Roto-Gage Does anyone have one?

Never.
I want one.........

Found a little more about it on the web.  This site says it was manufactured by the Imperial Molded Products Corporation of Chicago, Ill.  Another site said there was one on ebay back in 2011 going for $500.00.

The two old ebay auctions I saw ended at $60.00 and $199.

I like the product's tag line:  "Less Work and More Fun for the Stamp Collector".

Thanks for finding that Jen - now I want one, being a lover of all little things mechanical.

I was recently contacted by a young woman located in the UK who has a Roto-Gage that she would like to sell.

If any of you are interested, send me a PM and I will provide her contact information.

Here are images of her item:

Did she mention a price?

zipper, She did not mention a price,

brightonpete, neither I nor tomisek have had a chance to respond to either of your messages as we've been quite busy doing all manner of things other than TSF. Check your messages now.

Hmmm, I did a quick search and found 3 current sellers in the US: $29+$7 (roto-gage only, no box/instructions), $40+$6, and $100 OBO+$3.78

Am I missing something?  How come nobody else sees these?

It arrived today. Very cool. Am able to measure size and perfs using a magnifier without my hand shaking.

That is way cool and I want one.

[Post made by @thebillstampguy whose account was deleted for inactivity]


Interesting...all these posts on the Roto-Gage. I started collecting perforation gauges some time ago as an ultra-nerdy adjunct to my already geekily narrow philatelic interests. I came across mention of the Roto-Gage in an article about Roosevelt's own, now in a national museum. I now have five Roto-Gages...four boxed, one not.

Some sellers (on eBay) try to sell at hefty prices. I've seen $500 as an offering price, and have seen $250 a couple of times. They haven't sold, at numbers anything like those. I've bought all mine at less than (I think) $70, and one of them under $10 (ignoring shipping).

It's not really a very useful gauge. Clumsy. Finicky. Measures only to the nearest half-perf. And how accurately I don't know. It has a well that's supposed to work for watermark fluid. But the watermark "tray" is encumbered by the bulk of the gauge, the nonsense of the flexi-magnifier, etc. The "all-in-one-ness" of the thing--its alleged convenience--is actually its INconvenience: It's far easier to have separate tools. This is a solution in search of a problem.

Perhaps it's that fact which has resulted in there being lots of nice, well-preserved examples left, in their original boxes. Grandad may just have found the thing a bit of a fuss to use...put it away...and used separate, simpler perf gauges and watermark trays.

Consequence: What the would-be $250 and $500 sellers think of as a rarity is really rather a commonplace, albeit a curiosity.

Brad
'thebillstampguy'

There's one for sale on Ebay right now for $34.95 + shipping. Checking past sales some have sold for much less.

Thanks for the information Mr. H, I would love to have it, but I already own a Safe perfotronic2, so the expense of the item for daily use is superfluous. Also when these vintage precision items are sold on Ebay I always fear that they are damaged or not in perfect order.