Used radio tubes

[Normspeed]

Is there any worthwhile market for stuff like old car radio tubes? Wondering if it would be worthwhile for me to put something like that on the bay.

[bob_amos]

Norm, Yes there is. I collect vintage radios and have well over 200 of them. There are loads of guys out there that collect them too. Tubes are still available at specialty suppliers like the ones we have here for cars. But a reall collector that works on their radios is always after tubes for their future needs. I have a load of them out on the bench and use them when needed. The "bay" is a good place to move them. They may not bring a lot then again they may. Be sure to make a list of what you have and just offer them as a bulk thing. That is what moves best. The reason for the list is there are different tubes for different eras and you need to appeal to the people of a give time period and this list will catch those that fit with what you have.

[JerseyHarold]

Good question. I've got a bunch of them too, plus a lot of old TV and radio repair parts from a repair shop that closed decades ago. The only tubes I would keep are the ones that fit the Plymouth radios.

[oldmopar]

If they are old shoulder or globe tubes (1920's,1930"s) you would would do better to sell them in small lots or separately

check a few tube #'s you have then do a search on ebay to get a idea of what they are going for. Its best to search on completed items to get a better idea then to use active listings

Ed

[martybose]

A few years ago I purchased a complete replacement set of tubes for my 802 radio from a guy who wound up selling about 5 sets of them. I've never needed any of them, but you never know ............

Marty

[bob_amos]

True, it would be best to group them per sets that fit something like the "All American Fivers" or the real old sets but Norm probably wouldn't have a clue as to just what should go where. The easiest thing for him to do would be to just sell them as a group lot and let the purchaser sort it out. I would suggest that he get a tube list for vintage radios that might fit our cars and keep them on the shelf for future use. That is, if anything he has would fit. But then we get into cross references that fit as a replacement for the tubes that fit our cars and so on and so forth... Opens a real big can of worms. While they have value to a vintage radio guy they aren't all that valuable. Think of it this way... you are helping out a radio guy just like we help each other out in the old car hobby.

[aero3113]

I would be interested in a 6 volt vibrator tube for a mopar 604 if anyone has one.

[oldmopar]

I would be interested in a 6 volt vibrator tube for a mopar 604 if anyone has one.

Not cheap but here is one place that has new replacements for 6 volt vibrators

http://www.tubesandmore.com/

[eric wissing]

Not cheap but here is one place that has new replacements for 6 volt vibrators

http://www.tubesandmore.com/

You can also use this site to guess-timate the value of your old tubes. Some tubes even used can be valuable. To get best prices they have to be NOS or have been tested. Good Luck Eric

[Norm's Coupe]

Good question. I've got a bunch of them too, plus a lot of old TV and radio repair parts from a repair shop that closed decades ago. The only tubes I would keep are the ones that fit the Plymouth radios.

If you have old TV parts & tubes you want to dispose of, I'd suggest you get rid of them fast. Even if you repair an old TV set, it won't work after next February unless you also have a converter box to convert the TV signal to digital.

I have an old B&W small 12" TV in the garage that plays excellent and it's has tubes in it. Don't know how old it is. I bought it back in the late 90's at a rummage sale for only 10 bucks. A converter box will cost me about $60 so I won't buy a box for it. Its not worth it.

[oldmopar]

If you have old TV parts & tubes you want to dispose of' date=' I'd suggest you get rid of them fast. Even if you repair an old TV set, it won't work after next February unless you also have a converter box to convert the TV signal to digital.

I have an old B&W small 12" TV in the garage that plays excellent and it's has tubes in it. Don't know how old it is. I bought it back in the late 90's at a rummage sale for only 10 bucks. A converter box will cost me about $60 so I won't buy a box for it. Its not worth it.[/quote']

I think if you are on cable everything will work with the old sets

[Normspeed]

The Feds will send you two coupons worth $40 each towards the purchase of converters.

