Strange Nixie Sources?

[Jonathan F.]

Since i'm always looking for nixies for my collection, i often see websites, Nixies in Stock, but declared as "ELECTRON TUBES" along with alot of strange numbers and texts and sometimes in very large quantity like "340pcs"..
I only can locate these sites when searching for eg. "B-5991" tube...
If you request a price, you mostly don't get an answer or a text like "could you provide more info, we can't locate the part", but have it listed on their page ??!

For example:
http://www.csgparts.com/part_nsn/B5991/


Does anybody know whats going on there? Are those sites running on old databases or just listing parts to get views or something?

(Sorry for not knowing this, i'm relatively new to collecting nixies).

[Instrument Resources of America]

It's my belief that this is actually a ""parts locating service"", and that they have little if any items actually in stock. Then there are other sites that comb the internet for items that are for sale, and place those very same items on their own website for sale. I see this happen all the time, with items that are for sale on Ebay.  You can prove this to yourself quite easily. Find an item on Ebay that you have an interest in, then go and use a search engine (I do use Google),  to search the net for that same item, being sure to use some of the key words in the headline of the original Ebay ad. Lo and behold that same item will show up on several different websites for sale. If this doesn't work the first time, you may have to try a different item.        Ira.

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[Mich...@aol.com]

Exactly that.

 

Main way to tell is that you always have to RFQ and/or request details.  Most of these sites never list a price since they are more likely to get your email addy when you request a price.

 

Most are out there just to get valid email addresses.  You are then on the permanent spam lists.

 

 

Michail Wilson
206-920-6312

 

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[David Forbes]

This 'part number spam' is common for just about any electronic part number ever
published in the last 50 years. I see it when searching for vintage
semiconductors, milling machine controllers, display tubes, whatever.

I assume that there's some hidden economy of pay-per-click that causes this
corner of the Web to exist. It certainly has nothing to do with actually selling
any of the parts listed on the sites.

A similar curiosity is that just about any part number made in the last 50 years
will have some Alibaba page claiming that they have a bunch of that part
available. This is for parts that I know were never made in quantity, ever, like
the custom IGBT module from the custom Italian motor controllers put on our
telescope in 2002. Again, money is made, but not from a happy customer.

--
David Forbes, Tucson, AZ

[GastonP]

Yes! It happens often to me when I try to check the price of the LH0063 (Yes! The damn fast buffer. I happen to own some of them). From some years to now it seems to have been a resurgence of them.
I don't know how many of them were made, but as they were a hybrid, and very expensive, I assume there were not much of them made.

Gaston

On Monday, February 29, 2016 at 7:38:51 PM UTC-3, nixiebunny wrote:

A similar curiosity is that just about any part number made in the last 50 years
will have some Alibaba page claiming that they have a bunch of that part
available. This is for parts that I know were never made in quantity, ever, like
the custom IGBT module from the custom Italian motor controllers put on our
telescope in 2002. Again, money is made, but not from a happy customer.

-
David Forbes, Tucson, AZ

[A.J. Franzman]

I've run into the same problem lately while searching for some obscure LEDs. There are literally dozens of "stocking distributor" sites from all over the globe listing hundreds of thousands of part numbers allegedly for sale (via RFQ, mostly offered to businesses only), but when you contact them, there are many parts they don't have and can't get. I can't figure out what the point of doing this is -- I don't believe the pay-per-click angle, because there's little to no advertising on any of the sites, and my spam intake level hasn't increased noticeably since I've contacted several of them.

One particular LED that I'm seeking, I have five examples on hand, and I know where about three dozen of them were used (four sci-fi TV show props from circa 1990, and two very accurate replicas) and who has those items. It's taken me about a year of concerted research effort to identify the maker and part number, and I believe I'm the first person to connect that info to the props in question. Even the makers of the original props only had a "house" part number from a retail reseller to go by. For something that came from a major manufacturer and appeared in at least one of their catalogs as a regular production item, it's oddly scarce in the wild. So far I've only found one of these distributors who claim they actually have them or can get them, but they want $7.50 each for them. I'm looking for 100 pieces and don't want to spend more than about a quarter of that, so I'll probably end up replicating them.

