You bought it for a great price, but not an unfair one given the small scope of the buyers' market. $150-200 is an amount of money I would part with Use it on the air, put it on a shelf-it's beautiful all ways as a piece of history. I will solve your ethical dilemma for you. And by the time you find such a ham and actually get a check from him that won't bounce, he'll be long dead,Īlong with the other 2 dozen hams in the U.S. Is small, they have a shelf-full of them already (like me- my 1921 Martin Junior). But the market for individuals who even know what this thing is When he comes along, you'll have made a lot of money to then buy 5 classic Vibroplexes from 1930-on. For the right ham who is an avid CW operator and loves history, it mightīe worth $1000. The price as advertised online is totally without relevance. I have no idea what the market price would be.
It means it'll probably send nice clean code. You can see the hair-spring dot contact is modern that's just fine because You've got an early Japanned-base Original model that's absolutely beautiful and a great piece of history. I used toĭrop a snide remark now that I'm presumably more mature (Honk! Honk!) I just walk away. The converse situation is the "Sharpies" who have no idea what they've got, tell me nonsense in an attempt to gouge their fellow hams, and give me, " It's $ 500 on FleaBag".
Vibroplex bug serial numbers full#
I have given honest hams full asking-price at hamfests, told them what they've actually got and thanked them for allowing me to enjoy the piece of history (Bugs, WW II gear) they're selling. Tom has served as a historical consultant for writers, authors and production companies (radio, TV, movies).Cheers to you for being a guy with ethical standards and concerns. The significant contributions for telegraphy documentation by Tom Perera, W1TP and his on-line Telegrapher's Museum - should also be acknowledged. Maybe Mitch and the Vibroplex staff eventually found the lost production paperwork, or John Elwood, WW7P presented his research and published information to Vibroplex for their usage. I have no idea of the source of the posted information on the Vibroplex web site, before 1994. This document is copyrighted by WW7P, and is reproduced on Randy Cole's web site with John's permission. Starting in 1990, John compiled this information from a list of more than 3000 Vibroplexes, their serial numbers, and the date they were purchased (invoices still avaialble), if known.
Vibroplex bug serial numbers serial number#
There was no way to accurately date a Vibroplex by its serial number until John Elwood, WW7P, published his well researched document in 1996. Randy's Image Gallery of his collection is one of the best on the Internet - especially for early models before 1939.Īlmost all Vibroplexes have serial numbers, but somewhere along the line the Vibroplex production records were lost or discarded. This is the first page that I usually reference. Randy Cole, KN6W has made significant contributions to Vibroplex collectors over the past decade by assembling and hosting The Vibroplex Collector's Page in 1996. With all due respect, Vibroplex has only recently had this information on their web site, readily available to Vibroplex owners and colelctors.