I feel like a thief!

Take it as a win win, you paid next to nothing for a bunch of tubes, and he made 40 bucks

My father does that all the time, mostly with records

"I got 100 records, can you give me 20 bucks?"

"Well you have some good ones here, Ill give you 30"

"Thanks man!"

Prices them out and most of the time doubles or triples his money at least

you really think that he was going to take the time to figure out what they were and see if they were worth anything? People these days, sell anything to make a buck, when spending half an hour could grant them 5 times as much possibly

 

Gonzo, the guilt must be eating you up for you to come here for absolution. You must be feeling pretty low after taking advantage of that poor man and his (probably late) father. How many of those tubes will you need me to take from you before you feel better?

Actually, I've never had much interest in tube circuits except perhaps as gifts. I can think of a few friends that might get a kick out of a 5 or 7 tube radio with a nixie digital frequency indicator.

 

Valve amps made a bit of a revival a while ago, using modern op-amp architectures and 12AX7's, but nobody seems to love them any more

 

Don't worry you won't use all of them, and they will be in your son's garage sale. And the cycle repeats. No offense, just trying to see the big picture. Hope this helps.

 

While there may not be a giant demand for them, when you need one you'll have some, hopefully the right one(s).

Or you could always sell them as parts for use on steam punk accessories/models

 

Don't listen to 'em GonzoEngineer, they didn't have the same classes as us in school, (Like the 1 Farad cap being as big as a room).
If you get tired looking at them, get on some of the antique radio sites, you'll sell
whatever you've got.

 

Are tubes really that expensive? My attic is holding onto about half that many. My grandfather used to collect this stuff.

Most of the ones I have state they are for TV's I believe. Are they good for anything, like audio amplifiers?

I broke one, rolled off the desk. A big one, don't even tell that was a $20 dollar bill

 

Understood.

 

I was in the last electronics class at my high school that used vacuum tubes. We breadboarded a 5 tube AM radio. The school switched to transistor trainers the next year.

Tube amps still seem to be popular for guitars.

 

I don't think tubes are all that expensive because there's not much of demand for
them anymore, but I've worked some old gear for a guy that needed two tubes that
ran $35 each, so there's still a small demand out there. I've also worked some old
military gear (4-digit number system tubes, instead of the commercial numbers), and
those tubes sell at a premium for collectors who restore or maintain old military electronics.
I'd have paid $40 for the tube carrier, even though I've got several hundred NOS tubes
of my own. I've had guys cry when I produced a tube they needed, and never thought
they'd find, to get one of their most-loved babies back up and running.
Us old guys are sentimental, I guess.

 

well its not a must for you to explain to the guy how much they are worth. He sold it to you and you bought it. no guilt required