Ebay blues

[Bob Sova]

Hello to all,

I must totally agree that EBAY is definately a "sellers" market.  I will
share a bit of my stupidity so that others might not end up as I have.
About eight month ago I came up with this good idea.  Since I still posess
tube type equipment and my local electronic stores no longer carry tubes I
figured it might not be a bad idea to go out and stock up on this item.
Low and behold I found out about EBAY thru a friend at work. I did a search
for tubes and there they were.  I figured the American way would be buy new
in bulk.  "Tube caddy, with 200 new old stock tubes" or similar titles
caught my eye. Some were listed as new with a few used tubes etc.  Some
listed the enticing tube numbers in the descriptions: 6AU6, 12BH7, and so
on.  Well I figured these tubes must be worth a dollar or moe each, so I
placed my bids accordingly and "won" some of these miracle prizes.  After
reaching the seven hundred + dollar figure, my treasures started to arrive.
The tubes were "mostly new"  and included some of the good numbers but they
were far in between the odd ball filament voltage numbers that came with
them.  This or they ended up being in boxes marked  in pencil as "used". It
would appear that the accurate descriptions were technically correct and
perhaps daddy's old tv repair shop items were also correct, however they
failed to mention that the "good stuff"  was pulled and already sold off
individually.  There were some totally honest sales.  These were tube lots
that the average shop might have had when the owner retired and contained
the goodies.  My point is if you deal there, e-mail the seller and ask if
the item is what you are expecting to buy.  The latest one to be aware of
is the "I haven't tested it yet" line.  This means if you buy it and it
doesn't work the seller claims no liability of the item.  I'd rather hear
"I used it and it works but no warranty is implied" as the sellers
statement. "Buyer beware!"  As with hamfests, the smaller they are - the
better the bargains.  Sorry for being so long on my first message.

Bob Sova  WB3LEQ

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