The following is my personal review of Antique Electronic Supply and is based on only one order I made:
I bought a half a dozen tubes from Antique Electronic Supply. I was looking to have a complete set of spare tubes for the old radios I have. I needed these 6 additional tubes to complete the set.
Their prices were reasonable and at the time they were having a 25% off sale on the tubes I needed. I did not want to order the tubes on-line because I was unsure of the security of their website therefore I phoned them up to place the order. I placed the order on a Wednesday and the following Monday I wanted to check the price of a 3-500 tube on their website. It was then I discovered that 5 out of the 6 tubes I ordered were now 50% off. Just my luck. I hadn't even received the tubes yet.
The tubes arrived in about a week. When I placed the order I asked the sales person to give me an approximate cost of the shipping an handling. He said about $10.00. The actual cost was $19.50. He was a little off there (95%)(see note). The tubes I received were all RCA brand and were in all original RCA boxes. Three of the tubes looked new or NOS (New Old Stock) and the other three looked used. Their website indicated that "All tubes are new unless noted". There was no indication that some of the tubes I was about to receive may be used.
I have checked 5 out of the 6 tube by substitution. They all worked. One of the tubes I checked had lower emission than the one I took out as indicated by the grid drive meter on the transmitter I was using to check the tube. This happened to be one of the tubes that looked used.
In conclusion, I would probably order from them again but I am a bit wiser now. I certainly would confirm when ordering that the tubes I would be getting are new or NOS.
NOTE: Apparently they ship internationally mainly by International First Class Mail (USPS). This could be a good thing as with my order there did not appear to be any brokerage fees. My understanding is that if items are shipped to Canada from the US via UPS or Purolator will have additional fees. I could be corrected on this.