Hot take: those $6 tube testers from the pawn shop on Route 9 are not junk
I figured any tube checker sold for pocket change was a paperweight, but this old B&K 747 from a shop in Allentown caught two shorted 6L6s on a customer's amp last week that my meter read as fine. The seller said it came from a closing repair shop and he had no clue if it worked, so I gambled six bucks and got a tool that saves me a bench call. Now I test every pull before it goes back in a chassis. What cheap gear did you buy expecting it to be dead on arrival and it turned out solid?