Many years ago I bought some NOS B7971s - they came in expanded polystyrene trays moulded to half a tube lying down, 16 at a time, at about USD 10 each. Whilst they could have been pulls, there was very little ghosting so I suspect they were genuinely NOS or at least very close to being NOS. Most of my current stock was from US Mint at between USD 15 - 20 and we all know the pain that was...
It's worth remembering that these are rated for a minimum of 200,000 hours running which equates to about 8330 days or nearly 23 years of continuous use. Also, there is no real definition of nixie lifespan, i.e. what constitutes end-of-life. Weston suggested EOL when 50% of the display was obscured, but there is nothing standardised. Personally, I've never had a B7971 fail or even look that used, and there are some clocks/FLWs around here that have been running continuously for 20 years or so. Nick On Saturday, 2 September 2023 at 14:12:57 UTC+1 Robert G. Schaffrath wrote: > The B-7971 is an interesting study. It is listed at $15.85 in single > quantities, which is still worse than the $5/each I paid for NOS surplus > from Meshna in 1979. However, running that number through the inflation > calculator for January 1970 to July 2023 and I get $128.18 (which is > shocking to see how much our money has been devalued all these years). > > When B-7971's appear on eBay, they tend to sell for around $175-$200 each. > Not that big a markup over the original price when inflation is taken into > account. Of course most of the tubes being sold are used but still, > factoring in 53 years of time for something no longer made, the markup is > not that big. I am guessing that Ultronics was paying the $9.50/each > ($76.83 - 2023) price for the quantities they were working with. > > On Friday, September 1, 2023 at 3:45:14 AM UTC-4 Audrey wrote: > >> Oh. It didn't attach. >> >> On Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 10:13 PM Audrey <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> My understanding is that the prices dropped a lot as time went on, >>> here's another price catalog from 1970 that mentions most of the same tubes >>> for much cheaper, with B-5750 types just $4@1000pcs - roughly $25/pc now. >>> >>> On Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 10:02 PM LB <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Hi all, >>>> >>>> Out of curiosity, I took a look at some old Burroughs nixie tube price >>>> lists, and took the prices (1-99 pcs) to an inflation calculator >>>> (1963->2023). Here are some highlights: >>>> >>>> B-4991 (Miniature, $68.00) -> $677.10 >>>> B-7094 (Jumbo, $45.00) -> $448.08 >>>> B-4032 (Miniature, $33.00) -> $328.59 >>>> B-5971 (13 Segments, $16.75) -> $166.79 >>>> 6844-A (Standard, $11.00) -> $109.53 >>>> B-9012 (Pixie, $5.00) -> $49.79 >>>> >>>> I know that these tubes were made pretty much exclusively for >>>> military/non-consumer applications, but it's still interesting to see just >>>> how expensive nixies were in reasonable quantities. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> 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 view this discussion on the web, visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/b904ba4c-c1a0-4fdc-8e79-91019281564dn%40googlegroups.com >>>> >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/b904ba4c-c1a0-4fdc-8e79-91019281564dn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>> . >>>> >>> -- 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 view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/d6a015b1-6fcb-4697-923f-658abab91d73n%40googlegroups.com.
