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At something like $20 bucks and $15 bucks - back when I was a kid in the late sixties and early seventies, they were quite expensive. They're still expensive. With the internet, most everyone who didn't care about hanging on to them has already sold them to someone else. It's just easier to pay the price and get what you need. Particularly with King, bits are probably going to leak (badly) unless you buy new ones. Just pay the money (and don't drop or step on them). Please notice that I'm not any sousaphone neck and bit retailer. I just sell them to schools locally when they screw up and lose or destroy them completely so as they're not repairable.

I just checked an inflation calculator, and $20 bucks in 1970 is the equivalent of $165 bucks today. You may not like it and you may be kicking yourself for voting for schmucks of whatever party (ignoring the one man who continued to cry at the mountain top to audit the Fed, until he aged out) and with whatever amount of power they have, but that's the way it is.

I've had good luck talking to repair people who operate primarily offline and don't work on a lot of brass instruments. They have ancient bits from random instruments in their parts drawers. I agree that it's much (much!) easier to pony up and pay the retail price for these, but deals are to be had if you ask around a bit and if you have a network of people you can query.

Just like anything, it's all about the ratio of cost to ease.

Now who wants to buy my set of NOS Bundy bits?

I have a little stash of necks and bits. Maybe I should dig them out.

I guard my Holton bits like they were gold. I have an extra set just in case but I didn't know where I would find more.

The high school band my son plays in seems to have a bit gremlin. If course they don't inventory and order l during winter, they wait until the start of the summer training season when everyone and their uncle is trying to get there hands on some.

The Conn stuff is made offsight, but in the USA.
I don't know how easy it is for them to crank back up and make more after they've made a run of them, but - last year, nationally - it was pretty obvious that the supply was exhausted.
If only people who were thirty years old and older played sousaphones and/or had to purchase their own sousaphone necks and tuning bits, imagine how many fewer would be manufactured each year.

Again, I would say to anyone who complains about the price of these components to complain to the Fed.

SERIOUSLY? i'll have to look thru my junk box again, i remember seeing several. some old silver and some brass. my days of playing sousaphone have passed with my back problems.

So, …. if I sell a sousaphone, I should add $400 for the neck and two bits that fit and are all in good condition?

jtm wrote: ↑Tue Jun 18, 2024 11:03 am So, …. if I sell a sousaphone, I should add $400 for the neck and two bits that fit and are all in good condition?

When I bought my Eb sousa, it was between an older Holton that had neck and bits and a "nicer" King 1260 that was missing them for about the same price.. I bought the Holton.

I would say it the other way if you are selling a sousaphone without neck and bits it should be $400 cheaper.

It's not uncommon for me to see most of the brands of upper mouth pipes and tuning bits offered for sale on eBay for just about dealer or repair shop cost. I suspect a whole bunch of people don't bother to check eBay for a whole lot of things, and pay more than they need to for a whole lot of things. There are people who specialize in transmissions, clutches, air conditioner compressors, and all sorts of specific types of car parts on eBay who are very highly rated by their customers, and their prices always beat Lone Star, and this is just one example of one genre of items. I buy nutritional supplements and all sorts of things on eBay whereby the shipping cost won't ruin the deal, and even some things where shipping is somewhat substantial often also end up being the very cheapest I'm able to find either excellent or new...
...but whatever on all that.