I had a fun time driving around So Cal this morning checking out tubes.
I first went to check out a 12" tube in Norco, in a gutted Philco, the owner agreed to sell me the tube for a reasonable price if it was good.
I get there and notice right off the base cap is missing, the 5 wires are intact however so I stuffed them into the socket of my tester and got the heater to light, the emissions were at the bottom of the red zone, 8 volts helped somewhat but it was basically toast.
On to the next tube, the one in El Monte.
unfortunately this tube was worse than the first one, it didn't move the needle at all at 6.3 volts.
It wasn't a completely wasted trip though, the seller was a really nice guy and as I was leaving he asked if I wanted to take the chassis and tubes anyway, for free!
I said sure, only I gave him $20 for it, there's at least that much worth of tubes and parts so I was happy with the deal and so was he.