About high prices.. best things come cheap

[SWISSNIXIE - Jonathan F.]

There are a few posts about high prices of tubes, and i feel like quite alot of people are sad and worried about this. I want to share a little story of mine about tubes.

Since a few of you know, i'm more a collector than a builder. I want to collect single tubes and expand my diverse collection of nixies. In the roughly four years i'm collecting this tubes i came across dozens of auctions with ridicolous high prices. When the few months were over where i was busy getting most of the common tubes (IN-XX, ZM10XX) i searched for less known (or more rare) tubes. After seeing the first auctions of rare tubes going for crazy prices, i was quite sad and felt like "man, you never will get any rare tubes". Still i was curious about nixie tubes an focussed more about actually building a clock and learn more about these fantastic wonders of technology. Auctions came less interesting and i only checked my ebay-tool once a day. After some months i was taught that actually waiting and being patient does the job. In two years i aquiered quite a few rare and extremely rare tubes, which actually were extremely cheap, compared to other acutions.

One of the biggest "secrets" is actually to ask sellers if the have more, and provide a few info about what you do with them.

Here are my "Top 4":

4.)  ZM562M2 and M3

These are german elevator nixies, one has arrows, one has letters. I aquired them from a german ebayer, i actually purchased a set of B5092 from him, and asked if he has other nixies. He respondes with a few single quanities and "two weird ones, that no one could use". After asking for a image, they turned out as these rather rare tubes. Got them both for 10€

3.) ZM1220

This very rare and rather big tube made it to me by luck. I was bidding on a carton box of different tubes, containig a few nixies. On the very bad pictures i thought its gonna be a Z566M, but when the package arrived, i was amazed about this wonderful tube. I payed only 45€ for the whole box, which containd a few other common tubes.

2.) CD-27

I purchased some rodan character tubes from a german ebayer. After asking about more, and getting "yes some very ugly big ones" i requested images about them :). It turned out to be CD27 with black spots. He asked 75€ for them. I purchased them. When they arrived, alot of the black spots was only dirt and could be cleaned. Leaving me with on perfect and two slightly burned out ones. Out of respect i contacted the seller and offered him another 50€. Making 125€ for all of them, which is still a very cheap price for this tubes. One slightly burnded out one made a very nice trade with another collector

1.) GI-11B

This is for sure the most amazing tube ever. After buying a few old burroughs tubes, including the HB-106, the seller told me about a few more he has, but don't want so sell them since they are single pieces, old, and he doesn't think someone needs them. As i'm very curious for new types, i asked him what markings they had. Most were comon, but GI-11B came up. I replied that it must be GI-10 or so. No it wasn't, he told me about that its saying clearly "GI-11B Engineering Sample"... That rang bells. I asked if i can see an image. He told me about this former job at a electronics repair shop, that closed over 60years of operation, and left alot of stuff behind. After i told him about my hobby he was really enyoed that young people (like me) are still interested in such old stuff. End of the story was, that the offered me the tube for 10$ because of its oddity. I declinded the offer, paying only 10$ for such a tube would been ripping of, its likely he did not realize what value this tube has (materialistic and historical). I made him a better deal.
This is my personal favourite tube - for one because of it rarity and specialit - for another because of the story

What i wanted to tell you with this, is that you not should feel bad or sad about tubes that are at a high price currently. If you have time and just keeping an eye on offers, one day you will find a very good deal for sure.One big "issue" about the high prices might be social media. I have a personal instagram account (not related to nixies) and i spot nixie tubes quite often in the discover feed on technical pages. This for sure draws the attention of more people to nixies who have not known them yet. This is bad and good in one way, sure its nice when there are more people interested in nixie tubes, but mostly those new people are the ones that just "like to have a vintage clock" instead of knowing the details. Thats quite the same thing with people who want to build IoT devices and know jack about resistors and basic parts.

Maybe one day this "hype" about some tubes will fade, and they will come back to a normal level. Just be pacient and keep your eyes open for good deals!

Cheers,

Jonathan

[Terry Kennedy]

On Sunday, April 21, 2019 at 2:38:01 PM UTC-4, SWISSNIXIE - Jonathan F. wrote:

What i wanted to tell you with this, is that you not should feel bad or sad about tubes that are at a high price currently. If you have time and just keeping an eye on offers, one day you will find a very good deal for sure.

