Used tubes , good or bad deal ??

[Tube TV]

I went to look at a box of tubes today , they are mostly TV tubes for 1960s portables and some for 50's sets also 300? untest used tubes .
I made a offer of $20.00 , which to the seller must have seemed low , I asked if they thought this was low , because I was not getting much of a response , they said $30, I said OK , and then said for $ 50 , you can have this other box , this box is also what had originally offered $30 for .
lots of them were stuff like , 33GY7 8JV8 6GH8A 6CB6 17JZ8
I have paid $30 on average for this amount of tubes normally
My question is this , how much would you offer in this situation ?
Was $30.00 to low ? or is 50 bucks to high ?
Like I said , they are used , and untested so who knows how many are good .

[tubino]

Not enough information. Were there some good ones in the crap, or was it picked over? How many? Any rectifiers?

I have boxes of tubes I would sell for $30 all day long, if I could find a buyer... I only have them because they were in deals I bought to get OTHER tubes, the good ones. Sounds like you're looking at a deal with only the dreck.

[El Predicta]

Don' give it a 2nd thought;you made an offer that was more than fair. Tubes like you named are 'gimmees'.

Larry

[bgadow]

You offered plenty. I always hate "make me an offer" because it puts you in an awkward position. I have large quantities of used tv tubes and most of them were given to me. Very little value. Spend the afternoon digging through them and if you're lucky you'll find a half-used up 12au7. Yesterday I spoke with a TV repairman who gave me several caddies full of NOS TV tubes last year. He mentioned that he sent a pile of stuff to one of the big tube dealer (Radio Daze, I think) and the money he got didn't cover the shipping.

[Tube TV]

I didn't see any good rectifiers or any other real spectacular finds in there . there is approximatly 200 to 300 tubes , mostly miniatures
I didn't have a whole lot of time to spend , but there were a maybe 12 to15 ? metal tubes , 12SK7 12SQ7 , that sort of stuff , there was the odd older tube like # 45 , 6K7 ,stuff like that . all of these were used , there was about 6 NOS miniature tubes in the boxes on the top of the box .
For the most part there were 6AL5 6CB6 6AU6 6BE6 6BA6 12AU7 6X4 6DQ6 6BQ6 6GH8 . Lots of the others were odd voltages 4 8 10 volt for series filament sets , Various vertical outputs and horizontal\damper tubes like 33GY7 horizontals and 17JZ8 verticals .
This stuff that would have been alright to have for 20 or 30 bucks , but for 50 , it's not worth that in my opinion .
Most likely if I dont buy them , they will end up in the dump .

[kx250rider]

It all depends on whether there was even one "valuable" one in there. Case in point, I sold a Telefunken 6SN7 to a dentist in Germany for $365 on eBay. And I don't even need to say what Western Electric tubes go for these days. But if it was all compactrons and miniatures as you list, then $30 was in the ballpark for 300 tubes.

Charles

[Dave S]

Tube TV,

Sad as we TV collectors might find it, TV tubes are literally "a dime a dozen" most of the time. Lots of exceptions to be sure, but at least over here in NJ, we're literally drowning in tubes.

Join a club if you have one anywhere nearby. Our club receives donations of hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of tubes every year. These tubes, cleaned and tested by volunteer tube chaplains, are available to members at bargain-basement prices. We now have several locations, including a two-car garage, literally stacked wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with tubes, including many of the "good" ones (along with mountains of 6AL5s and 3BZ6s!)

And even if you have to operate on your own, I've lost count of how many times people at yard sales and estate sales have given me boxes of tubes. Except for stuff like WD-11s, 2A3s, 50s or the popular audio tubes, even knowledgable people are usually desperate to get rid of their recently-departed dad's collection of old, dirty, smelly, useless, dangerous tubes, especially TV tubes!

Conversely, a lot of people seem to think they're going to retire on this "old" "valuable" stuff (and on a crate of NOS Audions or even 300Bs maybe they could!) I've seen people offering tube-carriers full of Compactrons for $250 on Craigslist; I have to wonder if they even got any offers? (Is anyone looking for Compactrons?)

$20 or $30 was not too high an offer if there was stuff in there you needed, but at one of our club auctions or at the fabulous Kutztown swapmeet, you can regularly see flats of miniature and Compactron tubes go for a buck!

--Dave