Saw a repair shop in Cleveland still using a tube tester in 2024

Walked into a shop off West 25th while killing time, and the owner had a tube tester on the bench he uses for old radios, said he gets 3 or 4 a month from guys cleaning out garages. My first bench job in 1999 was all caps and sound cards, and now I barely touch a soldering iron. Do any of you still keep old gear around for the odd vintage job, or did you sell it all off?

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lisa51d ago

Keeping old gear is a waste of bench space for most shops and the math backs that up. You said yourself you barely touch a soldering iron now, so why would you keep a scope and a tube tester taking up room for three radios a year? Selling it off lets you put that money into gear you actually use every day, and the vintage guys who really want it will just buy their own testers on eBay for cheap. Cleveland shop can do what he wants but he is running a hobby, not a business, and hobbies do not pay rent. If the vintage work dried up tomorrow he would be stuck with dead weight he cannot even give away.

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