It's always good news when I've either won or received something new for the shack. Now I don't have news as big as my last entry — the arrival of my new Icom IC-756PROIII — but it's news nevertheless.
I was watching several Vibroplex bugs on eBay yesterday, and I had to run my kids to separate doctors (go figure) so I checked to see which (if any) I would enter a proxy bid on. If you've been around eBay much, then you know that proxy bids seldom win anything — unless no one else was bidding for the item. Nearly all contested and active auctions are won in the last 5 seconds — a fact which makes sniping so much fun and so addictive!!
Anyway, I couldn't snipe anything, so I figured I might slip in a proxy bid. I had missed a Presentation bug a couple days earlier by not doing just such a bid. It sold for less than $60 — a true bargain. There was an auction for a Vibroplex Original Deluxe — or so it said. I submitted a suitably high bid and let it ride. I left home expecting to be outbid, though there's a real sense of satisfaction knowing that you made someone pay for what it was worth by entering a decent proxy bid!
When I returned home hours later, I checked eBay only to find — dramatic pause — that I had actually WON the bug!! Holy smokes!
For $50, I won an auction for a Vibroplex Deluxe — an unheard of price for a decent key. What made it sweeter was the fact that I had earlier downloaded the very dark photo of the key and lightened it in Photoshop and realized it was not an Original Deluxe but a Blue Racer Deluxe bug. This made the key instantly more desireable among collectors.
But who else noticed the key in the dark photo was a Blue Racer? If I had not used photoshop to lighten the key, I wouldn't have known for certain it was a Blue Racer. Who else might notice? I didn't alert the seller of my suspicions, and there wasn't time to ask him to measure the base. If he had included the fact it had a narrow base, that would have instantly ID'd it as a Blue Racer.
The key isn't perfect, as you may be able to note in the photo. The thumb piece is homemade; there are some minor pits in the chrome, but not too bad. While I can't be sure until it gets here, it really doesn't matter. I could easily resell it and come out ahead on the key. I've seen near basketcase Blue Racers sell for more than double my buying price.
Today I'm working to clean up the shack so I can get to my storage locker. I'm having to box up a lot of my telegraph keys and bugs. I have a bunch more that aren't boxed, but I'm not going to let them get away from me. I just need them stored in a stacking-friendly format. The used USPS Express Mail boxes do a fine job of that.
I've not used ANY of my bugs with the new Icom rig yet. Still learning to use it. I did buy a cable to connect my keys to the jack in back. The PROIII has a front panel connection for iambic keys and for using its own keyer, but I wanted to have the bug as an option. Heck, if I get my old-timey CW kicks with my ProIII, the old HW-16 may wind up in retirement!? Perish the thought!
73 es CUL … de KY4Z SK ….. dit dit ……