What first piqued my interest in them was a watch and clock show in my town. I remember really thinking they were marvelous engineering, but I also remember that number of $1000 as an average for a working one.

However it's kinda iffy buying one that you can't actually test first. It's been too long since I've purchased anything on eBay so I don't know what the return policies are.

The guy at the show mentioned "always test the _one_ slider. Those go first"

Edit- spelling