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
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.
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.
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.
That sort of thing happens often.  I sold an antique jukebox on eBay and when the buyer received it, it had a much cheaper tone arm cartridge on it and who knows what they may have taken from the inside. Good photos can sometimes discourage folks from doing those things.