lightning rod insulators

[Ben]

I listed these and did not think much of them... of all the things I have listed I did not think these would be the most popular... can anyone tell me more about them? Thank you in advance.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251356905121?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

[botlguy]

Hey Ben, I'll give you my opinion since you asked. The Lightning insulators are properly priced as they are common type and color and all but one without the metal holder. You may get a little more than currently bid ($16.50) as they appear to be in really nice condition.

All of the others I can comment on are the other insulators. IMHO they are overpriced. Most are worth $1 - $2 each if you are fortunate enough to find a buyer. I will be VERY surprised if you get a bid.

If you want an explanation of how they were actually used we can do that. Basically they insulated the system ground wire / cable from the structure the system was mounted on. On second thought, you would do well to search for more complete information than I can give you.

 

[Ben]

Thanks, Jim. Your opinion is valued and what I was seeking. Enjoy your day in the woods north of Spirit Lake today.

 

[RED Matthews]

Well Jim and Ben, I started collecting insullators at the age of nine or ten. We had a rail road back of our home in NY and at this early age I had to walk witn my mother to collect spring wild asparagus on the east side of the tracks becsuse the pervailing winds blew the smoke cinders from the train to that side of the tracks. Wild asparagus likes and thrives on these cinders. We used tto cut rag strips and tie them on bushes or the fence where there were these plants were,. All this was on the same side of the tracks as the telephone lines. So insulators used to get picked up by me and brought home - because I started likeing glass at this early age.
I later got into lightning rods, balls, and especially the four pendents that some had on them. I only have one pendent, because they had a metal hook in the top of them, they filled with rain water, which froze in the winter and broke the glass. I have four or five lightning rods, cable insulators and a dozen different lightning rod balls, I even put one lightning rod on my barn chimney and it has a neat eagle on it now. The old horse weather vane got bad this year because the horses legs came off the holding rod. A rebuilding project for next year. I also have some other weather vanes collected, a rooster, a couple fish, and a cow weather vane in my collection.
So the cable stand-0ffs are also part of the collecting. I have four of them holding the cable on my barn to the ground rod.
I am considered a crazy collector of stuff by all of my family. Tough sh** I just like early artifacts of the life of America. RED Matthews

 

[FitSandTic]

Amen Red! I also enjoy collecting lightning rod balls and glass tail weathervane arrows. I will admit that I am very new to it though. My dad really loves the glass tail arrows. I picked him up a cobalt blue arrow for Christmas last year and it was the first time he could not guess his gift before unwrapping it. He was so surprised that I remembered him saying that he wanted one.

 

[cowseatmaize]

I have some questions for you.
How can you ship them for only $8? I know they look heavier than they appear but still.
Also, how do you get the free local pickup and a shipped rate in the same list? I tried to find that in ebay but couldn't.
Thanks, Eric

 

[Ben]

Hey Eric,
They are really small so I kind of guessed at the shipping rate... I am often wrong at it and need to refine my system. As for having the free local pickup and shipping rate together, Ebay recently started some kind of "shipping policy" things I can select from... I need to look at them more and set them up a bit differently, but I would guess that setting is in there somewhere... sorry if that was of no assistance to you.