Tubes becoming hard to get?

@immatthewj, mostly eBay, also Brent Jessee. I look for 12ax7s and 6l6cg most

y vintage. However, I just bought almost new 3, 12ax7eh electroharmonix for $40, just because they seemed like a great deal.  I’m always watching prices and really haven’t seen too many price increases or reduction in inventory. Maybe on new stock Chinese or Russian, but the inventory of vintage RCA black plates, telefunken ( just bought 4 red tips for $300) amperex ( bought 2 medical for $300) and what I’m interested in seems ok. Hope this helps. 

There still seem to be lots of NOS tubes around. And I imagine that other factories will ramp up out of necessity. I'm not sure if there's a need to raise prices if you're not buying them wholesale at a higher price. 

No. 
They’re just playing. 

There are 3 major tube suppliers, one in russia (electro harmonix- now closed), 

I believe this to be wrong. The Shuguang factory in China closed. The New Sensor factory in Russia has not closed. The New Sensor factory instead has no good way to get it's tubes out of Russia and into supply channels. 

Preamp tubes pretty much last forever.  Power amp tubes not at all.  If your power amp tubes are dying and you don't want to spend excessive prices for new tubes, consider putting the tube amp aside and getting a good solid state power amp until tube prices come back down.

I very much favor the vintage 200 wpc Sumo Andromeda amps, which typically run about $900 on the used market.