Has anybody seen the 12AX7 buying frenzy from this seller: payson_salvage . Here is an example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/160787075883?ss ... fresh=true . He is selling 35 lots most 10, 15, or 20 tubes. About 32 of the lots end within a half hour of each other.

I E-mailed him and he stopped two of the lots and made them end later. He bought a Wurlitzer dealer that was going out of business (he said).

I needed one 12AX7, so I paid $15 for two with free shipping. Now I found 3 in an old TEK scope I had.

Bill

Edit: I think I was mistaken about the two lots that were removed and dated later. I couldn't find them. In the first batch he sold 639 tubes for $6542.36. One batch of 10 sold for $452.. Thats $45.20 per tube. Now he has listed about 45 more lots.

And crazy prices too!
Makes me want to dog though the NOS ones I have, Sell them and use used ones instead.
Wow what prices he is getting!
Peter

Might be time to unload mine....

It is dumb... why pay an avg of $32 each for used 12AX7??
These are not even NOS

Used ones (testing good) like that elsewhere online sell for $6 ea

As his listing says, they're "BLACK PLATE"!!

No audiophool would settle for any other color.

Bob

I sold too many of mine in the past. Telefunkens, Mullards etc. I wish I had stashed some more. I dug a bunch of RCA's out of my loose tube boxes but most of them were duds with one section bad. I did give my nephew an old Fender amp and installed a Tele. in the preamp stage for him. Maybe I should stock up on cheap 6/12AV6 tubes, as they are supposed to be equivalent to half an AX7. Need twice the sockets and parts but the cost savings, nowadays. Any other drop-in substitute is lower gain, as far as I know.

You don't understand. These are the ones that give you "smooth mids and lush top end" http://www.tubedepot.com/nos-12ax7-janray.html . If you think $40/tube is bad look at that link! I need to go rummage through my 12AX7s.

Curtis Eickerman

Do you think there are actually folks that spend $199 per 12AX7 ?

Hey, you are talking about people who consider that there are magical tubes that provide "smooth mids and lush top end". What do you think?

Now there are in fact special versions of the 12AX7 lineage that were "low noise" and measurably different from a standard 12AX7, but I still wouldn't pay $199 for one. There were even versions that were more physically stable and less microphonic. But unless you insist on "thumping" tubes, use them mobile, or sit them next to a high powered speaker array I wouldn't pay extra for them either.

Curtis Eickerman