[Norm's Coupe]

I think if you are on cable everything will work with the old sets

I'm sure Don Coatney is going to hop all over my next statement. We do not have cable TV. I refuse to pay for cable TV or other types of pay TV. First of all we don't watch much TV except the news and a few other shows weekly. Then when I look at the cable TV guide from the newspaper it shows mostly old TV programs, other similar programs that are on local channels, etc. So, whats the point in paying for the same thing I can get for free? Plus now that I hooked up the digital boxes we now get about 14 or 15 free channels.

I already bought my allotment of converter boxes using the coupons. You only get two and I have 6 TV's around. How I ended up with 6 working TV's is a little longer story, but we did not set out to have that many. It just happened that way. So.........I really don't want to buy a new digital TV when I have all these working TV's. Thats enough to last a lifetime.

[No Bux Rod]

If you have a bunch of old vacuum tubes try the guys who repair tube car radios. Sell them directly. Most tubes have been out of production for decades and used tubes may be the onl direct replacements available in some cases.

try

www.ultraelectronicactive.com/Vintage-Vacuum-Tubes.html

www.commonsenseaudio.com/tubes.html

www.eskimo.com/~hhagen/hagentech/carradiorepair.html

The first two are tube sellers and the last one is a guy who repairs Mopar radios.

N B R

[oldmopar]

. First of all we don't watch much TV except the news and a few other shows weekly. .

I have to agree with you about TV I do not watch much on it. Mostly I watch dvd's but I have the cable for the fast computer connection and my wife & son do watch some tv. So I guess I pay about $150 a month for a quick cable connection but hey if I was not a little crazy I would not own old cars and be on this forum.

Ed

[Norm's Coupe]

Ed,

I guess I'm lucky that way. My wife doesn't watch much TV either, and feels the same as I do about cable. Our kids have been all moved out for years. We do rent a movie on DVD once in awhile, or many times the wife will go to the library and pick them up for free.

That said, I don't think anyone is crazy for paying for TV and cable for high speed Internet if thats what they want. You are paying roughly what I've heard a lot of people around here are paying, so I guess thats the going rate.

We do drive my son and step son crazy though. My son says I'll save money with cable. However, I can't see how though when cable is at least around $100. Unlimited local calls with a regular phone is only about $30 a month and my dial up is only about $18.

Then recently when my step son was over he made a comment about our TV set. Said its an antique and he was going to buy us a new one. (They are all from the 70's or 80's). We told him to save his money, if we wanted a new one we'd buy it ourself. These work good enough for us.

We use to have 7 TV's. However when my step son moved out, we gave him one of them to take with him. Guess it wasn't new enough for him, because he evidently bought a new one.

[oldmopar]

While I do pay for cable I got rid of my house phone so only have a cell. I was paying around $40. for the phone I never used.

[Norm's Coupe]

Seems like several people I know no longer have a land line phone in the house. They either use computer wireless phones or a cell phone. In fact, my step son doesn't have a phone in his house either, he just uses a cell phone too. I do have the land line and a cell phone. I don't use the cell phone much though. It's one of the Go Phones. Started out with $60 worth of minutes on it the end of February when I got it. Still have $58 worth of minutes on it. That card will expire the end of August, but whatever minutes are left are supposed to carry over. If that happens all the time, I'll end up with who knows how many minutes on it. The only calls I've made was one to a guy when I met him to pick up some wheels, and the other one was to test the phone after I got it. I only have the cell phone for emergences. I don't want to talk on the phone when away from home.

[bob_amos]

We did the same with our phone. We were always getting slammed so we dropped it in favour of the cel phones. We do have cable as I am a BIG sports nut. Cannot do without my sports. We also have cable internet. As to the tubes. Tube and More, also known as Antique Electronics Supply, has loads of new tubes along with some used ones. Tubes are still being made in Russia. The vibrator tube they offer is pricey but is solid state and is really not a vibrator but a substitute. I understand they work well without the noise. Me, I like the noise of the original vibrator.

