[Bombadil]

I've had good luck on tube prices over the years. I patiently wait for bargains. Two batches of free tubes. Picked up sixteen Amperex JAN/CSN 6922s & 7308s for $7 each, NIB. I don't know how many EL84, 6V6, 6SL7, 12AU7, 12AT7, 12AX7, and various rectifiers I have found in used bins for $4-$10 each, mostly around $5. Nearly all of them tested good and were low noise. Was able to find six Sylvania 6CA7 "Fat Boys" in very good condition for $30 each. Even in the past year I found two factory matched KT120s which had about 20 hours on them for $30 each. And new, matched KT150s for $58 each. Got 8 old 27 & 56 tubes for $1 each at a hamfest last year.

I purchased a Conrad-Johnson preamp at a very good price almost 20 years ago and the guy threw in two extra sets of vintage Mullard CV tubes. Those two sets of Mullard CV4004 & CV4003 would go for several hundred bucks now.

I've rarely paid over 2/3rds of typical retail price, used or new, for a tube. Usually well below that.

In order to gather good karma, after I had picked over all of these tubes but still left some okay usable tubes in the box, I gave away my extra box of nearly 80 tubes a couple of years ago. There were a couple of old metal 6L6s, a few 6F6, some well used 12AX7, a number of tubes usable in old tube radios like 6BE6 and 6AQ5, in there. Thought someone might make use of them.