Rare components

Username123

Well-known member
Does anyone know of any expensive diodes, resistors, and capacitor numbers? My father has a ton of vintage components. Just wondering if some of them are worth anything.
 
All of your dad's stuff is worth something, to someone. For the most part, as NOS supplies of vintage parts continue to dwindle, the remaining parts will continue to increase in value; for example: to someone restoring a vintage tube-radio, they might not want baby-blue metal-film resistors and would be willing to buy some of your dad's vintage carbon-resistor stash for a handsome ransom, to have a "correct" or "authentic" restoration that's fully operational.

As for numbers...
Number 1 is almost always coveted, especially in sports.
The perpetually popular 007 tends to hold value though I think there's some Connery going on there.
Oddly 13 is quite popular though 14 even moreso.

Pregnant 3s are pretty popular with card-players, but can get expensive. Speaking of which...

Expensive numbers...
In Asia, eight is a lucky number, so getting a vehicle vanity plate with "888" on it is incredibly expensive.

A billion, that's often an expensive number, but depends on what it is. A billion grains of sand is worth almost nothing and the more sand you have the further the price gets driven down; but high-grade silica — well a billion would be worth a lot, I imagine, given the current world-wide shortage of ICs.
 
Also he has vintage tubes, vintage transistors and some ICs.
You should go through that stuff with your dad, take inventory and then you and your dad can compare whatever you've got with the going rate online.

Some old TV tubes aren't worth that much, but by the same token may be worth a lot for some obscure amp builds like the Traynor Super Custom that used a TV tube.

I, for one, would love to see whatever your dad has. A friend of mine has a very rare military spec 6V6(? IIRC?) that's not encased in glass, but rather in metal. Doesn't even have to be useful to pedal-building, I love looking at old stuff.

Enjoy your pending discoveries!
 
Good idea. I should take inventory. None of that stuff is written down. I also love looking at that stuff. It's pretty neat. I also forgot to mention his collection of transformers... and cb radios... lol. I don't think the vintage cb radios or transformers would be worth much though. You should see the knobs on those cb radios though. One day those will make excellent pedal or amp knobs!
 
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