[Don Coatney]

I'm sure Don Coatney is going to hop all over my next statement.

Norm;

I think you hit on something. Try this. Place 4 of your TV's one in each corner of your living room. Then place your biggest and smallest TV's in front of your chairs.

POOF``` you now have a surround TV system and possibly the first. Your big TV can be your woolfer and your small TV the tweeter. If one of your TV's is old and does not get good antenna reception and has a snowy picture then you have taken your system to the next level. You could call it seasonal surround TV. You could sell this system concept and make a killing.

For the rest of you who live in the real world I use Comcast for my phone, TV, and internet service. I also have a cell phone as does my wife. We call each other on occasion. I dont watch much regular TV but my wife does. We have a TV in our living room, bedroom, spare bedroom, kitchen, and Lisa's woman cave office. Sometimes when I come home I will find all of the TV's turned on to the same channel and usually it is the gay gardner guy or Rachel Ray. When I find this I make a quick retreat to one of my man caves (my office or the garage).

What I do like to watch on TV is movies. I have a collection of at least 200 DVD's that I have bought over the past few years.

[Young Ed]

I'm actually with Norm on this one. No cable in my house. I can't justify the expense for it. If(big if) I had money laying around I would have cable tv. I did like a few channels like history and discovery but costs way to much for just a few programs. I do have DSL internet though- I don't think I will ever go back to dialup!

[Norm's Coupe]

Don, I did try and pop for DSL a few times. However, all the DSL lines in my area are taken according to the people I called.

As for surround sound TV. I don't think it makes that much difference in a house between surround sound and just one speaker. Now, in a theater, thats a different story.

As for snow in the picture, don't have to worry about that anymore, nor do we have to worry about the wind blowing to make the picture bad. It's amazing how well that little add on digital box works. Cleared up all the channels and also gave us many more clear stations we didn't have before that. All for just a one time $20 bill and the government $40 coupon.

As mentioned, we have all those TV's around. However, its rare that any of them are on, except the one in the living room. All of the others maybe get turned on once a month or even less, and thats just for the news.

As for getting with the modern world. Well.........about 80% of my friends feel just like I do about cable, high speed internet and cell phones. Not only that, but in talking with a lot of my neighbors, they don't have it either. Especially, the people in our age group.

As for sports, don't need cable to watch that. I only watch the Packers games and the playoffs if the Packers are in it. Those games are on regular TV. If they ever go to the cable channels, guess I won't watch those games either. Otherwise, don't watch any sports on purpose on TV.

When we watch a movie, we rent one at Blockbuster or pick one or two up at the library free. Don't need cable for that, just the DVD player and VHS player recorder handles that and we get to pick the movie we want to watch. Not what the TV channel director thinks we want to watch.

[Young Ed]

Not sure who you talked to but I don't think all the DSL lines can be taken. It just uses your excisting phone line into your house. As far as surround sound I like it. I bought a set for my house warming present to myself. I have a 150w sub and when something explodes in a movie I feel it

[Norm's Coupe]

Not sure who you talked to but I don't think all the DSL lines can be taken. It just uses your excisting phone line into your house. As far as surround sound I like it. I bought a set for my house warming present to myself. I have a 150w sub and when something explodes in a movie I feel it

Ed,

Thats who said all the DSL lines were taken, AT&T. I guess they only allocate so many lines for DSL per zip code, and said they were all taken in my zip code. Only way I might get DSL is to call almost every day to check if someone got disconnected for some reason and a line became free. I don't have time to play with that so....... They went on to say I could get wireless. But...........thats as bad as cable as far as cost goes. May be hard to believe, even my son didn't believe it until he checked his self. You'd think when you live in a major city like you and I do, you could get it anywhere.

[Don Coatney]

Norm;

You should really become a POC member. Most of the POC members do not own puters and are as behind the times and out of touch with the world as you are so you would fit right in:D