Does anyone know what happened to ESRC’s inventory? I paid the owner right before he passed away for some tubes flying in from overseas. Not upset but would like those tubes even though I’ll have to pay again.
You might check with Jim Cross - vacuumtubesinc.com. He's a tube dealer in FL, might know something about the situation.
I knew Stan and Irving, Stan's father who started the business as "Electron Supply Replacement Corporation" in Boynton Beach Florida many years ago. Stan moved it all to Orlando when Irving could no longer run it. I visited Stan in January of 2000 and purchased several hundred tubes. Since My trip to Orlando involved taking a Girl Scout troop to Disney World during the crazy week between Christmas and New Year's Day, my van was already stuffed to well beyond its maximum capacity, so Stan was to ship some of the tubes to me at a later date. They never arrived, and the phone at ESRC as well as Stan's cell phone went unanswered.
Stan appeared to be his normal self during that visit, but he would pass away about 3 months later. Stephanie was not there on that visit, or the visit about a year earlier. She was the one who kept the tubes organized and tracked all the orders. She was not in good health and required a motorized scooter to get around at hamfests. There was a warehouse worker named Angelo who was not present on my last visit, but Stan said that he had the week off, so I climbed up the shelving to fetch some 26HU5's after Stan figured out where they were. He had about 300 of them and "nobody was buying." I got a small box full.
The only thing I can find on the web is that the death was "unexpected and not Covid related." Due to Covid and lack of budget, I have not been to Florida since then. There has been little info to be found on the internet as to where all the tubes went. I saw a post on an antique radio forum that stated that the estate would be the subject of a "complicated probate." A later post on a different radio forum stated that the warehouse "looked empty." I planned to drive by there when I returned to Florida, but I haven't been back, and may not go this year either. Stan also had a warehouse full of tubes out west somewhere near Las Vegas and another "offshore." I had real time access to his Orlando inventory list. The list stopped changing in early 2000, but it is still visible to me.
If the tubes are indeed gone, where are they? I don't know, but I have noticed that a surplus dealer in Nebraska suddenly lists a lot of tubes for sale. This may or may not be a coincidence, I have no real info:
https://www.surplussales.com/index/Tubes-Accessories-Index.html
Stan appeared to be his normal self during that visit, but he would pass away about 3 months later. Stephanie was not there on that visit, or the visit about a year earlier. She was the one who kept the tubes organized and tracked all the orders. She was not in good health and required a motorized scooter to get around at hamfests. There was a warehouse worker named Angelo who was not present on my last visit, but Stan said that he had the week off, so I climbed up the shelving to fetch some 26HU5's after Stan figured out where they were. He had about 300 of them and "nobody was buying." I got a small box full.
The only thing I can find on the web is that the death was "unexpected and not Covid related." Due to Covid and lack of budget, I have not been to Florida since then. There has been little info to be found on the internet as to where all the tubes went. I saw a post on an antique radio forum that stated that the estate would be the subject of a "complicated probate." A later post on a different radio forum stated that the warehouse "looked empty." I planned to drive by there when I returned to Florida, but I haven't been back, and may not go this year either. Stan also had a warehouse full of tubes out west somewhere near Las Vegas and another "offshore." I had real time access to his Orlando inventory list. The list stopped changing in early 2000, but it is still visible to me.
If the tubes are indeed gone, where are they? I don't know, but I have noticed that a surplus dealer in Nebraska suddenly lists a lot of tubes for sale. This may or may not be a coincidence, I have no real info:
https://www.surplussales.com/index/Tubes-Accessories-Index.html
I'm about a 25 minute drive from Radio Electric Supply aka vacuumtubes.net , which is probably the largest tube dealer in the world. Last time I was up there, Dale and his brother Roy, who own and run the place, mentioned that they had bought a bunch of tubes (several tractor trailer loads) from a dealer who went out of business and that they had to get another warehouse to store them. I asked him if it was ESRC, whose owner died a couple of years ago. It was not, it was some other place up north.
So I asked if he knew anything about what happened with the ESRC inventory. I figured they might buy it since ESRC was in Orlando, which is only about 100 miles or so south of here.
