Have purchased about 150 Tubes for my pre-amp on e-bay in the last 6-8 months. Most from European/Russian e-bay sellers. About 30% have had issues from not testing as described, being rather noisy or microphones, to flat out fraudulent listings. Seeking the Russian 6N23P Saratov ‘75 Silver Shield SWGP has been interesting. I have built up a lifetime supply as these are viewed as the excellent sounding 6DJ8/6922 tubes based on an extensive study. I want to get them in hand as the price keeps rising Here are my learnings: 1) Don’t trust the narrative in the listing, you must train yourself and your eye to recognize the item being sold is in fact what is listed and what you are seeking. Trust only your eye. If photo’s are insufficient, ask the seller to send your better ones. If they don’t, move along. Its a reasonable request especially when the tubes approach 100 a pair or more. I’ve been burned badly by listing narratives that were exactly in detail what I was looking for, only to have the seller send me something else. If the photo’s don’t confirm things like dates, plant of mfg, features that are key to the type of tube you want like getter design, shield color, don’t risk it. A good seller provides accurate, sharp, detailed pictures from several angles to allow you to confirm with your eye. Make sure to confirm the pics are what you are actually buying. 2) If the narrative and photo’s don’t include actual test results, but the lister indicates “tested 100%”, don’t accept that. Ask for specific test results for the tubes you are buying, if not provided, move along. 3) Check their history, not just their ratings, look at the archives of their actual sales. Look to see if they are repeating the exact same pictures and data for tubes. If yes, they are likely into repeat use of a stock photo they took and it is not the tubes you are buying, as no two tubes test exactly the same (rarely). 4) If they are selling tubes that have most of the printing gone, be sure you have a trained eye or move on, 5) If you find a good seller, confirmed by getting tubes that test true to the listing (I have my own tester) and it was a fair, solid transaction and well packaged, then stick with em for what other tubes you are looking for. Tell them to seek the tubes you want and be patient, these sellers are worth it. 6) Just a comment: most sellers don’t understand that selecting no-returns on e-bay DOES NOT mean no refunds. E-bay does not take kindly to inaccurate listings or fraud, and will get behind a buyer for a guarantee refund if you do a good job of documenting it with photographs including package damage. The ONLY problem is it is difficult to return tubes to block countries and I found even Germany because customs officials in those countries don’t believe or trust what you write on the customs forms in terms of value, and often hold up the package from the seller until they come in to prove it is a return. I find the best way is to insist that the return be handled through e-bay’s process so that an e-bay return label gets affixed the to package. Otherwise you will risk snagging the package up and if it does the sellers often won’t go get it and then you have to confine e-bay the package is snagged up before they will continue the refund process. Also,if a problem surfaces the best records of what occured for e-bay refunds are often in the e-bay messages you and the seller are trading, including photo’s that you send them of the problems. I-bay looks at these when you file a claim. It makes it easier. In the end, expect that some of the time you will not get your refund or bad seller goes off line or was kicked off e-bay (experienced that twice). These Russian tubes are hard to find at a fair price, its part of the hazard of buying from e-bay overseas. Depends how bad you want them, be prepared for a % of failures and hassle to get your $ back on these.
