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Tubes Asylum Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ |
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In Reply to: How many NOS tubes still exist? posted by brobertson on August 11, 2002 at 15:08:04:
Did you think all the existing tubes in the world are safe in the hands of the big dealers? Of course not - dealers are not museums, and have large storage costs. Figure $10,000 per annum upwards for a large stock. So what's a dealer's life like? He sells some collectible tubes to the Far East for a good profit until they run out, he has a regular demand for NOS EL34, GZ34, 6SN7 etc which he can't supply because he can't get any more. So he often buys and sells new stock - Sovtek, Svetlana etc. Low storage costs, reliable turnover of popular models. But the tubes that languish on the shelves are the Cinderellas - the ones nobody wants, and they sit there year in year out collecting dust and costing a fortune in warehouse space. Sooner or later the decision is made to downscale and vanloads go to the crusher for their metal content - which in some cases includes gold. You might think that only the receiving and transmitting tubes and the old pre-war models get crushed, but not so. Say, for the sake of argument, you have 20,000 ECC81 (12AT7) and you get asked for 12 per year. It's cheaper to offer the customer new stock than to retain and draw on a costly stockpile. So since 12 per year would only sell hundreds before the dealer retires, the whole 20,000 go into the crusher. Some dealers crush audio tubes like these simply on the computer records of quantities sold - low quantities sold, low demand = liquidate the stock. I know for a fact this happens. Now, before I'm inundated with dealers saying they keep all their stock lovingly in controlled environments - which I'm sure is the case for many - I can't give you any idea of how many dealers regularly crush tubes on a large scale - maybe one or two, maybe many, I simply don't know. And you could also speculate that tube users are contributing to the death by crushing of thousands of rarer models by stubbornly using the same old 6922s and 12ax7s as if nothing else existed - and consequently having to use new production 6922s and 12ax7s as a result, whilst rarer and in some cases better NOS tubes are being crushed. Dealers will basically supply demand, and if there's no demand what's to stop them simply crushing the rest? Loyalty to the mythology of the tube community? Desire to preserve antiques? You tell me....... So the answer to 'how many NOS tubes are still in existance' is partly 'whatever quantity remains after the rest go to the crusher, because they are too expensive to store when there isn't enough demand to cover storage costs'. Now there's a sobering thought. Andy
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Follow Ups
- Read this: dealers are crushing thousands of NOS tubes! - andy evans 04:18:19 08/13/02 (0)
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