Tubes getting hard to come by?

The supply of NOS and "tests as NOS" tubes has been dwindling for the past couple of years. When the Russian tubes stopped being exported there was a run on all tubes from every dealer in the US, Canada, and abroad. Now inventory is limited and dealers that do have tubes have raised prices dramatically.

For example, I wanted to buy a spare set of NOS tubes. I inquired about a pair that I paid $300 for two years ago, one dealer was charging $650/pair and my dealer had no stock.

NOS 12AX7s have also been affected by the tube shortage. Prices for premium types have increased.

@whart

That’s true about NOS inventory. I noticed about 2 - 3 years ago my favorite dealers were slow to restock premium and popular tubes. That’s when I decided to buy backup pairs of rare and holy grail tubes. I also learned my lesson buying from Ebay, these were not NOS tubes and even with a return policy some vendors would either fight with me or ignore my messages. I finally returned to my go to dealers and waited for inventory to be replenished at a higher price.

Oh yeah, I did find one honest Ebay dealer who states that tubes are new or used and posts test results.