I'm not so sure. Richardson's been a standard industry supplier of vacuum tubes for a long time. They didn't have the greatest reputation, at times appearing to stamp their brand on anything with a glass envelope. My guess is they're divesting themselves of a low profit side of the business. While those aren't likely to be skids of odd Compactrons or 5kV, 1 ma shunt regs, a good portion will be rebranded Chinese or similar production and transmitter related.
I've been wondering when I would see this. Having been in the surplus industrial tube business in years past, I have a little insight on Richardson. During the 80's and 90's little Eddy Richardson was on a campaign to buy up all his competiton. And slowly but surely he swallowed up most of the other/smaller dealers. One exception being Penta Labs. (then Aero) If you've ever seen any of their older catalogs, you will read his statement about desiring to become the "ultimate" source for electron tubes. Translate this to the "only" source.
w5jag is probably quite correct as to them being picked over. And probably picked over many years ago and many times. Yea sure, you and I could find a few pallets of things we'd like to have. But for the most part I can intuitively assure you that this is the biggest collection of drek you'll ever see. I will be flabbergasted if it sells, and I pitty the fool that buys it.
Victor
w5jag is probably quite correct as to them being picked over. And probably picked over many years ago and many times. Yea sure, you and I could find a few pallets of things we'd like to have. But for the most part I can intuitively assure you that this is the biggest collection of drek you'll ever see. I will be flabbergasted if it sells, and I pitty the fool that buys it.
Victor
whodatpat said:
No doubt there will be another cheery picking party going on this weekend. Darn near every guitar and audio forum has had a thread about this auction.
I thought about driving up there myself seeing as its only a couple hours away, but then reality set in knowing it is most likely a heap of useless stuff.
I still have a lot of junk tubes from a purchase a couple years ago. I bought out a TV/Radio repair shops inventory of just over 5000 tubes. After the cherry picking, I ended up with a couple thousand tubes that could never be used.
I got lucky and sold a huge lot for pennies each to an artist who needed them for some art exhibit he was assembling.
Trout
Re: House of Tubes?
Their offices are just up the street from me on Keslinger road In LaFox, I am 3-5 miles further west on Keslinger rd. Oddly, I never buy anything from them but mostly because I have a couple accounts elsewhere.
The tube warehouse is in Geneva.
They are not the cheapest source, but not the most expensive either.
Trout
Edit,
I looked up 6550's and got this
National $14.50 $19.50 In Stock
I know they had bought the National Line as well as Cetron, But I do not recall ever seeing a National 6550A
And Amperex 6L6GC?
Amperex $46.50 $51.50 In Stock
Did amperex ever build a 6L6GC?
dsavitsk said:
Their offices are just up the street from me on Keslinger road In LaFox, I am 3-5 miles further west on Keslinger rd. Oddly, I never buy anything from them but mostly because I have a couple accounts elsewhere.
The tube warehouse is in Geneva.
They are not the cheapest source, but not the most expensive either.
Trout
Edit,
I looked up 6550's and got this
National $14.50 $19.50 In Stock
I know they had bought the National Line as well as Cetron, But I do not recall ever seeing a National 6550A
And Amperex 6L6GC?
Amperex $46.50 $51.50 In Stock
Did amperex ever build a 6L6GC?
Yes, they're still in the tube business. They never left it. They also do transistors too. And they re-brand them also. Several years ago I needed some hard to fine Motorola MJE10160 HV TO-3 case transistors! Richardson had a few for around $5+ each. I ordered some and got units with nicely sand blasted tops and the number I needed. They were nice devices, but they were not MJE10160s according to my Tek 576 curve tracer.
This was typical of what they did then and probably still do, although they claim otherwise.
I could tell you an old Richardson tube story, but I won't go into it now.
Victor
This was typical of what they did then and probably still do, although they claim otherwise.
I could tell you an old Richardson tube story, but I won't go into it now.
Victor
Trout said:
Not if you already have everything you need. Remember National and Cetron were once independent American tube manufactures that are now part of the big R's conglomerate in addition to all the others that were swept up and absorbed over time. And making ones products more saleable is just part of the job.
Try this on for size. A tube is imported from China (or wherever) without a base. Then a base is installed here. Now it's "made in America"? Or more correctly "made whole in America". Does this ever happen?
Let me clarify my transistor story above. I don't "know" that they were re-labeled. I do know they were not MJE-16010 (the correct #). The specs were not correct. But I have used and seen enough TO-3 transistors to recognize an altered device when I see one.
The practice of re-labeling tubes (and transistors) has been going on for many years. Some operations do it legally and others perhaps not so legally. I've seen many examples of phony labels and numbers on tubes. Sometimes so obviously phony and poorly done it was laughable. In fact, I have some Raytheon 6L6 metal tubes in Raytheon boxes. The problem with them is they are actually re-painted and re-labeled 1619s that were doctored to look like 6L6s when they were a hot item for sale overseas in the 80's. Not for us audio people but perhaps for foregin governments.
There is a tube company in Chatsworth California that has a sophisticated art department, a machine shop and a plating operation all in house to process tubes. I've not seen this, but I know it's there.
If you were a small operation, all you'd need is a rubber stamp and a steady hand. Actually, the rubber stamp would be stuck to a flat surface, inked and the tube rolled over the stamp. Simple.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.