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Ebay sellers switching tubes

so what out for ebay sellers , havinga  NOS tube with good/OK/excellent print in the item pic,,and  then swaping out for another tube with less print or no print.

w/o print the tube is not worth very much, unless it is NOS, not strong, but true NOS. 
If you buy a  NOS/low quality print, i would finda  tech who can test it against the vlaues stated by seller. 
I have so many RCA's and other 12AX7's arriving daily,,,i failed to see seller's listing vs tube acutally sent,,also make sure seller puts INVOICE inside package (allows you to ck your purchases more accurately)
Thus
If you buy off ebay, senda  note, I want the tube in the pic sent, not another and please send with invoice and if showing test scores, ask to have text scores taped to the tube,,,, this insures more honesty among sellers.

Please add any notes you have from your experiences. 

NOS with strong print , prices will sky rocket,,,,with boxes add another 20%, 
If I buy NOS, with low print/no print,,i will let seller know,, i will ship out to be tested,,if not close to your scores, i will ask part refund or ship back to you. ,,and say <<fair deal?>>
It is good we all get these things out in the open, to help newbies comming into the tube world from having to experience all the rip off/bad deals we;'ve all gone through. 
Sellers will have to come clean or go out of busniess with negative feedback.
Wish i had been more careful cking packages vs the acutal listing pics. 
Now i have  to send a  bunch of mystery AX's off to be tested./labeled,,,not sure if they are CBS/GE's or RCA's. ,,and how they test. 

mozartfan
dwmaggie
222 posts
 
I have purchased 466 items from ebay, none were available locally.  I have had two bad experiences.  The first was G scale 1917 model T panel truck, it came in a Chex cereal box with minimal news paper wrappings, she did refund half the purchase price.  Yes, the item was mangled, some parts were usable, so we worked out a refund for half of the purchase price.  The second Item came from a record company exec.  He sent a Proceed AVP in a cardboard box with no padding, the box arrived with USPS tape all over it, just to keep the box together, his scotch tape fell apart.  It came with pieces missing, the sub chassis was floating inside the main chassis.  It was a well made pre/pro.  It still actually worked well, just looked like it fell out of a truck.  Paid $454 for it 400 + 54 for shipping.  Tried to negotiate a refund for 200, got nasty and refused.  I sent him 10 or 15 pix, of the box and damage.  Refused to consider any refund.  Sent the pix to ebay with a complaint.  They sent a shipping label and full refund to my account.  Postal clerks laughed at the shipping label and told me it was for 3 pounds nowhere near the actual cost of shipping, he got the bill.
I buy from 100 per centers or 99.7 at worst.  I check their feedback before the purchase, especially the neutral feedback as well as the negative.  I have purchased about 15 200wpc channel amps with no problems.  Ebay requires that we do our due diligence before the purchase.  When it comes to refunds the buyer is treated very, very well.  
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,407 posts
 
Tubes are the last thing I would buy on eBay.  There are just too many good, honest and reliable tube vendors that one shouldn't need eBay.
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Would never buy tubes from the jokers on ebay.
jond's avatar
jond
5,849 posts
 
I have never bought and would never buy tubes on ebay. I've had good luck buying tubes here from a few reliable sellers. I mostly buy from Upscale other than that.
zkidd
103 posts
 
Not more than a few months ago I walked into one of my favorite local high end stores and the owner hands me a tube and asks me what it is. Easy. It was a very common and not too good sounding run of the mill GE tube. It was easy to tell with the factory coding on it as well as construction. No seam at the top so not European. The store owner took the tube from me and handed it to some forlorn looking man who I learned had just dropped some serious money for the tube, which now had an "Amperex" brand silkscreened on it as well the famous "Bugle Boy" icon. The tube was shipped in a factory fresh Amperex box. All fake. All bought on Ebay. And all are from a county in Asia with a huge population and are notorious for counterfeiting. Unless you know what you are doing where tubes are concerned, construction of said tubes, codes etc. Ebay is not the place to go. The lure of cheap prices is everyone's downfall. You pay for what you get. Spend a little more from a reputable dealer (TubeWorld, Vintage Tube Service, even TC Tubes) otherwise you will be paying a lot more; once for the junk, and again for the tube you should have bought in the first place.
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