Tubes, Tubes and more Tubes...

Hi Dave -

This is from personal experience, which I don't believe you have heard from yet.

My dad had a repair shop that he opened up following his return from the Army in 1947.  His stock in trade was TVs, Radios, and all Appliances.  The business name was Chief Radio (a play on the military rank of Radio Chief).  The store was in Brooklyn.  That's me with the Chief in my name photo.

When we liquidated the business, there was a wall of tubes in boxes to contend with.  Every manufacturer you could think of.  Plus drawers full of used tubes.  From the smallest tubes to the largest tubes.  Had to be a few thousand.  

NO ONE (let me repeat NO ONE) wanted this stock at any price, plus I would have to pay shipping costs, if I would give them away for free.  It wasn't just tubes.  I went through similar with the Major Appliance Makers' In-House Museums (GE, Whirlpool, Kitchen Aid) as I had several dozen new in the box household appliances that I wanted to donate.

Several issues with tubes.  It is expensive to store & grade & catalog & value all your tubes to eventually sell.  Also, it was a popular practice to re-shelf tubes that were not completely spent.  What you think are NOS, are unfortunately not NOS.  Everyone realizes this.  You are not the first one to deal with this situation.  Also, most tubes were made for TVs, not audio.  Unless you wish to make this your new career, it is as though you just acquired a new albatross.

I held on to the stock for several years.  At one point, I invited Art Dudley (Stereophile) over to the shop.  I had a number of larger raw speakers that I gifted him, along with some old wooden radios.   He shook his head with the tube task in front of me.  Also had Gary Dell'Abate (Howard Stern) over for some old microphones and radios.  Contacted just about every tube dealer that I could identify ... no bites.  

I eventually tossed everything.  Bothered me greatly.  Also had to exercise caution as I was throwing out glass and cardboard, both recyclables.  

This is only my story.  Others may disagree.  Hell, most may disagree with what I did.  You have the problem now.  Good luck.

Rich 

"This is from personal experience, which I don’t believe you have heard from yet."

- Evidently you haven’t read all the responses on this topic. I sold 3500+ tubes in 1 1/2 years working on them part time, he only has 500+. All one has to do is write up an inventory, see what they sold for retail & on ebay. Tubes are easy to pack & ship. Then group the lower price tubes and sell the higher priced one in singles, pairs or quads. All the tubes have to be tested with test results included for the more valuable ones. All low value tubes can be sold as a lot on Craigslist. After expenses I made just shy of 24 grand and a about 1/3 of them where used. Step one is looking up the sold value of the tubes to determine whether or not it’s worth your time.

"It is expensive to store & grade & catalog & value all your tubes to eventually sell."

- Not if one does it themselves and puts in the time.

Also, most tubes were made for TVs, not audio.

Maybe, maybe not, but some of the most sought after tubes are military & medical grade, which I'm guessing we not used for TVs.  

@ Dill - my apologies as no disrespect was intended.  I got from your experience  that you were running an on-line business of selling tubes.  This was not what I was getting from the OP and certainly not what I saw myself doing at that point in my life.  I sought out advice from a number of people in the industry, I spoke with a lot of people.  It's work, the sweat equity type, no escaping it.  Whether it's something you want to take on or not, that is where my comments were heading.  Hats off to what you were able to accomplish.

Rich