I appreciate all of the folks that have shared their designs and expertise on tubes, designs, cases and everything that makes this a fun hobby. I second Nick’s words about all of the great people that participate in the forum and I have benefitted greatly from meeting some really bright and friendly people around the world.
The current shipping/import environment has probably dried up a vast majority of the international/US transactions. I don’t expect it to last forever but for the time being, there are items on ebay that would have normally been snapped up right away which will gather dust. In addition to paying tariff fees on delivery, some of the carriers are charging $30-40 for import agent fees. In my business, we ship envelopes with parts to Canada that used to be routine, inexpensive and easy. Now, FedEx will no longer ship to Canada or Mexico unless we get license from those countries, so we can’t use FedEx for anything outside of the US. We have switched to UPS, who will act as the customs agent and handle the collections but their agent fees add a bit to the cost. Anyhow, many of us are frustrated with the unnecessary foolishness. The postal service reports that shipping into and out of the US has dropped by 80% since de-minimus rules were suspended. The only people that are benefitting are big business and the hobbyists are a casualty of the current policies. Happy New Year! Jeff From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Nicholas Stock Sent: Monday, December 29, 2025 3:47 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [neonixie-l] Re: B7971 single tube clock with no tube Rant away Richard! :) I know one person who has made a decent living out of this hobby and that's it really. Personally, I do it because I love old display technologies, especially nixies and dekatrons, making unique functional things (if it can't be made into a clock I am not interested... LOL) and what I sell/trade keeps my hobby semi paid for. The clocks generally put a smile on someone's face and I've met a lot of really nice people in the process from all over the world. Anyone who has spent time putting kits together, writing documentation, let alone actually designing something from scratch knows that it is mainly a labo(u)r of love and not a real money making enterprise. Pricing things is tricky as you don't want to make things too expensive, but need to balance costs, time and expertise. I still don't know how some of the kits etc out of China are as cheap as they are... probably just the economics of scale at work. I recently had some PCBs made of a now unobtainable Kabtronics kit (the large Nixie transistor clock that some folks here may be familiar with) with the designers permission (I got a request from a customer who really wanted to build one..). They were US made as that's where the designer had them made for me (I do not have the gerbers). Close to $90 a piece!! Having them made at PCBWay or another fab house in China would have been 1/3 that cost. So, whilst I get the 'bring manufacturing home' sentiments, in a global economy, I don't think it's that realistic, especially in the most capitalistic economy on the planet. Happy New Year to all. Cheers, Nick On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 7:16 AM Nick Andrews <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: The $115 seems fine, it's the absurdity of the $100 shipping that is unacceptable, methinks. On Mon, Dec 29, 2025 at 12:21 AM Richard Scales <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I have a design for a similar thing though it uses WiFi for NTP and is based on the 'B-7971 Smart Socket' concept - as for price - I think mine is similar (though without case) - but I am just a hobbyist who likes to make my projects available to anyone interested. The economics of R&D, procurement and production of a kit, software development and support would mean that selling it for any less would be soul destroying. I would be interested in hearing opinions from anyone else on this group who make their projects available to others for construction as to how they might arrive at a price of a kit that reflects not just the component cost but all the time that goes in to designing and refining something like this. If you spend 30 hours doing something - are you then happy to sell and support it for little more than the cost of the components alone? Perhaps if the price is considered 'insane' then one could sit down with a pencil and paper - rough out a design, prototype it, test it, design the PCBs, have them made, refine them and re-fab them then sit down and produce the code that actually runs the thing et voila - all that money saved and all you have invested just the cost of the components and the PCBs and a little time. I know a few people who actually do this for a living and it's very tough for them. It's easy to look on ebay where you will almost certainly find all sorts of kits of very few $$$ - and if you are happy with the specification and the price and are not up to doing it all yourself then, why not just buy it and be happy with it. I appreciate that in this case the price has been sited as 'insane' but then the vendor has only made a few and perhaps they are just like me - just a hobbyist - it's sometimes too easy to assume that just because it's coming from China - it should cost something more like $30 - impossible to say. This is absolutely NOT a rant in any way and I most sincerely do not wish to start some massive thread full of complaints about how expensive something is or how cheap it should be - if you like it and are not interested or capable in designing and making one yourself - then why not go for it. The price on the listing is $115 + shipping - perhaps there is duty to be added - or perhaps I missed something (apologies if I did). Personally, if I was not capable of making my own then $115 seems super cheap to me when compared to the time and effort it would take me to learn electronics design, PCB and software development skills. Again, this is NOT a rant! - Richard On Sunday, 28 December 2025 at 12:36:19 UTC Robert G. Schaffrath wrote: Price is insane. With postage it works out to approximately USD$200. If it was $30 I would get one as I have spare B7971's packed away but sans a tube it isn't worth it. If one had to buy a tube, and could find one, you would be looking at double the price IMHO. On Saturday, December 27, 2025 at 3:08:09 PM UTC-5 Tom Katt wrote: I've seen similar single tube clocks before, but not that specific version. Seems a little pricey for a kit requiring you to supply the tube? Granted it's got some acrylic for a case, but I just bought a 6 digit board (also sans tubes) for $38 - see my recent post (of course I found the same thing for $10 less after I purchased lol). Must be because the B7971's are unique... IN18 single tube clock kits go for under $25 <https://www.ebay.com/itm/375930283086?chn=ps&google_free_listing_action=view_item> . -- 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] <mailto:[email protected]> . To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/056db7d7-934d-4716-9c18-7e0330ac66b2n%40googlegroups.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/056db7d7-934d-4716-9c18-7e0330ac66b2n%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] <mailto:[email protected]> . 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