I just acquired two Darby handcuffs and none of them is marked. The first set is made of brass and the second one is made of iron. I have tested all my screw-keys in the collection (took some time...) and none of them fits the brass handcuffs or the iron ones. I have searched the surface to find some tiny markings without any result. Joe, please let me know what cuffs I’ve bought. –You are an expert!
BTW; am I one of them who just have to sit and wait for the great Handcuff Annual to arrive in the letter box? IÂ’m not sure about the size of my little contributionÂ…
Cheers,
Lars
holstcollection.com
Maybe the the key pattern could be a clue...
When I was a kid, my grandfather was the licensed public weigher at a livestock commission house (cattle auction) in Central Texas. During the summers, I'd go to the Tuesday sales with him and hang around the auctioneers trying to learn how to do the "chant." In Texas, auctioneers have to be licensed, and as part of my boyhood education in a career I never followed up on, I learned about traditional auction law and practices.
There are two types of auctions:
(1) A straight auction (also called an auction without reserve). In this, the seller retains no control over the auction. The item goes on the block and if any bid is received, it gets sold. Only if no bids are received does the seller get the item back to again do with as he pleases.
Occassionally, prior to the auction starting, a shady buyer would try to buy directly from the seller "outside the ring" before the auction started. Sellers are permitted to withdraw the item at any time prior to that first bid being placed, but only after the auction commenced (unless an honest seller discovered a previously unknown legitimate problem with the item and contacted the house). Since this would cause the auction house to loose their commission, if the house thought this was going on, they'd stick a guy out in the crowd who would yell "Dollar!" just as the auctioneer knocked to start the auction, thereby receiving a bid before the shady seller had a chance to withdraw the item and sell outside the ring.
This was also perceived as an insult to the seller (although rightly deserved), since in effect the guy who shouted "Dollar" was implying the seller was an underhanded weasel. To avoid a later fistfight, the house would talk to some other sellers and work it out so that "Dollar" got hollered at several auctions before and after the suspect one to avoid the direct insult. But, the fistfights still happened, which added to the general amusement of all.
(2) An auction with reserve. In this, the seller retains full control over the item, reserving the right to call off the auction at any time before the hammer falls, for any reason whatsoever, or no reason at all. (i.e. "I ain't sellin' my prize bull to that lousy so-and-so.")
Auction houses hate reserve auctions and will usually refuse to conduct them since it allows the seller to be a jerk, irritate the bidders, and cause the house to loose their commission by calling off the sale after it's begun but before it ends.
In certain circumstances, the auction house will agree to conduct a reserve auction with the only condition being set is that a minimum price has to be met, what's called a minimum bid auction.
Under traditional auction law, an auction is presumed to be a straight auction unless it is disclosed to be a reserve auction prior to the sale starting. Typically, the auctioneer would announce "with full reserve" or "with minimum bid" to let the bidders know whether they were (a) dealing with a potential jerk seller or (b) merely dealing with a seller who was trying to protect his bank account a little.
As a kid, my initial reaction on learning about a reserve auction was that it wasn't fair somehow, thinking all auctions were straight auctions, which the law presumes to be the case unless stated otherwise. However, once I learned the rules, it was no longer bothersome. Since a reserve auction has to be announced to be one in advance, any bidder knew in advance what he was getting into, provided he knew what the rules actually were, as opposed to what he thought they were.
In my limited experience with eBay, it seems they have blurred these traditional distinctions. I also suspect that a lot of the sellers and buyers out there don't appreciate the difference between a true or full reserve auction as opposed to the minimum bid type. After reading the various posts on this thread, and recalling some very enjoyable times I had some 50 years ago hanging around all those folks (learning how to cuss, spit, pitch pennies and other useful things), I spent some time reading the eBay rules for sellers. They are confusing as the dickens. While they talk about reserve and minimum bids and automatic bids, no where can I find a simple rule along the line of: "Once listed, a seller may not withdraw an item after a bid has been placed."
They do have all sorts of rules preventing sellers from trying to buy something "outside the ring," but nothing much is said about buyers doing this. I guess that's because in the electronic world, they haven't yet figured out a way to get that fellow out in the parking lot for an honest fistfight.
