One advantage of living in the rural Midwest (as I do) is that no one ever throws anything away. So when I came across an ad on Craiglist for "old radio and tv tubes," I figured it was worth checking out. Soon I was in contact with a gentleman named Norbert, whose brother-in-law ran a TV repair shop until he died some twenty years back. Norbert had kept the shop inventory ever since, but he was ready to clean out the basement and let it go. I said I'd come up and take a look.
Imagine my delight when I saw that Norbert had two large shop cases, which folded out to reveal a stunning array of boxed NOS tubes. As I examined the goodies, Norbert talked about the shop and his brother-in-law, who'd learned his trade in the military. Besides the tubes, the cases also contained a pile of spare parts - capacitors, wire-wound resisters, switches and pots, and dozens of tiny paper envelopes containing diodes. I spied several boxes of potted transistors as well. Norbert asked my opinion of the tubes. "They look good," I said. "Of course, I'll need to test them out to be sure."
"Hang on." Norbert disappered into a side room and came back with a small wooden suitcase, which opened to reveal a Superior Instruments TW-11 portable tube tester. "Buy the lot and I'll throw that in," he said.
We talked price for a bit, and then Norbert remembered that his brother used to hang on to the old tubes that he pulled from his repair jobs. After another trip to the basement, he returned with a file folder box literally filled with loose tubes. Without any hesitation I gave the man his money and returned home with my haul.
That was two weeks ago. I've finally finished the inventory. There's 700 NOS tubes and 650 used ones, plus all the parts and some interesting items - potted phono preamps from Astatic Corp (NOS), old phonograph needes, etc. I didn't make a killing - 95% of the tubes are for TVs and console radios - but I've got an interesting handful of goodies, like a NOS 6E5 "Magic Tuning Eye" tube (remember those?), a NOS ST 27, and some used globe 26s and ST 27s and 71s. I found a NOS 3S4 as well, which I take as a sign that I should build a Quickie. So I've definitely got a summer full of projects ahead.
