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Vintage tube sellers come in several flavors. Some are small time guys that don't really have much stock but have a great passion for finding very rare or desirable tubes not because they can sell them for so much, but, they love tubes. You find these guys mostly from word of mouth in chat rooms or Audiogon. I think these are the best to buy from. Sometimes cheap, sometimes expensive . It depends on the cost that they paid and how hard they were to find (airline tickets, purchasing bad tubes, number of good tubes out of the lot etc). Their price is based on each tube sold.
There are big tube sellers that sell only tubes. They have a nice web site, employees, good customer service and huge tubes in stock at all times. They have the advantage over the above sellers by' economy of scale'. They buy huge lots of tubes constantly and while their rejection rate (bad tubes) is higher (their dumpsters are full of glass) they get the lots for very cheap and their profit margin is higher. Their prices are usually pretty high (what the current market will bear) but you can find exactly what you want and they stand behind their products.
There are blends of these two main types of sellers and almost all of them started as the first type.
The third type is one who's main focus is audio gear. This is where their profit comes from and many of them aren't expecting to make much off of tube sales. Their stock depend allot on which direction the came from. Did they start as tube sellers, or did they start selling gear and the market forced them to sell tubes. I have had very good luck with some of these sellers while their focus was still more on tubes. This usually changes and these guys stock becomes more and more limited. Their prices can be all over the place because they don't spend the time looking at the current going price for a tube and they don't price per individual tube. Sometimes they're just trying to phase out certain stocks to make room for more profitable gear. The customer service of these guys can be all over the place too. The nice thing about these sellers is if you find a tube from them that you like, they usually have a bunch so the price doesn't change until the stock is renewed and a new price reflects the cost of the the new stock. So, you can very often go back to them years latter and get the same tubes for the same price. Making an extra $50-100 doesn't mean much when their making $5-10k on an amp or speakers. Sell one amp or 1000 tubes=same profit. Even if the tube stock landed in their lap (no researching) that at least 990 fewer emails/phone calls/face to face. Even the biggest tube lover can't argue with that.
Sooooo,.. why the big price difference. Still with me? The $200 /pr Mullards are specific tubes. The $80/pr are a matched pair out of a lot. What year are the cheaper ones? Don't know. What is the plate structure and the getter type( super important identifying features!)? Don't ask. If you really love the tube, can you get some back up that are the exact same tube?Maybe. This isn't to say that you can't get as good a Mullard for $80/pr, you might be able to get a better one.
Buying vintage anything is never a sure thing. As they say,..
"Ya pays your money, and ya takes your chances",.. but you can narrow the odds for a price.
