s maximum bid! I won the item, but not by much at all.
I don’t have a working Mon-Key yet, but that’s my plan … I have also considered cutting one of these and installing something like the guts of a Heathkit keyer … it would fit nicely inside, then all I would need do is to use the Mon-Key’s paddle for the keyer input. Hmm … that’s got the gears a-turning … lol!
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