To complete the story, let me tell you about another item a member here "shared" with me recently....
It was an eBay auction for an old
Tex 502A dual beam CRO located in Sydney (about an hour's drive each way for me). It had crud all through it, the 5AR4 rectifiers had been removed and the upper focus control had the shaft broken off. It did, however, come with the cover panels - a fact I only found out when the seller responded to my questions
after the auction had ended.
It was listed as "Used", but without the 5AR4s it wasn't going to work too well. It was presented as a carcass with lots of parts and should have been listed as "For parts, Not working".
While a little sad in one way (it was a dual beam scope), having dodged this boat anchor I feel I may still be able to restrain myself from diving headlong into the abyss.
At least that's what I'll be telling myself.