That isn't even the worst price I've seen. There are other sellers online and on eBay asking in the 20 and 30 Euro range per piece for LEDs that are far less rare and should be 10 cents or less.

Perhaps that's the key to the part number spam... bring in lots of traffic, and overcharge by many times for the few parts they can actually provide, to pay for the overhead of handling all the requests they can't supply, plus long-term storage for some discontinued parts that they HOPE will one day be in demand by someone with deep pockets. I just don't understand how that business model can be sustainable in the long run.

[A.J. Franzman]

Interesting that in the page you linked, the item name is "electron tube", but it's given in the site's "connectors" category. In my LED search, I've come upon a similar situation of a certain error that apparently originated in an OCR mis-read of a part number, that has been copied over and over to numerous "datasheet" sites. In this particular instance, absolutely nobody has a scan of the actual data online for the part number I seek... they all just keep regurgitating the same wrong "short form" data that belongs to a different but similar part number. So not only is the part I want scarce and now practically unknown, anyone who came before me and bought up the last remaining stocks based on the available data, would have received parts that didn't match the data, unless they had a physical copy of the maker's original data book from the 1980s.

[Charles MacDonald]

On 16-03-01 08:51 PM, A.J. Franzman wrote:
> Interesting that in the page you linked, the item name is "electron
> tube", but it's given in the site's "connectors" category.

Perhaps it is an offshoot of the Military parts scan business. there is
occasionaly some military equipment that needs a part repleced, but it
is so old that the part no longer exists, but a search on the NATO or
FSN number turns up suppliers who claim to have them. the NATO numbers
look like 5970-01-0000-0000 where the first group indicates what tipe of
supply it is, and the second group indicates which NATO member assigned
the number, and the rst of the number is a particular product. (note
the numbers are assigned for any commodity that might be bought
repeatedly, one place I worked at we had a specific NATO number we had
to use to get a certain size cardboard box to use for dead file storage.


--
Charles MacDonald Stittsville Ontario
cm...@zeusprune.ca Just Beyond the Fringe
No Microsoft Products were used in sending this e-mail.

[Jonathan F.]

Yes it seems like you said. I send a bunch of requests out, mostly i get "we need more information about your company and use", so i suppose they wanna know this, to trade my adresses to companies who sell stuff, like if i reply " I have a car repair shop", they gonna send my adresses to car part suppliers.

Whats really interesting is that i send a rfq to two companies, i got reply. Whats really weird is, these are litterally at the same location. There are just two little buildings in the middle of nowhere...


I don't had much luck about getting offers, but im keep looking, maybe i will be in luck one da :)

I got a offer for a B-8091 Nixie tube from one of this comapnies. But 400$ for that tube, nope..sorry

[Charles MacDonald]

On 16-03-02 04:31 AM, Jonathan F. wrote:

> I don't had much luck about getting offers, but im keep looking, maybe i
> will be in luck one da :)
>
> I got a offer for a B-8091 Nixie tube from one of this comapnies. But
> 400$ for that tube, nope..sorry

the sites running the NATO = NSN number stuff are looking to sell parts
to someone who really needs that specific part (including perhaps the
inspection stamp) to maintain an expensive piece of kit - like an
air-plane. It they can find a part for X hundred bucks and it will pass
inspection them the unit can live another day.

[Jonathan F.]

I tried alot of these sites, most are useless. But a few seem serious. I have got a offer for a NL-7037 nixie tube, they want 210$ per tube. Compared to ebay prices for the Z568/Z5680 that is not really a bad price, and you see a 7037 on ebay, but lots of 568's.

I will ask them how many they have,maybe i can drop the price a bit :)

I still keep going, in hope that i will find some of the "real hard to get ones" like a B7094.