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!

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