The Reference 6J5 Thread (L63, 6C5, 12J5, 6P5, etc.)

[leftside]

My fear is that I die with my wife believing that every tube i buy still costs only £1 ... and im afraid she might bin them all rather than spend the time and effort valuing and selling!

My will has a section on how to use an Amplitrex haha

 

[Cognomen]

Kind of kidding on the "cash them in..." comment. Where's the red Easy Button to a small fortune?

Maybe I'm making a mountain of a mole-hill, but what a giant pain in the neck to photograph, document, list and then wade through the low-ballers, nit-pickers, whiners and then, inevitably, the cheats who claim breakage, failure or any reason at all other than simply not living up to their dreams in exchange for ruining your previously spotless feedback. Kind of dreading that.

Cheers,
Rob

OMG! Can you post pictures of the “Video” tubes? I was going through a batch of 6BQ6 tubes I had purchased and came across one branded as you described- I had not seen or heard of them before.

Ta Da! Just noticed the pair's Sheldon boxes are stamped with the same info. Perhaps original boxes? How would they be marketeted on eBAY? NRS (New Rotten Stock)?

 

[Designsfx]

Ta Da! Just noticed the pair's Sheldon boxes are stamped with the same info. Perhaps original boxes? How would they be marketeted on eBAY? NRS (New Rotten Stock)?

That’s too funny! So now to research the “Sheldon” brand- which I’ve never heard of. So far these are the only “Video” tubes I’ve seen but you have to know there are more out there. Did you play them yet to see how they sound or just keeping them off to the side for the hall of shame?

 

[Cognomen]

Kind of kidding on the "cash them in..." comment. Where's the red Easy Button to a small fortune?

Maybe I'm making a mountain of a mole-hill, but what a giant pain in the neck to photograph, document, list and then wade through the low-ballers, nit-pickers, whiners and then, inevitably, the cheats who claim breakage, failure or any reason at all other than simply not living up to their dreams in exchange for ruining your previously spotless feedback. Kind of dreading that.

Cheers,
Robert

I have sorted and organized a lot of tubes I bought in bulk. It's a lot of work. I can see why dealers value run-of-the-mill tubes at just about 0. I think what one is paying for is the type of work I have done plus all the eBay work you mentioned. On top of that the market for some tubes is slow, with few bought over time. To see it, all one has to do is query sold items on eBay. Because by default eBay includes completed listings, one then can deselect that. And then query some types of tubes and one will see the market is very slow for some types. After the tube sells, there are buyers who expect much better packaging than the manufacturer ever provided and may leave bad feedback if they don't think there was enough. For the run-of-the-mill tube, I wonder how much a person can earn per hour on eBay.

 

[LobalWarming]

I have sorted and organized a lot of tubes I bought in bulk. It's a lot of work. I can see why dealers value run-of-the-mill tubes at just about 0. I think what one is paying for is the type of work I have done plus all the eBay work you mentioned. On top of that the market for some tubes is slow, with few bought over time. To see it, all one has to do is query sold items on eBay. Because by default eBay includes completed listings, one then can deselect that. And then query some types of tubes and one will see the market is very slow for some types. After the tube sells, there are buyers who expect much better packaging than the manufacturer ever provided and may leave bad feedback if they don't think there was enough. For the run-of-the-mill tube, I wonder how much a person can earn per hour on eBay.

About 25 cents an hour. Vintage tubes, vintage wages.

 

[Cognomen]

That’s too funny! So now to research the “Sheldon” brand- which I’ve never heard of. So far these are the only “Video” tubes I’ve seen but you have to know there are more out there. Did you play them yet to see how they sound or just keeping them off to the side for the hall of shame?

I have seen Video brand 6SN7 on eBay. Haven't tried my Video 6C5 yet. If the filaments are intact and no shorts, I'll eventually give them a whirl. Sheldon was an Allied Electronics brand. Who knows, if just used, they might be ok. They didn't want to waste too much money on ink. The date is barely legible with magnification. It seems to be 5-58 which might be 1-2 decades after 6C5 were made with a narrowed cylinder up top and a base where one could see the metal seam/weld. If made decades earlier and released in 1958, perhaps it was because back in the day some people had the notion tubes could become stale and not so good if they sat around NIB on the shelf for too many years. Or, perhaps they felt newer ones might be improved. With any luck the pair of videos will peg the needle on a tester as better than new!

 

[shwnwllms]

Nice!

If you haven't run across it before, the BAMA archive is a great resource for documentation on many vintage testers:

https://bama.edebris.com/manuals/hickok/533(a)/

Thanks, I had come across that one. Great archive.

Luckily my Bogie 6L6 came in (measured 5269 umhos) Turns out my Hickok 533A is dead nutz on. Not a bad find for $300

 

[bcowen]

Thanks, I had come across that one. Great archive.

Luckily my Bogie 6L6 came in (measured 5269 umhos) Turns out my Hickok 533A is dead nutz on. Not a bad find for $300

Sweet!!!

 

[mordy]

Ta Da! Just noticed the pair's Sheldon boxes are stamped with the same info. Perhaps original boxes? How would they be marketeted on eBAY? NRS (New Rotten Stock)?

From the little I know Sheldon was a rebrander that sold seconds or overstock, sometimes with exaggerated claims of higher performance.
The 6BQ6 tube labeled Video is a Sylvania tube with the the code B5M. Although I haven't seen it anywhere, B should be February, 5 probably 1955, and M perhaps the Sylvania factory in Emporium, PA. Most Sylvania tubes from that era have two dates, a manufacturing date on the glass, and a shipping date on the socket (usually year and week).

 

[mordy]

About 25 cents an hour. Vintage tubes, vintage wages.

The way I see it, if you bought tubes a number of years ago at the then low prices, you could make some money by selling them now at the current higher prices.
However, after being burned a few times by difficult buyers I lost my interest in selling on eBay. Most buyers are nice people, though, but I can't deal with the few difficult ones that try to rip you off.
I would say that dealing with people you are more familiar with on the Head-Fi forums is a better bet.

 

[Designsfx]

From the little I know Sheldon was a rebrander that sold seconds or overstock, sometimes with exaggerated claims of higher performance.
The 6BQ6 tube labeled Video is a Sylvania tube with the the code B5M. Although I haven't seen it anywhere, B should be February, 5 probably 1955, and M perhaps the Sylvania factory in Emporium, PA. Most Sylvania tubes from that era have two dates, a manufacturing date on the glass, and a shipping date on the socket (usually year and week).

Great historical work Mordy! I actually have other Sylvania 6BQ6 Black plates (JAN tubes with box dates of 1961 and 1964) so I had to doa comparison. While the plate structure is identical the position of the working stuff from the micas upwards are placed lower in the “Video” branded tube. The video tube also has two wires (not sure of their function) that haven’t been trimmed and just extend outward into the body of the tube.

I haven’t tried the “Video” tube in combination with others yet but I’ll be looking for them now just because they’re such an oddball. Thanks again for the info!