really guys i must be missing something...

[lightningfingers]

a few weeks back i made a bulk order of JRC4558D dual opamps (i think i have about 150) but i see these things on ebay for massive prices.
what am i missing?

[Mike Burgundy]

Nothing. It's all hype.
I believe Jack has an excellent article on 4558 legends and myths at muzique.com
The JRC4558 is once again in production under a slightly different name, smallbear has the for peanuts. You can use almost any dual opamp and just pick the one you like - most of the time you won't be able to find any differences between them, though.

[Mark Hammer]

Apparently you lack the gullibility gene, and as a result have a serious deficit of stupidity, due to an overabundance of common sense....it's a chemical imbalance.  If you want a cure, I am sure many people will be happy to come to your home and hit you upside the head with a large and heavy blunt object.  It may even be covered by your national health plan.

*ANYTHING* that was ever originally built with a 4558D was designed around a chip that was cheap, easily available, and "good enough".  There is nothing exotic about them, nothing particularly rare about them, and I think I can say with confidence that their sustained production has very little to do with the TS-9 re-issue market and everything to do with their widespread use in a large variety of products *because* they are cheap, easily available, and "good enough".

[petemoore]

Some of us like these 'good nuff' chips best for Fuzzes etc.
 4558's seem to make it to the finals in most of these chip 'shootouts'.

[WGTP]

Probably because of the things Mark said, they do seem to "Go all to Hell" in a distortion circuit nicely, if your into that sort of thing.  Of the 20 I have tried, the differences border between fairly subtle to "did I really change the chips".  Changing diode types and numbers is much more noticable.