Sunday, March 20, 2016, 10:30 p.m. — I had just told myself earlier this week I was swearing off buying yet **another** 100th Anniversary Vibroplex Original after one in mint-freaking-conditiion appeared this week on eBay.
Isn’t it a beauty? Serial No. 100A568 in mint shape with a display case and patch. What’s not to love??
I was ready to pull the Buy It Now trigger when common sense snuck up behind me and slugged me in the head.
I have several of these keys in just as mint condition as this one (a couple even more so). The display case was not the Vibroplex display case, but a plastic case of some sort that did a very good job of displaying and protecting the key. But did I really need another one identical to the seven I already own? No. No. Heck no! (Had the key been a Knoxville version or had some other unique feature, now that would have been different story!)
In addition to passing by the 100th anniversary key, I had decided some time ago to quit snapping up J-36s or other run-of-the-mill keys that are copies of ones I already have in my collection. End of story.
Or so I thought.
And then I check out eBay tonight and run across a 1935 McElroy Mac Key that had been listed 90 minutes earlier with an attractive Buy It Now price. This is an early 1935 “shallow vee” key — and a key that does not appear on Tom French’s Mac-Key serial number list. If it was, it would the fifth 1935 Mac-Key on his list.
A quick check of the photos confirmed the key was a 1935 model, mostly complete. I quickly hit “Buy It Now” and completed the (rather unexpected) transaction.
The key isn’t perfect; I’m not sure the damper is complete. Pics I’ve seen of other 1935 keys show a similar damper, a round wheel of sorts similar to that used on Speed-X bugs and 
some of the TAC bugs. The 1935 keys had two thumb pieces, this key has just one and what appears to be a long threaded screw where a finger knob was mounted. The weight does not appear to be original; the set screw used to secure it looks like a later vintage chrome-plated one). The rear contact arm (the two that create the shallow “V”) isn’t in its proper place, it appears to have simply been disconnected from the contact post and allowed to drop lower toward the base. The contacts must be insulated from ground, so there’s something there that will need looking at.
But overall, I’m tickled pink with it, especially since its my first 1935 Mac Key. In this blog I noted the last 1935 Mac Key I watched sell on eBay sold for more than $400, and the one I bought appears to be in similar condition.
I’m planning to do some clean up to the key when it arrives, and some more photos.
More to come.
73 es GL de KY4Z CL … dit dit