I have quite a few old boat anchors that I am now starting to repair. I found that the tubes can be QUITE expensive!
What source(s) do you guys use?
There are certain tubes that are going to be expensive no matter where you go. 6V6G and 6L6G and 2A3, and other less common but in high demand tubes are going to be expensive just about everywhere you go. You can get the first two in GT styles, and they'll be less expensive. 2A3 is a hard one to get cheap, though there are ways. The best way is to find one at a flea market or rummage sale, where the seller doesn't know what he has.
If you do buy from eBay, never bid over the price offered by the above suppliers, if the same style is offered by the suppliers. People bid 6V6Gs and 2A3s up to outrageous amounts. Unless you have the extra cash, you'll go broke if you go this way. If the style you want (G, GT, metal, etc.) is not available from the suppliers, then you must go with eBay or other similar methods, if you demand a certain style of tube. If you want a specific brand in a specific era box, etc., then you are probably stuck with something like eBay unless the above suppliers happen to have specifically what you want. You may have to exchange e-mail pictures, etc., to see what you are getting, if you do attempt to get a specific brand/style/boxed tube from one of the above suppliers. I don't know if they'll go that far. I've demanded certain brands and styles from www.tubesandmore.com, and said that I did not want to place the order if they were going to send me anything else. They said that they'd do what I said, but I almost never received what I wanted. Instead I'd get random brand tubes, though usually www.tubesandmore.com will send you specifically G style (or metal or GT or whatever)tubes if you request such. If you're picky, you have to go with the high prices sometimes. If you'll settle with whatever makes a radio work, you can get bargains and lower prices. I am picky because I find that the older tubes are about half of the beauty of old radios. I'm poor, so when I operate my radios on a daily basis, I settle with more modern tubes, but whenever I display my radios, I put in the best looking tubes I have, even if they don't necessarily perform well (I'll switch them out to play the radio). If I had more money (and no, this isn't a call for donations), I'd be even more picky.
Thomas