Why are people paying these stupid tube prices?

@oddiofyl I highly doubt these $200.00 headphone amps have a quality tube in them. Bet the tube they supply is the cheapest part. 

I know it was sarcasm. 

Maybe if people didn’t buy $200 headphone amps and burn up rare tubes for mediocre sound we wouldn’t have this problem

You "just ordered a set of 4 KT150 power tubes for $139.00 each..."  !!!!

I think you can answer your question very well yourself.

I asked myself the same question 20+ years ago.  My answer, "you're out of your mind.  It's not going to get better.".  Today I have solid state.  I have been fighting off the urge to go "Tube" again.   Thank you for bringing me back to my senses.

It was sarcasm,  but if you visit any headphone site you will see people rolling precious nos into chi fi amps.....

Yes, it is a prevalent pattern to see folks rolling rare vintage tubes into cheap chi-fi or even cheap Schiit amps, especially headphone gear. Especially 6SN7 and 6922. It always rubbed me the wrong way too. What a waste. On the upside you can buy their tubes after they move onto the next flavor of them month, but a lot of times it will only be a single.

Anyways, the current tube shortage / price crisis really mainly affects power tubes, which don’t have vintage alternatives available in quantity.

Same thing happened to whale oil when it got scarce:

Over a span of 35 years which embraced the Civil War, whale oil ranged from 30 1/2¢ per gallon to $1.92 according to the following prices which are taken from Eaton's book, "Petroleum", 1866:

Another source mentions that the average price from 1845 to 1855 was $1.77 per gallon (Stotz, 1938).

In the war year 1864, the price per 35 gallon barrel was $67.20.  It is not known if this is sperm whale oil or oil from any species.

Sperm whale oil commanded a higher price just like better tubes.
If it's not one thing, it's another.

All the best,
Nonoise