Good 10BP4's now fetching record prices
 

I was watching this auction to see where it would go. Incredible!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RCA10BP4B-pi...:B:WNA:US:3160

Well you can't get them rebuilt anymore so what are you gonna do.

My thoughts, exactly. We all know that's too much (by yesterday's market, anyhow). But if you really really want a particular tube right now, and so does one other guy, that's a bidding war.

Welcome to your future :(

Phil Nelson

I think its a one time deal. Someone needed it real bad and had the money.

Takes two (or more) to tango. The bid history shows four different people thought it was worth $200+.

It may be unwise to draw sweeping conclusions from a single auction, but it seems unavoidable that CRT prices will rise somewhat when rebuilding is unavailable.

Phil Nelson

Well the guy just paid for it so I will be shipping it out today. I hope it was just someone who got caught up in a bidding war, as I would hate to think thats what a 10bp4 is going for now a days. The last 7bp4 that sold on ebay only went for about $150 and if I'm right the last 10bp4 sold on ebay went for about $100. Also you see lots of 10" sets on ebay for under $100.

I think the guy has a real nice 10" tv that he wants to work and the last thing he needed is a good picture tube. Or he got a set that belonged to grandma and Grampa that he watched as a kid and wants to get it working.

Let us hope, because I too think this is nuts.

One last thing, When people see stuff like this "Good 10BP4's now fetching record prices" It surely will drive up the price.

Could be 5 years from now that price will look cheap.
I've got one spare 10BP4 that I am saving for a future
set but have no intentions of selling it even for $250.

Carl

I have a couple of spares myself that I'm holding on to myself. My wife and I were talking last night about how crazy the price was on this auction. If people continue to collect TVs then prices like these are just the beginning.

I wonder if you can take a bad tube and fit in a tiny DLP projector fed with UV light?

I've often wondered if some future method of reclaiming defective CRTs would become the norm after all of the easily obtained and dwindling reserves of good ones get sold off . David here has mentioned one possible method of getting a picture back on a screen and gave rise to my thoughts of wondering if it would ever be practical to externally heat a cathode with something like the type of system that flashed the getter and thus circumvent a bad heater . Yea , lots of em get gassy or just outright loose their cathode emission without burning out their heaters , but a fair amount of otherwise good tubes have been declared dead over the years due to bad heaters . Tubes that could see new life if their cathodes could be heated . Crazy idea , i know , but sometimes solutions can come from idle thinking . I would be most concerned with seeing sky high CRT prices as making the CRT akin to ivory / two pounds of tusk being worth more than 2K pounds of elephant . I guess price increases are bound to happen , rarity + demand = $$$ , so I guess it really would be best to sit on any that one may posses if they're appreciating faster than gold .

or the end as collectors die off, will there be more in the pipe line (collectors) to continue the interest? I mean really how many world wide are there that are actively seeking out parts? I wonder what the ratio of old timers to newbs is, and if that continues the newbs will become smaller and smaller. I suppose there could be a resurgence of interest (hard to predict what will tickle the fancy of people in the future), but that presupposes that their will be people that can actually fix sets vs just collect non working hulks, which in that case there will be no need for "good" crt's just relics to have as conversation pieces.

I bet there's still a place to get those rebuilt... With thousands and thousands of little Mom 'n' Pop tube rebuilders still around as late as the 80s, that equipment is at least partly still out there someplace. I'd be shocked if nobody is still doing it... Last time I had a 10BP4 rebuilt about 10 years ago, it was $39 from VDC.

Charles

There doesn't seem to be anyone still doing it in the US, but I did find this place in Canada:

http://www.wmicronics.com/pictubesol.htm

EDIT: Ah, nevermind, I just found some old topics here saying that place is some kind of scam. And in South Carolina rather than Canada.

Problem is today it's nearly 35 years later. Most of the folks running those 80's shops are far into retirement or no longer above ground. I'm sure the equipment and parts are still kicking around, but it basically only takes one generation to loose the skill set required to do the task. Meanwhile the equipment will eventually be scrapped. :sigh:

On the other hand, there's still no shortage of cheap combo consoles to pull good used 10BP4's from. But I'd avoid ebay until last resort.

Wow - that's pretty steep. I have one very good one now and one more coming in, in a '47 Crosley that I hope tests good too. Maybe I can make some mega buck on them in the future! :thmbsp: