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  1. #1
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    Default eBay round vault door question

    What manufacturer do you guess this is? I've never seen a round vault door that didn't have round locking pins... Antique Bank Vault Door and Assembly - eBay (item 250782083073 end time Mar-31-11 19:59:35 PDT) Any other comments regarding rarity or security?

  2. #2
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    The door was patented in 1902 by Henry D. Hibbard, see US patent 708,041 (and 662,428) which was assigned to the Hibbard-Rodman-Ely Safe Company. They later were absorbed by the Manganese Steel Safe Company (History: the First national bank of ... - Google Books). In the same book, page 144 has a photo of a similar vault door.

    The eBay pictures are interesting because it looks like a residence, probably converted from an old bank building.

    ---------- Post added at 09:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 AM ----------

    Two more quick points. I can't tell from the pictures if that particular door was made by Hibbard-Rodman-Ely or Manganese Steel.

    And, it seems more likely that the room was commercial space rather than a residence.

    ---------- Post added at 10:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:45 AM ----------

    And right here on antique-locks, a couple of pictures of another door, see http://www.antique-locks.com/antique...ple-safes.html or search for "Hibbard".

  3. #3
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    That is going to be one costly move on that door.

  4. #4
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    Thanks wylk for the information. Albeit very expensive to move, is it rare? any guestimate on value?

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by 2buy1 View Post
    Thanks wylk for the information. Albeit very expensive to move, is it rare? any guestimate on value?
    I'd guess existing doors of this style are fairly rare but that's just a guess; maybe some of the pros could comment.

    As to value, I'd have to say "zero" just because you are very unlikely to find somebody who collects vault doors! There was a vault door for sale a short time ago, it did not sell at the starting bid of $1,000 but then the estimate to get it out of the building and onto the street was $75,000 to $100,000.

  6. #6
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    Doors of that type are VERY expensive to move as was mentioned as there are very few that have the right equipment to move them. Most floors can't take the weight of the larger ones if they are not ground slap floors. Almost all of these doors were built into place. So in a good deal of cases it is cheaper to cut the door up and scrap them than it is to move them I am sorry to say. It would be nice if a very rich person liked these doors and collected them.

    So this would affect the "Value" of the door unless you were to buy the buildings they were in, as that might be cheaper than moving some of them. You can charge rent for the rest of the building and keep the vaults.... down side is they are mostly in the center or back.... sometimes the basement.

  7. #7
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    I have just realized that how things are posted on this forum sometimes has a tendency to result in burying info in threads that may even not be directly related. I see that I am guilty of that. Posting pics of full size doors should not have been posted in a thread on salesmans samples but referenced to the posting. With that revelation in mind go to the Safes section for my post on HRE and Manganese Sreel Safes. Will that e bay picture remain on ebay after the door is sold and can a copy be installed on AL. Doug

  8. #8
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    eBay itself has a policy to keep completed auctions on their web site for a short time, I think 30 days. But since images are often hosted somewhere else, they could disappear from the auction immediately, something I have witnessed.

    As to "borrowing" auction images, I have done that myself under the assumption that for personal use one is allowed to copy copyrighted material. Posting an eBay image to antique-locks might be a little iffy though I doubt if it would result in any actual complaints. This would be a question for the AL owner to address.

  9. #9
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    I would suspect that an eBay internal message could be sent to the auction lister to request permission to download the images. He/she has responded to my message whereby he/she stated that the door is in an accessible ground floor location. However, I'm not signing up for the ~$75K guestimated removal fee!

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