IN-14's have been on the rise for as long as I've been doing this hobby.
10 years ago, when I built my first nixie clock, the IN-14 was one of
the cheapest tubes: $1/each or maybe $1.50/each. They were also
considered on the small/medium size at a digit height of 18mm. Nowadays,
I see them advertised as "giant" or "huge".. It's a fact, nobody is
making nixies anymore and the larger nixies have become serious
unobtainium. I've actually been pretty impressed that the IN-18's have
maintained their price stability for so long. Price fixing? maybe.. but
at this point, I'm just glad they're not selling for $70/each. The IN-18
has changed the _least_ in price during my watch.
The IN-8-2 used to be the favorite for kit sellers and builders. The
combination of flying leads and a "real" 5 along with an 18mm digit
height made it a winner. It rapidly disappeared. IN-14 prices always
stayed low because nobody liked the "upside down 2" business. I always
liked the IN-14 better than the IN-8-2, though. Regardless, I built a
lot of IN-8-2 clocks for friends & family. About 2 years ago, I found a
small supply of IN-8-2's selling for $6/each and urged those people to
buy spares.
IN-14 will be the same story. My first nixie clock was built as an
anniversary present to my wife. About 3 years ago, she had me do the
math and buy up all of the spares that I would be needing for her IN-14
clock for the useful lifetime of the wife.
Around that same timeframe, I stopped building IN-14 clocks and switched
to IN-12 clocks. The IN-12 is still the best bargain in nixies in my
opinion. The combination of cheap 18mm nixie tube and easily obtainable
socket is a win for me.
The IN-8 tubes seem to have stabilized in price, driven largely by the
unavailability of the sockets needed for them. I have far more IN-8
tubes on the shelf than sockets. :(
Even the IN-16 has really come up in price. I think that this points to
the fact that any side-view nixie with flying leads is going to escalate
in price, due to the kit builders.
VFD's are still cheap, though. I really like the look of some of the
VFD's, the IV-11 is a nice fat looking vacuum tube.. and there are still
even 16-segment VFD's available for less than $200/each. :)
-Adam AJ9D
On 11/17/2011 3:19 AM, GastonP wrote:
I'm way out of the market for B7971, much as I would like to... I
wouldn't pay 6 dead presidents for an IN14, new or used either.
IN14 are in the favor of many of the kit sellers (and builders) so
that makes for the sellers expectation for a higher price. Perhaps the
stashes are drying, but I think simple speculation is the answer.
On Nov 17, 2:15 am, Nicholas Stock<[email protected]> wrote:
You can say that again...now they're selling *used* IN14's for about 5-6
bucks each! It seems to be the same for all the more common tubes, IN-8,
IN-8-2, IN-16 (if you can find any reasonable quantity) and
others....IN-18's appear to have stabilized around the 35-40 bucks per tube
range....still outrageous in my opinion, but hey, people are buying them so
the market is there.....
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