Why are people paying these stupid tube prices?

Have you been following the latest news in tube world? Many dealers legitimately have supply chain issues which has caused price increases, others have used this situation to price gouge. There has been availability issues for NOS tubes for a couple of years leading to price increases, but the interruption of Russian tube exports has wreaked havoc among music production and home audio.

The two dealers mentioned above are included in what I would call price gouging.

The Shunguang plant in China is not up and running yet. As a state-owned enterprise the government seized the property after a fire at the facility. I don't know at what stage the new factory is in, but we won't see their tubes soon.

And with New Sensor, the Russian government stopped tubes from being exported, causing a supply chain interruption. Now that the factory is running at full capacity, their brands are available again. But the scuttlebutt is the US and Canada have added a 35% tariff to Russian imports.

In the US, WE has produced some tubes other than 300b's and are beta-testing them in a select group of audiophile's systems. There are very good reviews of their 6SN7. 

We should have some empathy for poor musicians. They have their Marshall stacks getting bounced around in a van every night.