Why are people paying these stupid tube prices?

I guess I picked a rotten time to sell my tube amp..

The Russian tube plants and companies are American owned.

The money is not in audio anyway, It is in Radar, Microwaves, Sonar (okay that is kind of audio) Diagnostic tool both medical and electrical. Well so I have been told. 

We need American tubes. Any word on new production?

@fsonicsmith let me be clear I am only pointing out how high the prices are at Viva Tubes. 

The folks at the Tube Store are trying to be as fair as they can with pricing. 

Sorry if I confused you or anyone else, that was not my intent. 

I had a great conversation with John at Tube Store today and bought two KT150's at $139 each after my back-up stash of eight KT 150's purchased three years ago from another source turned out to contain one cracked tube (lesson learned-open the box and check your tubes even if you have no intent to use them soon-no matter how good the outer box looks). Since my ARC Ref 150 SE requires matched pairs, buying just one new KT150 was not an option. John mentioned Tube Store is getting low on KT 150's at the moment. And-the source I bought from three years ago has no Russian tubes at all which I find amazing given their otherwise huge inventory. It seems to me that distribution is uneven and depends upon connections though that is just my assumption.  

And yes OP, I had the same impression as the other guy-that you were accusing Tube Store of price gouging. 

Yes sure thing dude. 

We need American tubes. Any word on new production?

Western Electric just started thinking about making something other than 300Bs, but we're probably years away from actual production.

It's not my fault that your single sentence post did not make sense and was riddled with grammatical errors.  I mean, the second post was simply a question mark, so I'm not the only one.

Try to make more coherent posts next time.  But thanks for clarifying, I guess.

Try and keep up here @ketchup I paid $139 at The Tube Store. Viva Tubes is selling the same KT150 for $350.00 and Upscale is in the $190 range, 

I know I can talk in circles and I confuse and confound myself quite often.

$1400.00 plus for 4 KT150's is insane. 

So no I will not ask myself that man, I will find the best price and HORD like it's TP at the peak of COVID 19.

Did you pay $139 or $350 each?

And then there's your question "why are people paying these stupid prices?"  Perhaps you should ask yourself?

We need American tubes. Any word on new production? I hear it’s a business that attracts rich single women. How about smugglers with large aircraft on the site? I’m out of ideas.

There are reputable dealers that have had only modest increases

Really?  Who is selling KT120s between $50-100 each?  I would love to know.

Did someone say tubes?

All the best,
Nonoise

way too much gouging going on.   There are reputable dealers that have had only modest increases ....   thank god im fully stocked for multiple re-tubes on everything I own .  

@dekay ,

Appreciate the shout out! 😁

Q:

"Why are people paying these stupid tube prices?"

A:

Because many of us here are rich, famous and extremely sexy.

DeKay

@zavato 

Check out QSA website for their Gold fuse. But you might prefer their Silver for the modest sum of 5K.

@lpretiring 

Who's asking 10K for a fuse? I gotta see this! 

@music_is_life your post doesn't make sense.  Did you pay $139 or $350 each?

And then there's your question "why are people paying these stupid prices?"  Perhaps you should ask yourself?

$184 at Upscale, not to terrible. I think most tube users know it cost more to run tubes.

With fuses available retailing for 10K this don't seem so bad.

One is 2/3 cheaper (tube store) would not call that gouging man. The Viva guy is out of this world high, price and I think on dope too. 

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

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.

Because those are the prices, and they ain’t coming down....I can guarantee you that....they will charge what people are willing to pay.

Viva Tubes is charging close to $1500 for a quad of KT150.

?