germanium transistor storage/leakage question

[adapt]

i have had a big bag of AC176 for a few years, and it seems like only recently when i tried testing them with my DCA, they're all measuring 0.80-1.00 mA leakage.

i feel like i just measured a bunch of them a month ago and they weren't unusably leaky. now these are all garbage. is there a certain way i should be storing these that isn't a small plastic bag? i'm really bummed that the ~90 i have seems to be all bupkis.

[IvIark]

The way they're stored won't make them leak more, although if they're stored in a hot environment they will display more leakage until their temperature equalises.  Unfortunately some transistors aren't very good and are just leaky by their design and specification, and most NPN germaniums would be included in this.  I've never seen any NOS NPN AC*** transistors that weren't pretty horrendous for leakage, in fact the only consistently acceptable/good ones I've come across are Japanese or Russian.

[rocket88]

I agree 100% with mark. As the resident Ge hoarder, , a lot of the NPN Ge's are leaky as all hell, with the accept of a few like the MP38a, and a few others I've got. It seems not uncommon, in my experiences at least that good, non-leaky NPN's are really hard to find. For example, I had read a lot if good reviews for the GT404, which is the NPN equivalent of the GT402 which is my #1 PNP for fuzzfaces, were the leakiest things I've ever bought. Out of 200 not 1 was useable. Lowest leakage was 500uA, and the highest was over 2000uA.