Welcome to the hobby. Be warned, though, it's addictive.... I've purchased a total of sixteen IN-18 tubes over the past year from Ebay, and the pricing has gone up substantially in that time, from roughly $35US to $50US per tube. They are the most affordable 'large' nixie tubes you will find.
Make sure the seller on Ebay has solid recent feedback, and the tubes are 'New, old stock' or 'NOS'. I've read that some IN-18 tubes manufactured in 1982 are not as reliable (date code 82xx); confirm with the seller. I was fortunate to get tubes manufactured in 1991/1992, and they appear to be in excellent condition after several months of usage. Be very careful with the IN-18 pins. Most tubes have very soft pins that bend easily; no idea if they break easily, but I would assume they will. Don't be alarmed if the pins appear oxidized, and a few ohms of resistance makes no difference in operation. I wouldn't attempt to clean them, either. However, I have one oddball manufactured in 1977 that has rigid pins with a non-oxidized surface. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/d90cb5b3-728c-4d64-ac91-41753376dc5f%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
