Who would bid on this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Non-Regulation-M......WxNYuflI

Notice that them item, which turns out to be a pair of "toy style" handcuffs, is very honest about the phrase "no key" in the title.

Are they cuffs that cannot lock? Are they Gaffed? Or are they being sold with the goal of pranking someone as they will not be able to get out?

I guess the policy on ebay is anyone can sell what they like, as long as it is legal, but isn't this just asking for trouble?

This is the beginning of an episode of a situation comedy TV show!

I had a set of these as a kid. Might still have them in the attic somewhere. They were sold along with cap guns and the like. There were keys that would work as normal but you could also open them by pressing a lever on the side.
Like a lot of things on ebay the person selling the item likely has no clue what it actually is.

As a escape artist, I thought your handcuff knowledge would have been wider than this. This is the earlier model from about 1960-1970 likely to be the first copy made of the Masuri. It is a fully operational handcuff and not sold as a toy. There is no key because they haven't got the key. The design was changed to add a lever to release the cuff when the key was not available and it was the heavily marketing then as a toy as there was no fear a child would get trapped in a pair. over the years different Asian countries have made them and the quality has change. These are also the cuffs the evangelist christians pull apart as some show of some kind of induced divine power, you will note the cuff have non welded and light gauge chain.

Actually Ian, I claim NO knowledge of a handcuff collector. I know nothing of dates and brand names. I appreciate your info, and the dates you've listed feel right. I too had such a pair (probably still do somewhere) back in the 70's. I also remember two styles of "toy" safety additions, one was a hole in the metal that allowed a pencil or some such, to be inserted and pop the thing open, the other was the lever sticking out that also performed a release.

But that is besides the point. I guess that someone who collects handcuffs might want to purchase these even without a key, but how collectable are these really?

BTW Ian, an opinion if you will... When I was in high school a girl told me that her brother had used real handcuffs (cops in the family) to chain her to a radiator pipe. She claimed to have gotten out by working the chain back and forth till it broke from metal fatigue. I have always thought that story was not so believable. Is it possible?

Possible and probable are vaguely related.

Vaguely?

Probability is a measurement of the likely hood of something to happen.
Possibility is a simple suggestion as to whether something can happen or not.

There are many things that absolutely can happen, they are possible, but the probability is so small that it is taken to be zero.

A good example is "Tunneling." It is possible for one solid object to pass through another because there atoms and molecules are lined up just right so that none of the solid parts interact. They become intangible to each other. Following quantum Physics that is absolutely possible. What is the probability of it happening? So small that it may as well be zero. If one million people spend their entire lives trying to pass two solid objects through each other with no damage to either, the odds are astronomically good that it will never happen once.

Then again, the a law of science says, "On a given day, anything can happen."

I recall having a pair of these as a youngster as well. I wonder how hard it might be to acquire a set of keys.



Good point. I also wonder if it might be worthwhile to revive the chain breaking aspect to augment an escape.

Rook as a locksmith, I can supply keys to this type of pair and many others.

Yes, I kind thought so. Potentially intriguing idea....

So your comment " I wonder how hard it might be to acquire a set of keys. " was just thinking out loud then???

Just some embryonic ideas, really. Nothing terribly solid at the moment.