Around here, if a new tube was pulled from a box, and an old tube of the same type was
placed back into that box, the service man would tear off one of the side flaps from the type number end of the box as a reminder that this had been done. I don't know how things are done in Europe. But if you could find some old service guys there, they might give you some insight on what their practices were. So if I see a tube in a box with a missing flap, it is a used tube, period, as far as I am concerned.
About tube testers: I have a mil surplus tube tester, in fact I was the first person to open the carton from the overhaul depot, so you could say I have a new mil surplus tube tester. A good tester will give you some indication of the merits of a tube. But tubes that test good, can still be bad in the real world. And tubes that test bad, often work perfectly satisfactory in service in a real world circuit. The only real way to test a tube, is to put it in the circuit, and see if it works in a satisfactory manner.
About selling tubes: I used to sell tubes at Hamfests. I would typically sell $300 - 400 worth of tubes at even a small Hamfest. I was also buying tubes, so I spent money on tubes as well. I have a warehouse where I keep my junk, so fortunately I did not have to store tubes at home. I probably have five or six hundred new tubes here at my office, this morning. If you want to sell new tubes for a good price, you need to have enough experience with tubes to know they are unused, and confidently tell people that you are, in fact, selling them an unused tube, and they have to have confidence that you are dealing fairly with them and are good for what you sell. This is especially true if it is a high value tube like a 572B or a 6550, or something. If you want to sell used tubes for a good price, they need to be cleaned, the pins need to be straightened, they need to be placed in a clean new box, they need to be sorted into order where people can browse to find what they are looking for or didn't know that they needed, and it certainly helps if you have tested them and have the test results marked on the tube box. In other words, you have to bring some value to the deal. Otherwise, you're tubes aren't worth very much. If you don't want to do this, my opinion, for whatever it is worth, would be to find someone that does what I used to do, and see if they will make you an offer on your lot.
In the real world, one of my day jobs is possible because I hold a professional license that places a dollar value on units of my time. I'm guessing that all of the "profit" that I have ever made from tubes, wouldn't add up to what I made yesterday afternoon and this morning, and it was really, really, time consuming and they're taking up space in my warehouse. But it was a lot of fun. I still get calls from people, and still have thousands, so at some point I might start back up again.
My $0.02 USD.
placed back into that box, the service man would tear off one of the side flaps from the type number end of the box as a reminder that this had been done. I don't know how things are done in Europe. But if you could find some old service guys there, they might give you some insight on what their practices were. So if I see a tube in a box with a missing flap, it is a used tube, period, as far as I am concerned.
About tube testers: I have a mil surplus tube tester, in fact I was the first person to open the carton from the overhaul depot, so you could say I have a new mil surplus tube tester. A good tester will give you some indication of the merits of a tube. But tubes that test good, can still be bad in the real world. And tubes that test bad, often work perfectly satisfactory in service in a real world circuit. The only real way to test a tube, is to put it in the circuit, and see if it works in a satisfactory manner.
About selling tubes: I used to sell tubes at Hamfests. I would typically sell $300 - 400 worth of tubes at even a small Hamfest. I was also buying tubes, so I spent money on tubes as well. I have a warehouse where I keep my junk, so fortunately I did not have to store tubes at home. I probably have five or six hundred new tubes here at my office, this morning. If you want to sell new tubes for a good price, you need to have enough experience with tubes to know they are unused, and confidently tell people that you are, in fact, selling them an unused tube, and they have to have confidence that you are dealing fairly with them and are good for what you sell. This is especially true if it is a high value tube like a 572B or a 6550, or something. If you want to sell used tubes for a good price, they need to be cleaned, the pins need to be straightened, they need to be placed in a clean new box, they need to be sorted into order where people can browse to find what they are looking for or didn't know that they needed, and it certainly helps if you have tested them and have the test results marked on the tube box. In other words, you have to bring some value to the deal. Otherwise, you're tubes aren't worth very much. If you don't want to do this, my opinion, for whatever it is worth, would be to find someone that does what I used to do, and see if they will make you an offer on your lot.
In the real world, one of my day jobs is possible because I hold a professional license that places a dollar value on units of my time. I'm guessing that all of the "profit" that I have ever made from tubes, wouldn't add up to what I made yesterday afternoon and this morning, and it was really, really, time consuming and they're taking up space in my warehouse. But it was a lot of fun. I still get calls from people, and still have thousands, so at some point I might start back up again.
My $0.02 USD.
Ok, the third was perhaps a bit to much.
I sorted out all ECC and tubes I know are widely used.
Found some metal cased stuff as well. Seems to be some microphone stuff.
Attachments
Sounds like a good way to do business.
Me, I got these from an old guy who died a while back.