I was told that Stan, who owned ESRC, didn't own the warehouse he was in and when he died he owed a lot of back rent. I'd been down there a few times before and it was a pretty big warehouse, about the same size as RES. The landlord refused to allow the family to remove any of the tubes until the rent was paid in full and, apparently, the family didn't have the money or maybe they just weren't interested in the tube business anymore. Obviously, I have no idea how much they owed.
Dale told me that when the family couldn't come up with the money, the landlord "sold the entire contents for scrap" so he could rent the warehouse to someone else.
I have no idea who the buyer might have been or what, exactly, they did with them.
I don't think that the other, somewhat large, dealer in Orlando (Jim Cross at vacuumtubesinc.com) bought them. If he had I would think that he would be publicizing it and Dale certainly would have known about it.
Dale commented that he thought much of the ESRC stock, as a whole, was not particularly desirable or valuable. Lots of pulls and tube types that would have very little demand, which is why they didn't make a serious effort to acquire the inventory. Still, it was distressing to hear this.
Dale and Roy are both in their '70s but they're still going strong. They said they were slowly going through the inventory they had recently purchased to figure out exactly what they got. I say "recently" but this was probably almost a year ago.
I used to drive down to Orlando on occasion and I've visited and bought tubes from both Stan at ESRC and Jim at vacuumtubesinc.com when I was down there but it's been quite a few years.
So I asked if he knew anything about what happened with the ESRC inventory. I figured they might buy it since ESRC was in Orlando, which is only about 100 miles or so south of here.
I was told that Stan, who owned ESRC, didn't own the warehouse he was in and when he died he owed a lot of back rent. I'd been down there a few times before and it was a pretty big warehouse, about the same size as RES. The landlord refused to allow the family to remove any of the tubes until the rent was paid in full and, apparently, the family didn't have the money or maybe they just weren't interested in the tube business anymore. Obviously, I have no idea how much they owed.
Dale told me that when the family couldn't come up with the money, the landlord "sold the entire contents for scrap" so he could rent the warehouse to someone else.
I have no idea who the buyer might have been or what, exactly, they did with them.
I don't think that the other, somewhat large, dealer in Orlando (Jim Cross at vacuumtubesinc.com) bought them. If he had I would think that he would be publicizing it and Dale certainly would have known about it.
Dale commented that he thought much of the ESRC stock, as a whole, was not particularly desirable or valuable. Lots of pulls and tube types that would have very little demand, which is why they didn't make a serious effort to acquire the inventory. Still, it was distressing to hear this.
Dale and Roy are both in their '70s but they're still going strong. They said they were slowly going through the inventory they had recently purchased to figure out exactly what they got. I say "recently" but this was probably almost a year ago.
I used to drive down to Orlando on occasion and I've visited and bought tubes from both Stan at ESRC and Jim at vacuumtubesinc.com when I was down there but it's been quite a few years.
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Why do all the (US based) NOS vacuum tube vendors all seem to be in Florida these days?
Don‘t they know the humidity turns the 70 year old cardboard boxes to mush and puts a thick oxide coating on the pins?🥵
Dale and Roy’s place is literally in the middle of nowhere (for now, we’ll see when Gainesville moves in around them). Must be the low taxes - again, for now.
George (Tubelab), how did you ever make the transition from a place that WET to a place that DRY?
Don‘t they know the humidity turns the 70 year old cardboard boxes to mush and puts a thick oxide coating on the pins?🥵
Dale and Roy’s place is literally in the middle of nowhere (for now, we’ll see when Gainesville moves in around them). Must be the low taxes - again, for now.
George (Tubelab), how did you ever make the transition from a place that WET to a place that DRY?
Oh man, don't tell me ESRC stock went into a landfill!
I checked some familiar tubes at that Nebraska place, and the prices do seem reminiscent of ESRC, so maybe that is where all the stock went.
Would have preferred someplace like Electronic Goldmine where they would have priced the stuff to move, instead of running up warehouse rent..
With OT and power xfmr prices nearly doubled from 15 years ago, even cheap tubes probably couldn't save the hobby now,
I checked some familiar tubes at that Nebraska place, and the prices do seem reminiscent of ESRC, so maybe that is where all the stock went.
Would have preferred someplace like Electronic Goldmine where they would have priced the stuff to move, instead of running up warehouse rent..
