Friday, Aug. 10, 2012 — I’ve been working on my old farm truck today (replacing seat belts the dog chewed up … don’t ask!), and found several goodies in the mail when I checked the box.
The only ham -related goodie of the bunch was a fine CW paddle, a Begali Simplex iambic key. The Begali Simplex is well-built but simple design; its an attractive key to be sure, and its eHam ratings give you an idea of the quality and worksmanship the key represents.
The key was on eBay a few weeks ago … and I was following it since it the bids were slow and low. I hoped to snipe the thing if people didn’t bid until the last minute. I nearly let the auction end before I realized the time, and I ran to my PC, dashed off a bid, and with 3 seconds left hit “ENTER” — and won. The only problem was that there were several sniping at the same time … and while I won, it was because I set my maximum bid high … TOO high.
I made the mistake of entering a high bid without researching the actual cost of the key. Hell, it’s a Begali, they ain’t cheap, right? Well, that depends.
The Begali Simplex is not a super-duper high-dollar key. It’s mid-range ($150-225) key and that’s new, plus shipping of course. In my haste to snipe, my winning bid was almost the cost of the Simplex new.
The key was one of the very first ones (serial no. 005) and its in great shape, complete with plexiglas cover. My interest in it was simply to say I have tried a Begali, though I had anticipated the satisfaction of getting a good price on it. I probably did save since I didn’t have to pay shipping for Europe.
I’m going to put the key through its paces, but my thoughts right now are to use it and then put it back for sale on eBay. I don’t collect high-end paddles, my interest is in bugs. Frankly, I’m not real inclined to use the Begali and ditch my other keys, so once I give ‘er a spin, the Begali is going up for sale. If interested contact me.
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