Are all of these NOS tube inventories real? How have we not consumed them already?

Wow very interesting and thanks everyone!

Sounds like there indeed are that many real examples of NOS tubes out there and some have literally stockpiled enough to take them to the grave. 
@dill if you could take a pic or two and post, it would be wild to see even a fraction of the 30k tubes in that collection. :) 
Continued happy listening! 

Personally I think that there are plenty of NOS tubes.  But it seems the dealers deal them the same as the DeBeers family deals diamonds.

I have had nothing but good experiences purchasing tubes from Upscale Audio.

Regards,
barts

would agree with @oldhvymec, at least on the preamp and low signal level tubes. There were tons and tons made. When tube production shifted from the US and Europe to Japan, many back then thought that was it, so hoarded US tubes by the boat load. Last year was out at RMAF. Ran into a guy and started talking tubes. He pulled out his phone and showed me pics of his 10 ft by 30 ft storage locker packed floor to ceiling with NOS tubes.......was something to see. 

Note that new tubes, or "currently manufactured tubes" for those who are seemingly confused about what NOS actually means

NOS and NIB are descriptions that only apply to OLD STOCK tubes. These terms shouldn’t be used with current production tubes. All of those should be unused and come in a box.

Many current production tubes use the names of the premier tube companies from the past like Mullard, Telefunken, Genelex, etc. All the current production tubes have in common with the old stock tubes are the names they have licensed from whoever owns the rights. The materials and construction are very different.

I’m not knocking current production tubes, Many people like the sound of current production tubes for small signal (preamp) tubes, and they are about the only type you can get for power tubes.

Whether it is a dealer or eBay, there is a lot of marketing fluff.  The only way to know the life left in a tube is to have a transconductance and gas test.  That said there are many tube testers in use that are not calibrated and the results are not accurate.  

An old tube that is not correctly tested and sold as good could quickly go bad and take out bits of your amp and preamp.