Mullard XF2 Blackburn EL 34's

[passfan]

Well back around the first week or so of June I took the plunge and snatched up a pair of used ones off Ebay from a guy in Israel for 150.00 bucks. The arrival time came and went and it was discovered they were lost so another pair were sent. I was informed there were some goodies included to compensate me for my patience. Well they got lost too and come the 45 days I had to file a claim with Ebay or lose the ability to forever. From my last contact around the end of July I heard nothing from the seller so when ebay said his contact period was up I politely threw in the towel and requested a refund. The seller responds with tracking info from Israeli Post showing a 3 to 5 day express package in route so I agree to wait some more. Well today the box shows up with not one but two pair of Mullards testing about mid life and matched to within 2ma and 8ma and a pair of Brimar 12at7's with the bva stamp on them which test close to new. These things sound great and I'm glad I wasn't in a hurry.

[Bob S]

On E-Bay shit happens.
Sometimes it's good shit.
Sometimes not.
I bought an old chassis - basically for the transformers.
It showed up with good Mullard ECC83's.

[Cliff Schecht]

I don't mess with eBay often. I'll put in lowball bids and see what happens. Works occasionally.

Recently my dad was at the Dayton Ohio hamfest and snagged a free Heathkit sweep generator for tuning old TV's. I popped it open and it had a good I63 AX7 and a really neat completely copper chassis. Also had a yellow Astron in there for the death cap. The insides were super clean because the chassis was completely enclosed in a box so I'm probably going to reuse most of the sockets and make a fun little completely enclosed gigging amp.

[passfan]

I love getting tubes in old chassis. Are the old yellow Astron caps really good ? Got a couple lying around but haven't used them yet?

[Structo]

In the case of the OP, I kind of feel sorry for the ebay seller.
He certainly was out some money through no fault of his own.
He was conscientious and that proved to be a good thing for you.

I occasionally will buy something from overseas.
But is usually a < $20 item from Hong Kong or Japan.

I don't recall ever buying anything from across the Atlantic.

[David Root]

I've bought NOS Piher resistors from Italy, absolutely no problems so far. I don't buy anything from Hong Kong, especially not tubes, theyre likely all fakes.

[passfan]

In the case of the OP, I kind of feel sorry for the ebay seller.
He certainly was out some money through no fault of his own.
He was conscientious and that proved to be a good thing for you.

I occasionally will buy something from overseas.
But is usually a < $20 item from Hong Kong or Japan.

I don't recall ever buying anything from across the Atlantic.

To the best of my knowledge he is persuing claims against the first two packages and expects to be compensated. I have myself in the past refunded money and let the customer keep the tubes when there is any question. How else can you be ? I have bought from Europe, England, Russia and now Israel ; I think I'm done for a little while.

I did leave excellent feedback describing the lengths he went to, to compensate me as well.

[selloutrr]

It's nice to hear you recieved your item even though it was an excersize in patience.

I've found it's hit and miss purchasing over the ponds. Most of the asian items are sub quality and take the better part of 8 weeks to arrive, if at all.

I've had rather bad dealings with the UK mostly things being held up in customs or being charged $$$ in duty fees.

Over all I've given up on ebay. The last couple years I've noticed things are no longer a deal, often costing more then I can purchase them from a reputable dealer. Still it is fun to browse and win.

[David Root]

Take heart, selloutr.

Last nite I got an Amperex double D getter brown base 5AR4, a Mullard Xf2 double getter EL34 and a Mullard I92 12AX7 (all used of course) on e-bay for $108, from the same seller.

You never know.

[selloutrr]

Nice score!

I've found it's easy to get nice NOS single tubes cheap on ebay.
The matched pairs are difficult.
If you get a deal, more times then not what they call matched and what they actually test on the tester are no where near the same meaning of matched. usually ending in a pissed off refund after we have a who's tester is more accurate discussion via email and I drop the Amplitrex name and show them the print outs of how the tubes tested. Not talking about a couple mA's apart. More like 10+mA.

I wish I could get super excited about Ebay, I like to help the little guy more then getting reemed by a company, but I think I average only about a 30% possitive experience... I still try

Ebay is great for Rectifier tubes, single power tubes, non standard radio tubes, as well as odds and ends.

[David Root]

I just this week had to return two Ebay tubes, one had an intermittent triode 2 connection, great pity, it was a '54 pre-mC1 Mullard 12AX7 with the so-called "coin base".

The other was a case of mistaken identity, I got a Mullard 12AU7 instead of a 12AX7.

Both sellers are very reputable, no arguments about refunds, incl. my cost to return.

Just one of those things, but now I have to wait God knows how long for Paypal to refund my refund into my paypal account. That's one thing I don't like about Paypal.

[passfan]

The other was a case of mistaken identity, I got a Mullard 12AU7 instead of a 12AX7.

That just happened to me with a Telefunken. I decided to keep it anyway to use in less gain type situations on my liverpool. As David already knows, one tube in my best matched set shorted internally last week bummer. Still got the original set and a couple 12at7's with one extra 34.

[TUBEDUDE]

I scored a matched QUAD of Telefunken EL 84's from Germany. Best $160 I ever spent! No problems with the transaction either. 1 week to my mailbox.

[David Root]

Nice!!!! NOS NIB they can be $450.00.

I just tonite got a quad of RCA blackplate 6L6GC on Ebay, "tests NOS" (we'll see about that, I have a Maxi Matcher) 1960 double D bottom getters in the long tube. Just over $300.00. NOS NIB close to $700.00.