I plan to keep some, the ones I am sure are unused (original, sealed boxes and the 6v6GT) I want to unload for as much as possible. In my world that means buyer makes a bargain and I get an OK price, I got them for free after all.
The others I want to sell as well, but perhaps in lots but I don't want to sell broken stuff.
If you want to sell tubes, buy a good tester, spend the time and test every single tube. Print out a photo of the test results if using a modified curve tracer or one of the expensive utracer's, or whatever tester you have.
I personally don't enjoy the nickel and dime aspect of tube selling, nor do I "enjoy" interacting with the people who have the attitude that their tubes are worth their weight in gold and your tubes are worthless.
Or- build or buy yourself some tube amps and enjoy the music.
Relax, listen to the music.
I personally don't enjoy the nickel and dime aspect of tube selling, nor do I "enjoy" interacting with the people who have the attitude that their tubes are worth their weight in gold and your tubes are worthless.
Or- build or buy yourself some tube amps and enjoy the music.
Relax, listen to the music.
Attachments
If you want to sell tubes, buy a good tester, spend the time and test every single tube. Print out a photo of the test results if using a modified curve tracer or one of the expensive utracer's, or whatever tester you have.
I personally don't enjoy the nickel and dime aspect of tube selling, nor do I "enjoy" interacting with the people who have the attitude that their tubes are worth their weight in gold and your tubes are worthless.
Or- build or buy yourself some tube amps and enjoy the music.
Relax, listen to the music.
Well, to build a tube amp you need expensive irons and parts of you don't have any to start with, hence the selling of tubes.
But hey, if they are junk that saves me a lot of time. The local junkyard is only 1km away so I can leave them there for destruction.
And finally, if you don't like to interact, just scroll by.
That said, I am thankful for the response, I asked for advise on what to save, what to sell and what to scrap. So I got what I wanted, now I just have to weight the different advice.
Don't like selling tubes, but I hear you regarding scrolling by.
Relaxing and listening to music... while "working" from home...
Relaxing and listening to music... while "working" from home...
Some time ago I acquired a few thousands tubes, mostly used, from an old TV repairman. Extracting value from them is a time consuming job that only make sense if you enjoy doing it. Otherwise just grab the most popular audio tubes and sell what's left as whole boxes on some auction site. If you want to do a more targeted selling, or keep a well organized invenctory for your projects, the Kay Pirinha post is absolutely true: you need to open all the boxes that aren't sealed, because there is a good chance to find a used or completely different tube inside. It may be a happy discovery sometimes. Use a tool such as a screwdriver to avoid tearing the boxes. I do not put back the tube in mislabeled/scribbled boxes as the repairman did, because I don't see the point on doing this: tube value does not change and it does increase the clutter. I use a new blank box, but only if the tube has a chance to be useful. While I was doing this, I sorted on different boxes: audio tubes (including some types that may be used for audio, such as PCL86), TV tubes, radio tubes and pre-WWII type tubes. I've found this general storage classification more useful than one based by socket type or filament voltage. If I need to restore a radio, I search on the radio tubes or pre-WWII tubes boxes. I have made pictures of each box so I don't need to do a physical search.
I'm in a similar place. I bought about 1000 tubes from the estate of a ham operator. All of the octals had been separated out into a different lot and sold separately, so I have few output tubes. In total, I have 353 unique tube numbers, many boxed, but also many loose, now sorted into bags and counted. Its a mixture of NOS and used tubes. It took me about 3 days to sort them and complete the inventory. I had about 4 that obviously had leaked, and about 50 that I could find absolutely no markings on.
I really spent very little on these tubes and I've added compactrons to it from Urban Ore locally when I can get someone to let them go for less than a $1 a tube in bulk. I have no desire to deal with the minutia of selling them. I see my job as rescuing them, and eventually finding them all a home. That means I'll be listing them here and giving them away to those that can use them when I've selected those that will work for any projects I want to build. Not any time soon though.
I really spent very little on these tubes and I've added compactrons to it from Urban Ore locally when I can get someone to let them go for less than a $1 a tube in bulk. I have no desire to deal with the minutia of selling them. I see my job as rescuing them, and eventually finding them all a home. That means I'll be listing them here and giving them away to those that can use them when I've selected those that will work for any projects I want to build. Not any time soon though.
So, mostly done.
I ended up sorting out the tubes I recognized and put all others, without boxes, in a few piles and auctioned them out in bulk, without any warranties and got a few $100 for around 5-10kg worth.
The rest with boxes I sorted and did the same.
The ones I recognized I sorted out and the more exclusive ones I sent of to a guy with a Roetester and had them tested.
The 6C8G tubes I tested with my own tester and matched them up.
