Vintage Audio Tubes, Vacuum Tubes or Valves
This is the Premier Marketplace for Old, Vintage, Collectible, Rare and Obsolete Vacuum Tubes, tube sockets and tube parts. Our vast inventory of tubes changes daily so check back often. Be sure to book mark this page so you don't miss any great deals.
Vacuum Tubes or Valves are still being manufactured today in China, Russia and several former Eastern Block nations. Avid collectors and Audiophiles prefer the original vintage tubes over the new issue or so called replacement tubes of today and they bring in a premium in today's marketplace.
Vacuum Tube types have changed over the years. The very oldest tubes looked more like light bulbs and had a screw type base. Most 1920s tubes had glass envelopes and large bakelite bases with four or five pins. Tubes from the 1930s and 1940s typically had glass or metal envelopes and six, seven, or eight pins. A Locking metal base was used on tubes in the late 1940s, they were called "loktal". Locktal and Octal tubes were superseded in the 1950s by all-glass "miniature" tubes with very thin pins. Keep in mind that different tube types overlapped. For example, some radios continued to use oktal or older tube types into the 1950's.
