@rzado
Those prices are ludicrous. And I buy/sell that stuff everyday. And I feel horrible for charging HALF what those guys charge for that stuff. My god. Everyone thinks the crooks are on eBay when its more often than not the opposite.
TubeDepot's prices are outrageous. Their business practices are even worse. Years ago before I knew anything about anything I bought two pairs of tubes from them. RCA and Ei 12AX7, I still have the receipts. The RCA's that came were a short grey plate and a long-grey plate. The Ei's that came were a nickel plate and a smooth grey plate. I didn't know much then but I knew they looked different enough to warrant a phone call. So I called them asking if there had been a mistake or if I had ordered it wrong. They told me it was absolutely fine, it was intentional on their part, I had in fact ordered two RCA 7025s and technically they were both RCA 7025, and as such they were the same and that there would definitely be no difference in how one sounded from the other. Right, got it. Glad I paid an extra $6 per tube for balanced and matched tubes in addition to the $419.98 I paid for a pair of RCA tubes that weren't even a pair. Same with the Ei tubes. Though, I only paid $155.90 for the Ei tubes, which by way of comparison seems reasonable.
I still have all four of those tubes and the receipts. I use them as training/onboarding materials whenever I bring someone new on to explain which way our moral compass points.
