Humane Restraint WA-301 leather hospital handcuffs, .50

This pair of Humane Restraint leather handcuffs had apparently been used in the critical care unit of a hospital, as evidenced by the '2 EAST CCU' scrawled on the side. I assume this fact would make them more valuable to collectors than a pair that were still new in the box, having never seen actual use.

Although it’s always of utmost importance to carefully analyze things in this business, you must understand that when it comes to the world of collectibles, people are going to bid on your stuff through emotions, fetish and pure collector interest.  

What we have here is nothing more than an old pair of leather restraints – and I’m assuming they're for the hands from their size – that were apparently used at one time in a mental hospital. They’re obviously not intended for law enforcement use, as they’re far from secure enough for such use. And where else, but in a mental hospital or institution, would there be a need to restrain someone with anything like these restraints?

In cases like this, you simply have to think collectors. I mean, who else would have any use for this old restraint at all? And as in the case of most things collectable, an item’s value to those who collect it will depend on how hard that item is to come by. Think of a rock collection compared to a meteorite collection and you get the idea. In other words, consider the fact that medical equipment and supplies, even the older examples, are not at all hard to come by. But how often do you run across an authentic, 'game worn' relic from a mental hospital?

I’m not really much into collectibles and antiques, and this Gallery reflects that fact. It’s hard enough just trying to make sense of all the general merchandise running around out there, without having to figure in the whims of a bunch of capricious collectors who are likely to flee to the next 'what's hot' item as soon as it appears. But I do enjoy contemplating those collectibles that have some sort of logic about them that I can at least try to make sense of.

Think, for a moment, of human anguish, suffering, ecstasy, struggle, oppression, fraud, and strife. Okay… now, think of any type of tool, implement, gadget, instrument, manual or anything else that could be involved with, or connected to, any of the above. How about... one of those old ‘tongue tearers’ that were used to silence ‘heretics’… or an old executioner’s ax… or a sex manual from the 1800s… or an old straitjacket… or a bogus old electric ‘quack’ type of medical device from the early twentieth century… or a pair of leg irons from the days of slavery? Get my point? Items like these literally serve as ‘embodiments’ of the emotionally-charged circumstances that surrounded their very existence back in their time. And I believe that it's this embodied emotional charge that drives people to collect these items nowadays.

Call me nuts if you want, and I may indeed be wrong. But that’s how I see these old Human Restraint cuffs fitting into the surefire-collectible formula. Do they not elicit mental images of crazed mental hospital patients strapped to old iron gurneys?

This pair of Humane Restraint WA-301 leather handcuff restraints sold on eBay for $237.