This is very true, and not just tubes. I work on large (REALLY large) printers and had been looking for a second Epson SureColor P1000 (US $6495 "street" price") to accompany my first unit. There has been one on eBay for $5000 forever, sold as "new", but actually opened a few years ago, so no warranty. Most people won't buy one without a warranty due to the incredible price of replacement parts (a replacement printhead is $2500 + labor). I found a listing on eBay for under $1000 and contacted the seller to request a copy of the status (usage) and nozzle check pages. He said it was in a warehouse 250 miles away and didn't want to deal with it. I said "contact me again when you'll take $500" and didn't hear back. He listed it for $599, dropped to $399, and I placed a snipe for $500. I won it for $414: https://www.ebay.com/itm/153394241401

At that price it was worth it just for the ink in it (10 cartridges, $200-ish each if full). It turns out it had mostly-full cartridges and actually worked once I dragged it home (which involved taking it apart and loading it into a rental truck with a forklift - definitely not an approved method.

One big "issue" about the high prices might be social media. I have a personal instagram account (not related to nixies) and i spot nixie tubes quite often in the discover feed on technical pages.  [...] 

Maybe one day this "hype" about some tubes will fade, and they will come back to a normal level. Just be pacient and keep your eyes open for good deals!

This is so true. Look at what happened to the price of IV-17 tubes when the IV-17 smartsockets were announced - I considered myself lucky at the time that I had around 1000 of them for an average of $1.50 each. They ran up to an insane $25 or so each until the furor died down. Now you can get them for $2.50 each. I'd "announce" a new product just to run the price up and then sell, except I'd be taking advantage of fellow hobbyists.

The B7971 was the same when the MOD-SIX came out. Prices initially stabilized in the $75 to $100 range, but that emptied out the readily available stock. Now that you can't get the MOD-SIX any more and the tubes are scarce, they're going for huge premiums. It may die down, it may not as there are now builders selling other clocks that use those tubes.

I remember when it was possible to purchase a NOS box of 25 date-matched IN-18 for $10 to $15 a tube and thought that was high - now it looks like $60 is the "new normal". Yikes!

[Paul Andrews]

Mixed boxes are always the best. I have quite a few tubes that I have not seen anywhere else through buying mixed lots. It helps that I don't care much about used v. NOS. NOS/NIB is always special, but if you want rare tubes, you have to accept that most are used.

[alex nolan]

Where do you usually find mixed boxes sales? Trying to get into the hobby more seriously myself :)

- Alex

[Paul Andrews]

I haven't found anywhere better than the regular auction sites like ebay.

[Bill Notfaded]

I like this story Jonathan... really nice finding the CD27 for that price!  The others are great scores as well.

Bill

[Bill Notfaded]

My most recent story like that was the NL-934 for $44.45.

Bill

[alex nolan]

Wow Bill, how long ago was that?

[Bill Notfaded]

Last month Alex!  https://www.ebay.com/itm/NL-934-NIXIE-TUBE-NATIONAL-NEW-OLD-STOCK/153512436806?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I like these tubes but look at this price:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/223572928485

I just can't imagine anyone buying this.  It's neat but not cheap new car neat.

Bill

[HuggerMugger]

Is that a nixie tube? I have a project based on a plasma tube that looks a bit the same: http://m.bareille.free.fr/vu-in13/vumeter_in13.htm

Haven’t tested it yet and have no good place to put it.

 

/Magnus

From: Bill Notfaded

Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2019 2:27 PM

To: neonixie-l

Subject: [neonixie-l] Re: About high prices.. best things come cheap

 

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[Bill Notfaded]

These are them... the ZM1350:  http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/dat_arch/ZM1350_02.pdf

They work in very similar way to the B-7971 series 15 segment tubes but they're flat and contain the gas inside a thin flat layer.  The lines in the segments are similar in appearance to the IN-13 and IN-9 lines.

Bill

[jb-electronics]

I am sure the seller (who basically lost $200) feels the same way. There are always two sides of a coin, people.

Some years ago I saw an auction for two B-7094 Burroughs Nixie tubes (2" front view tubes), and I asked the seller if he was willing to let them go for $100. He added a "buy it now" option, but unfortunately somebody bid $10 on the tubes before I could buythem for $100, so the "buy it now" disappeared.

Long story short, in the end I bought them in the auction for around $500. The seller, as it turns out, had recently lost his job and desperately needed to sell his Nixie tubes to get by. This is quite tragic, and it has showed me that looking for a great deal (a.k.a. buying Nixie tubes from someone who doesn't know what they are worth) is not always great. Just my take on this.

Cheers

Jens

[Bill Notfaded]

The seller I bought from was happy to sell me the tube for the price I paid but he isn't a nixie guy really either.  He also wanted to sell me some laser tubes.

Bill