The Growing Challenge of Buying NOS/NIB Tubes

I have met this type of response before from a a few Valve Sellers.

Some individuals try to bully the sale through, and resent a reasonable inquiry being made.

My own line of inquiry can really inflame these types of individuals unsavoury side.  

Buying Valves is a Caveat Emptor undertaking and the devil is in the details.

I Buy Matched Pairs usually, but don't buy Valves now, unless the Vendor agrees to the request being made by myself to have the Valves measured on a Third Parties Test Equipment.

If the measurements are a close match to the advertised ones, the sale is completed as the Valves will be retained by myself.

If the measurements are quite different, then the Valves are returned and a refund is to be given.   

As said I have encountered varying types of personalities, most importantly, I have had great success from very helpful vendors.

The less helpful and those that are quite Obnoxious can retain their Wares in thier keep.  

I have bought tubes from The Tube Museum in the past.  The guy who operates as The Tube Museum has advertised many very nice tubes and the ones I bought were as advertised.  I was happy with my purchase. 

However, if there is any doubt in your mind about the tubes you are buying from TTM, pass and find them elsewhere.  The guy seems to want to drive customers away.  As you learned, if you have any problems with the tubes or ask the wrong question, he becomes very defensive and starts insulting you and questioning your integrity.  I guess he must have good tubes because it's not his personality keeping him in business.

I suspect that TTM had a very good supply at one time, but as its inventory of good NOS/NIB tubes has been depleted over the years all it can do is draw the prospective customer in with images of past stock and then pivot a potential sale to a different tube by pitching equivalency. 

The bigger concern is, as pindac pointed out: The Tube Museum trying to bully through the sale.  So much of the fun of this hobby is building relationship with others who have the passion and have a wealth of knowledge that they are willing to share.  If the is no evidence of that from the outset, then I simply walk away, which I did in this case.

I agree that new tubes from the big producers are good.  I'm going to try the new 12AU7 Telefunkens and compare them to my NOS Tele ECC802Ss.  I recently compared the Psvane ACME 274b to the Richard Kron 5U4G.  Both were excellent, though I preferred the KR 5U4G.  Better holographics and overall frequency control.  I have the Psvane 12AU7s and they are very good.

Cheers,

Mark is double talking nowhere on line is that a = tube.

It seems that some of you know or know about Mark at TTM. Has anybody here made a satisfactory purchase? I wasn't aware of this dealer but he has a good website, good info, and lists some stellar tubes. The holy grail tubes are indeed very expensive, but when I searched for more  common tubes the prices seemed fine.