I got a question

So im going to be a little lazy here and I will accept up 3 forum members the ability to chastise me( this is above and beyond anyone who is a current client of ours as they are allowed to chastise me anytime they want) and point out the obvious that I could spend a little more time on here and research the answer to my question. With that out of the way.. here is the question

I have a client who has 16000 old tv vacuum tubes. They are all burned out so there is no vintage resell ability for him. Is there anyone who has an outlet for these..
Thank you for all your kind responses in advance and allowing me to go golfing on this beautiful Florida morning.(actually its a bit cold today and im working)

just to clarify, these are not the crt tubes, right? they are the tubes like the ones in radios, etc?

I would think the only value left would be the metal in the base of the bulbs....now you are dealing with a lot of broken glass to get to it. I dont know if there is any pm in the contacts but there should be at least brass in the bases.

Yes its the old plug in tubes for radios and tvs.I figured there is no great outlet for them but i promised the client that I would do my best .. Thanks guys for the info and thoughts. It is appreciated

Are they definitely all bad? I think someone here is into ham radios and may be interested if some are sill good. I know i have a small bag of tubes that are good that i pulled from an old tv a while back. Your question just reminded me that i have them in the basement. I think i remember reading that either miked or mechanic688 is into ham radios.

you might find alternative possibilities and info on a vintage radio or TV forum

Hi I talked to my EHS manager (Environmental health and safety) she said that they most likely contain mercury and in most cases would need to pay to get rid of them the right way.

I have a friend who might be interested in a rather small number of the largest, most interesting tubes. Here is a link to his web site so you can see what he uses them for.

Ham Shack Essentials Page 2

Contact him via his web site. I am certain he is unwilling to buy the entire lot but its up to him is he will buy any. Mike.

p.s. the tubes he uses don't operate he lights them from below. Mike.

Yea ebay. Pack as many in a flat rate box as will fit and sell them like that. Even untested or non working it should bring around $200 for a full box.

Are they after the mercury ?

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Originally Posted by jghilino

Yea ebay. Pack as many in a flat rate box as will fit and sell them like that. Even untested or non working it should bring around $200 for a full box.

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it appears some people use them for "art"

Steampunk??

Thanks everyone.... I was actually just told they are still all working If anyone wants to partner up on this let me know. I dont have the time to really give much of an effort to this and I Ebaying stuff just makes me irritable lol...

PM sent

does it look like this lot?

Huge Lot of Vacuum Tubes Over 3500 Tubes Amp Randio Stereo Audio Ham TV Look | eBay

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Originally Posted by ewasteofco

Hi I talked to my EHS manager (Environmental health and safety) she said that they most likely contain mercury and in most cases would need to pay to get rid of them the right way.

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I guess it depends how old they are and what kinds. There is only a few #'s that had mercury. I had to research it myself as all the dealings with tubes I did over the years and I had never heard of it. Also don't know of any real value in blown tubes. It's not like you can rebuild them. Here is a response I found on a guitar forum that deals with tube amps.

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Some indeed do contain mercury, like type 83 and 866 rectifiers. However, you won't find 866s in a guitar map, and I think only a very few rare examples used the 83.

Mercury is a metal and is liquid at room temo, In a tube, with the heat, it would quickly evaporate into a gas and ionize the innards, causing shorts, the tube would not turn off and all sorts of mayhem. Yes, some tubes do use it and were designed for it, but I think you may be hard pressed to find any in your common 12AX7 or 6L6.

With that said, yes there are some strange things in a tube, in very small quantities. I always just tossed dead ones in the trash, but I guess the environmental thing to do would be to take them somewhere that handles recycling or e-waste.

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Vacuum Tube disposal/recycling? - Telecaster Guitar Forum

Yes kinda sorta They are all loose though no boxes ......

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Originally Posted by jghilino

does it look like this lot?

Huge Lot of Vacuum Tubes Over 3500 Tubes Amp Randio Stereo Audio Ham TV Look | eBay

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Originally Posted by URBANERECYCLING

Yes kinda sorta They are all loose though no boxes ......

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sounds like a nightmare to sort them for reuse. not so bad if you can sell them for steampunk art. packaging may be interesting too.

If anyone here knows anything about steampunk, maybe you can give all of us some info on where we might look for buyers on this kind of stuff.

Definately not going to sort..... You should see my sock drawer

Here's about the only place I know of that might be interested in the tubes;

Fair Radio Sales Company Inc.