I was disappointed to see the price increase, and I suspect you're right, that unanticipated interest in this amp caused him to realize he was giving them away at $299. His other products are womens boots, which leads me to believe he might be a wholesaler who buys lots of whatever at distress prices and sells them on Ebay. Russ talked to him, and I belive he told me these were made for somebody who went out of business, and the person who's selling them got them really cheap. This wouldn't be the first time somebody decided to go into the audio business only to realize you have to advertise your product to get any sales volume, and if you do advertise you can't make any money without overpricing them. It's a pity, but most people buy only the products they see in ads, and they actually belive the ads. I've been listening all afternoon, and I really like what I'm hearing. They have that SET midrange magic with a more convincing soundstage than any of my other amps. Of course if it dies in a couple of months there's nobody to send it back to for repair, but I'm sure I could talk one of the Bottleheads who understands tubes to trouble shoot it. Even if it had a major failure like a blown power transformer I would be out only $299, so I'm not too concerned. Also, at 10 watts they have enough power to drive an efficient speaker like the ART array or the Studio One Pi.
I took another look at the coupling caps, Not only are they Multicaps, they're PPFXS polypropylene and tin foil, and not the less expensive PPMFX metallized polypropylene caps. I wouldn't expect to find these in any but the better (read more expensive) high end tube amps.