Most tubes has gone on ebay. I did some research on closed auctions with bids, put a "buy it now" with a price lower than these, often 30-40% lower and accepted offers.
Now I only have some El84, E80CC and 6C8G left. Most of the former two i'll use myself.
And happy customers all over the world 🙂
Thanks for all the advice guys.
Now I just need time to finish the different projects 🙂
I ended up sorting out the tubes I recognized and put all others, without boxes, in a few piles and auctioned them out in bulk, without any warranties and got a few $100 for around 5-10kg worth.
The rest with boxes I sorted and did the same.
The ones I recognized I sorted out and the more exclusive ones I sent of to a guy with a Roetester and had them tested.
The 6C8G tubes I tested with my own tester and matched them up.
Most tubes has gone on ebay. I did some research on closed auctions with bids, put a "buy it now" with a price lower than these, often 30-40% lower and accepted offers.
Now I only have some El84, E80CC and 6C8G left. Most of the former two i'll use myself.
And happy customers all over the world 🙂
Thanks for all the advice guys.
Now I just need time to finish the different projects 🙂
Well done! I have many tubes to sell. My problem is that I have 2 tube testers - Avo original 2 box and Mk.3. Both need servicing, unfortunately. Maybe I could exchange both for one working one...... Does anyone know anyone who can service an Avo in London UK?
I'd like to help but kind of on the wrong side of the planet.
There's some good technical info on AVO VCMs to be found at Vintage Test Gear and Workshop Equipment - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum with a bit of searching if you want try repair yourself, or perhaps post and ask directly.
There's some good technical info on AVO VCMs to be found at Vintage Test Gear and Workshop Equipment - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum with a bit of searching if you want try repair yourself, or perhaps post and ask directly.
I have an AVO mk3 too, and bought it for the same reason, thinking it would help me sell tubes, as I described in post #3 above.
Even with a curve tracer, where I include all the testing data in the auction site advert, I still have complaints about microphonic tubes, so it feels like I have absorbed all the risk, whereas we know that in some applications we would have to buy and compare multiple tubes anyway. One service I can provide is matching, since having 300 of the same tube, it makes little difference to me to group those with similar curves, but is godsend to the buyer.
If your AVO is good enough to confirm emissions in the green zone, then maybe it is ok anyway? Could you buy a tested tube, and retest to confirm if it is in the ballpark?
Even with a curve tracer, where I include all the testing data in the auction site advert, I still have complaints about microphonic tubes, so it feels like I have absorbed all the risk, whereas we know that in some applications we would have to buy and compare multiple tubes anyway. One service I can provide is matching, since having 300 of the same tube, it makes little difference to me to group those with similar curves, but is godsend to the buyer.
If your AVO is good enough to confirm emissions in the green zone, then maybe it is ok anyway? Could you buy a tested tube, and retest to confirm if it is in the ballpark?
Can always make a calibration tube with some bench supplies and meters, make up one for small signal - e.g AVO suggested an ECC82 with both sections in parallel, or maybe a 6SN7, and I also use a 6L6WGB that has been measured on bench for Gm and plate current.
I believe Jacmusic also sell calibration tubes too.
I believe Jacmusic also sell calibration tubes too.
For everyone how finds this thread and are in the same situation, this is what I ended up doing and what it resulted in:
1. Sorted out in two piles, boxed and unboxed
2. Split unboxed in three piles "popular tubes, others and unknown"
3. Sold "unknown" as a lot and accepted whatever was offered in auction.
4. Sold "other boxed" in 4-5 lots and accepted whatever was offered in auction.
5. Bought the tubetester earlier in this thread and matched and sold all 6C8G, cheap as hell.
6. Used tubetester to see if popular tubes where good/bad.
7. Sent them off to a guy with a Roetester and sold tubes matched with results on ebay, forums and whatever, also these quite cheap.
8. Sold the tubetester.
Most of it went to fixing the house but not after getting me some parts for a few years of audio projects 🙂.
Good luck to everyone 🙂
1. Sorted out in two piles, boxed and unboxed
2. Split unboxed in three piles "popular tubes, others and unknown"
3. Sold "unknown" as a lot and accepted whatever was offered in auction.
4. Sold "other boxed" in 4-5 lots and accepted whatever was offered in auction.
5. Bought the tubetester earlier in this thread and matched and sold all 6C8G, cheap as hell.
6. Used tubetester to see if popular tubes where good/bad.
7. Sent them off to a guy with a Roetester and sold tubes matched with results on ebay, forums and whatever, also these quite cheap.
8. Sold the tubetester.
Most of it went to fixing the house but not after getting me some parts for a few years of audio projects 🙂.
Good luck to everyone 🙂