My most recent story like that was the NL-934 for $44.45. Bill
On Friday, June 28, 2019 at 9:04:19 AM UTC-7, Bill Notfaded wrote: > > I like this story Jonathan... really nice finding the CD27 for that > price! The others are great scores as well. > > Bill > > On Sunday, April 21, 2019 at 11:38:01 AM UTC-7, SWISSNIXIE - Jonathan F. > wrote: >> >> 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 >> > -- 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]. 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