I would be in the same situation myself. As I have noted before, back in 1979 when I was still in High School, I had built a six-digit clock based on an MM5311 clock chip (still works though many components upgraded by me over the years). The tubes and sockets came from three of the stock ticker boards that were still plentiful back then. I decided at the time that I wanted six spare tubes so that someday I could replace any tubes that stopped working (they still work). The company I bought the boards from, Meshna Electronics in Lynn, Massachusetts, also sold tubes individually. At that time, he was selling used pulls for $4/each and what were claimed to be NOS tubes for $5/each. I opted to purchase six of the NOS which came to $30 plus shipping. They came individually wrapped in bubble wrap in a small plain carton along with an original Burroughs datasheet on the tubes. I still have them in that little carton and the original datasheet (plus I had put in a seventh Burroughs branded, not Ultronics, B-7971 that I have long since forgotten where I got it from but I assume is used). Of course, if I were to sell them (not planning on it), I have no real way to prove the six are NOS. It is possible I paid $6 for used tubes but I have to assume the seller was honest in that regard. It is possible the original purchaser of these tubes was in the same boat. Acquired them from a seller claiming they were NOS back in the 70's.
Regardless, I doubt there would be much price difference these days between used and NOS. The prices are already quite high and the tubes last a long time. On Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 12:31:05 PM UTC-5 Michail Wilson wrote: Absolutely not. New were shipped in Styrofoam containers holding about 25 of them. There were stored in old boxes of six according to the pictures. These were in paper bags with handwriting on them. Also, new was never sold with sockets which you can tell also had their ends soldered. The date appears to be Jan 2nd, 2000 So, although they may have been in storage since 2000, they were not new. Michail Wilson 206-920-6312 *From:* xxx> *On Behalf Of *Robert *Sent:* Thursday, February 8, 2024 4:35 AM *To:* xxx *Subject:* Re: [neonixie-l] B-7971 on ebay for $140 Do you think they were N.O.S.? Rob -- 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/d5901e95-a9fa-4dea-b8a3-a8373346c8cfn%40googlegroups.com.
