Someone on Ebay is trying to seel a lower joint of an R13 with just the spring and pillars, but absolutely no keys. I've never seen this done bfore. Is it common? I was surprised just to see a lower part being sold let alone without it having any keywork!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BUFFET-CLARINET-Bb-R...1QQcmdZViewItem

I suppose they're selling it so someone can restore it maybe?

I thought that, but I wondered why anyone would just wanted to redo the lower joint and not the whole clarinet.

There have been oboe bells for sale on e-bay before, although I think they have always had the keys. Like you I couldn't really see why someone would want to buy one.

The two strangest things I've seen were:
- An oboe, complete with keys, but lacking the key holes. The seller was suggesting that you could just drill your own holes.
- An assortment of about a dozen oboe pieces (top joints, middle joints and bells) some of which had some of their keys but none of which could be assembled into a complete oboe (according to the description).

Ive seen lots of various flute parts sold on ebay in one big bulk lot.

Its usually when instrument repairers have extra parts of have used keys off old instruments to replace keys on existing instruments.

I have visited a site in the past for instrument repairers where they sold instruments without keys, and all the keys sold seperately without pads. This is probably one of those items.