With OT and power xfmr prices nearly doubled from 15 years ago, even cheap tubes probably couldn't save the hobby now,
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The big tube dealers in Florida, the two current ones and the late ESRC, have been here for decades. I don't think any of them moved an established tube operation to Florida from another state. If a dealer in another state decided to move to Florida the tax situation might be a factor since Florida has no state income tax.
Radio Electric Supply is located in LaCrosse, which is a tiny town that's quite a bit north of Gainesville, almost to the county line. On the drive between Gainesville and LaCrosse you'll see more cows and fields than houses. Taxes might be a bit lower in LaCrosse but it's in the same county, so probably not a huge difference. Gainesville has certainly been growing but most all of the growth has been to the west of town. Of course, who knows what the area will look like in 50 or 100 years.
I went up to Radio Electric Supply yesterday to pick up a few tubes and I asked again if they knew any more about the fate of the ESRC inventory. Dale thinks it probably did go to the landfill.
These guys seem to have a pretty good handle on what's going on with other tube dealers. They sometimes sell to each other, just like the tube manufacturers did back in the day. They would probably have heard about it if ESRCs tubes were sold to another dealer. Perhaps Jim Cross has some additional info since he's also in Orlando.
I've never looked closely at Surplus Sales of Nebraska's tubes but, when I've looked at other stuff on their website over the years, it all seemed to be priced very high. Not prices I associate with the term "surplus".
The dealer RES bought out, a year or so ago, was one in NJ who passed away and they bought several tractor trailer loads from the estate. They're still sorting through it, but it's a slow process.
When I go up there they're often scrambling to fill large orders, typically from China. The order they were working on when I visited yesterday was for something like 470,000 tubes! Not sure what types, mostly obscure numbers, I assume. And who knows what the Chinese buyer is going to use them for. Not necessarily anything audio related.
Just like yourself, others are also finding uses for somewhat obscure tube types. But, again, maybe not audio related. They told me they recently filled another order for 15,000 tubes of some type that was so obscure that they had only sold 6 of them in the previous 10 years.
The No state income tax might be a factor in setting up an operation like that in the first place - start in a place like Lacrosse where overhead is vanishingly small, then build it over decades. Cant do that starting out in New York - either you have reserves initially, or profits start snowballing the first year, or you’re out.
There was nothing but cows and fields between Dallas/Richardson/Plano and my house 20 years ago too. Now it’s completely covered by houses, houses, Houses, HOUSES, and I’d I mention more houses. Every square inch of the Ag land going north of here is getting bought up too. I saw mostly fields and cows up north of Gainesville last time I was up there too - but new developments going in, too. Not all the way to Lacrosse yet, but give it 20 years.
Anxiously awaiting when we can go to A from B…..
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Several years ago I asked if I could pick up an order of several hundred tubes on an upcoming trip to Florida that put me on highway 301 about 10 miles from their place. I was told that they would rather ship the tubes. I do need some tubes from their "quantity specials" list and maybe a few others if they can meet Stan's price, If not that project will be abandoned.
I believe that Irving, Stan's father brought the beginnings of ESRC to Boynton beach from another state, possibly New York, but I can't remember for sure
I was born in Doctor's Hospital which is a few hundred feet from the entrance of the University of Miami. My birth certificate says "rural" for the city's name since we lived a few miles west of Coral Gables in unincorporated Dade County. "Civilization" came quickly and every inch of habitable land from the ocean to the swamp in south Dade was developed, so I moved north in 1973, when I started at Motorola in western Broward County. The plant was surrounded on three sides by cows. Not anymore! South Florida is entirely built out from the keys to the northern end of Palm Beach County. As of the 2010 Census over 7 million people live there and that's just the ones that are counted. When My career ended, I moved 1200 miles further north. The county I now live in is about half the size of Broward, but contains about 20K people, about that many cows, and far more chickens.
I placed an order with RES - as vacuumtubes.net - about a month ago and didn't get a response for about a week so emailed again as Dale had been relatively fast to respond on previous orders. He did respond then, and apologized saying they been scrambling to complete a big order.
I hope they stay in business a few more years.
WBOSND (SND Tube Sales) has mostly withdrawn from the tube business, according to a recent post to the Collins reflector.
"I have good news and bad news. I sold most of my tube business. But I kept a good supply of ham related tubes, so I will remain in business selling mostly radio related tubes."
Mike's tubes had to go somewhere - maybe Surplus Sales of Nebraska.
Win W5JAG