Excuses for hoarding

[Firedome]

So with a small house I can't hoard big stuff, however little items can be accommodated. In my current situation that means vacuum tubes. I had several thousand, courtesy of my late Uncle, but most older radio and non-audio types were disposed of during a move 7 years ago. That got the pile down to about 100 tubes needed for my own gear, but that's since slowly swelled to about double that.
I seem to find excuses to get more & more tubes especially after the "tube scare" of the last year: worries that the invasion will permanently shut off Russian tube production or importation, and that the Shuguang fire in China will be closing off that avenue. So far some of that has occurred, but Psvane and Lin Lai have picked up some of that slack by former employees & engineers starting a smaller facility and JJ in Slovakia is still viable but their tubes have varying reputations. Is anyone else bugged by insecurity arising from this situation? Now I have more than enough 6BQ5s and 12a_7s to last several lifetimes so I'm wondering if it's just being unduly paranoid, or is it just an excuse for tube hoarding, that endorphin rush of buying? One thing's for sure, tube prices do seem to be steadily going up all the time and some NOS has gotten exorbitant!

[Motorola minion]

Tubes are the very last thing I want to have to buy. Some audio tubes command a market fluctuating value, especially when I need one like a pair of 7355 for a GE I have yet to restore. Its nice to say you have everything you could possibly need for parts but some tubes seem to be worth selling rather than keep. Hoarding cheap caddies full of TV tubes is a danger sign, been there
Bad tubes seem to be the least of problems I encounter with TV and audio equipment in comparison to caps and resistors. The last three Motorola consoles I fixed did NOT need tubes. The very first thing I do is test tubes, before anything else, replace bad/shorted ones and after the unit is working, put them back in (if borderline) to see if I can reintroduce an issue.

While we could call it hoarding or curating, there is a difference between the two acquisition modes. I prefer to have a backlog of different but viable projects. If I were to collect Zenith Trans Oceanic radios, insisting on an example of each variation or year of production, then I am curating a collection. I used to collect beer cans in the late 70s. Eventually I had 1200 cans on display on floor-to-ceiling 3" deep shelves but had no trouble giving them all away when my parents moved in 2009. My brother and I curated that collection but had several hundred "doubles" that were recycled.

Hoarding is a perception that something is becoming scarce or is presently undervalued, with good reason or not, then buying up every available example. It has its rewards to be sure, but it is also counter-productive when you need to downsize suddenly. The best example I saw in practice was a collection of lamps http://www.parkesburglamps.com/ using a certain type of glass, of which a friend of mine amassed about 100. I transported them to a storage unit as part of a house clean out when he passed, not sure if his kids sold them yet.

[William]

I think I fall more into the curating department. I have the record player, radio, things that I have and occasionally will get something new but only if it's a brand I like or something really unique. I keep tubes, capacitors, and resistors handy for projects, and even though I have those on hand there is usually one or two I do not have when working on a project.

Dave, I have seen those lamps in antique stores before but never knew what they were. Thanks for sharing, I learned something today.

Bill

[Firedome]

"Bad tubes seem to be the least of problems I encounter with TV and audio equipment in comparison to caps and resistors."

100% true, but somehow amassing tubes seems more appealing than, say, resistors! lol
It's hard for me to understand the appeal, going beyond need, maybe it's the warm glow?
For some reason the accumulation of them inexplicably warms the cockles of my heart.
Go figure. Good thing almost all my stuff uses 6BQ5s & 12a.7s not 7355s, 6GW8s or 7199s!
Some of those will never be made again, and could indeed become scarce. Even some of
of the once common bargain tubes like Russian 6p14p (6BQ5) have jumped up in price in
the last year... it does make one wonder.

[electra225]

I would make a good hoarder. And, in reality, I probably am one. I was raised that you didn't waste things, you used something as long as it was serviceable and you took care of it. My grandma never threw anything away. She would "pass it on" or find another use for it, but she seldom actually discarded anything. The only thing I really remember grandma wanting to toss was the RCA color TV grandpa brought home from "the shop" when he worked for Buick. It was probably a CT-100, it was about 1955 or so when he got it. It "got afire" a couple times. Grandma absolutely insisted that grandpa haul it out to the spot where he dumped trash. I collect bits of stuff I think I'll need someday. Tubes, wires, caps, resistors, speakers. Good grief, I have more speakers than I can use in three lifetimes. Open reel tape, cassette tape. What will I ever do with that stuff. I sold most of my stuff at auction, but I saved "just the stuff I need, dear". Most of it will be sold or tossed. I won't need it, will never use it, it's in my road. I have most of the audio equipment I've ever had. My excuse? "Just the bare necessities"..........

[TC Chris]

I was raised that you didn't waste things, you used something as long as it was serviceable and you took care of it. My grandma never threw anything away. She would "pass it on" or find another use for it, but she seldom actually discarded anything.

Oldsters like some of us had parents who were nipped by the Depression of the 1930s, and that's not entirely a bad thing. I too earned to take care of my things and to make do with what I had. That meant a lot of improvisation, which is a species of creativity.

My inclination is to find homes for stuff that's too good to go to the landfill. Sometimes my house becomes the home, at least temporarily. When I moved in 1994, I gave away a lot of electronics stuff that had accumulated. Some of it I regret, but it was not the end of the world.

Now I tend to collect materials. Lumber. Steel. Sheet metal. Plastics. Last weekend I got tired of the shower door dragging on its threshold. It needed a plastic washer to lift it up about 3/32" I went to my plastics bin and found some black stuff. Drilled a hole in it. Cut around the hole. Cut into the hole so I could poke it around the pin the door rotated on. No need to go to Ace and search out the right plastic washer. Last fall an alley neighbor threw away a big heart-shaped plate glass mirror in a frame, a '30s or '40s piece from a vanity probably. I glued the frame back together, replaced veneer, stained & varnished as needed, improved the back and made a new hanging system. Then gave it away online. One fewer item in the landfill.

My winter commuter bicycle is a cast-off from the Burlington, VT high school mountain biking club. My brother bought several @ $5 at an auction (he loves buying stuff and loves a bargain, and the two loves coincided). He gave one to me and eventually it became the commuter. Was it the perfect choice? No, no. Does it work? Almost every day, all winter.

Some people can afford to buy everything they want. Seems to me they miss the great pleasure of anticipation or the joy of improvising. Other people defer doing things until "someday," that day when they can afford to buy the perfect item for the task. For many of them, "someday" never arrives, and they miss the pleasure of the activity. Me, I find ways to do what I'd like to do. Maybe not with the best stuff or the perfect stuff, but I get to do it. And often enough i have the pleasure of finding the way to do it too.

Chris Campbell

[Conelrad]

Me? Nah...

Dunno why they all went sideways, sorry.

[tasar]

No worries Conelrad, seems we share same photo journalism hiccup. Funny....perhaps we're on to something here.... when I tap your photos using IOS, they flip to correct orientation...wonder if the various OS have pixel margin limits ?

[tasar]

As for me, only the 6L7 tube, can be very microphonic in the audio stage of the McMurdo and Scott sets of mine. These are one of those rare tubes that "test good" emissions and conductance-wise but circuit noisy. I've likely acquired couple dozen over the years, many NOS, more than half are noisy. Poor build ? filament mechanics ? similar multi- mfg. symptoms. The 6J5 is a distant second depending of circuit placement. Thankfully the 6 and 12v tubes are mostly problem free and plentiful.

[Firedome]

Whoa - a CT-100 would have been new in late 1954 to 1955, and only made that year or so, about 4000 made at about $1000 each...that's over $10,000 today! No wonder so few were sold, and worth an absolute fortune now too, but good luck replacing a bad CRT! That would have been the right one to "hoard"! I came across an original service manual for one once and sold it right away on "you know where".

[Conelrad]

Tasar, try a 1612 instead of the 6L7, they were selected for low microphonics.

They were spec in a lot of tube-type limiters in the day.

[tasar]

I'll take the advice Conelrad, let's see where did I put that 1612 ? Thanks for the tip !