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Thanks for the post earlier--- yes we still can find these , although every now and then bad ones do get through, but we stand behind the ones we sell.

Fear not--- items that were listed as 'NOT BEING RESTOCKED' will in fact be restocked, if supplies are available. Those are items that Steve was not going to restock, when his plan was to sell down the inventory and retire. Now that Small Bear lives on (thanks Steve!!)-- we will do our best to keep the catalog in its entirety.

We hope you'll all give us the opportunity to gain / re-gain your trust-- this is a sizable undertaking and we are adding a number of people etc to scale- the goal being as good or even better service than before. Please be patient with us, and please provide feedback-- we will listen to every comment, positive neutral or negative.

Monika and Chris (synthCube)

Bringing back this thread- with much gratitude to Steve and Judy we are happy to announce we have acquired Small Bear and the site is up and running for orders again. Our goal is to eventually restock everything that is in the Small Bear catalog, assuming supplies are available. We very much hope to see you back in the shop!!
Monika and Chris (synthCube)

https://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/

As a result of my plan to have a number of large format Blacet Time Machines professionally assembled, I  searched for sources of obsolete MN3005 BBD (bucket brigade delay) IC. The history of difficulty sourcing these ICs is well- documented in a number of forums:

http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8116&p=90518&hilit=mn3005
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=95978.0
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=645.0
http://electro-music.com/forum/post-278819.html
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archive/index.php/t-1028286.html

Having invested the time to find these ICs in a meaningful quantity, it was important to provide documentation to overcome concerns about the validity of the ICs. We established a simple process for evaluating them:
1)   Buying parts only from suppliers who have a track record of being able to provide genuine MN3005s in the past- no random e-bay buys.  These sources are well-documented in the various forum posts as providing legit MN3005s.  These 'recognized' suppliers act as the first line of defense against fakes. Approximately 3/4 of all orders placed were identified as 'fakes' by the supplier before shipping to me.     
a.   Of eleven 'named' suppliers, seven claimed to have stock of the MN3005, only four actually did.
b.   The average price I paid across 160+ ICs is about $33 per.
2)   Checking each IC against the visual clues that indicate fakes. These are well-documented in various forum posts, and include such items as pin size and length, condition of the top and bottom surfaces, expected logo and date codes, etc. Another good reference is http://www.aeri.com/counterfeits.html
3)   Testing each IC against a reference chip by installing it in a testbed Blacet Time Machine- fully documented in youtube videos -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD6i3osyfZg

a.   Acoustic test- video documentation of each IC demonstrated from 'no delay' to 'full delay' to compare the sound quality against a reference IC
b.   Scope test- screenshot .jpg files for each IC for 'no delay' and 'full delay' states, to compare against the screenshots for the reference IC- using the Oscium scope app for the iPad
c.   Visual inspection photos- macro-scale photos top and bottom for each IC

ICs that failed are also documented – like this one. Example here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIV0KsThoRc&feature=youtube_gdata

I find it useful to show how bad chips act, for comparison with the good chips. For those of you who care, the failure rate is about one in thirteen ICs across my sample set of 160+ chips.

Why the Blacet Time Machine?
It's a unique module. Synth designers like Blacet (and others like him) deserve to have their good work recognized. The older parts make it special and unlikely to be replicated.

'Families' of MN3005 BBD IC
From the 160+ ICs I bought, there appear to be three 'families.' I do not have any production documentation from Panasonic nor Matsushita, but the 'families' could relate to different production facilities and/or timeframes.
A)   'Shiny Top' Triangle Logo ICs- these appear to be the oldest ICs. They have a shiny top surface, and the text is faded relative to the other ICs. They do not have the characteristic edge band around the circumference of the top. These ICs' have an indent on the top of the chip that is ABOVE the logo and date code. The bottom indent lacks any text.
B)   'Edge Band' Triangle Logo ICs- these ICs have the visible edge band around the top of the IC and the triangle logo.  These ICs have an indent on the top of the chip that is BELOW the logo and date code. The bottom indent contains some combination of letters and numbers usually two items but sometimes three.
C)   'Circle Logo' ICs- these have the logo described by an 'M' inside of a rounded box and would appear to be the newest of the ICs in this assortment.
When you listen to the videos, and view the scope traces, you'll see very little correlation between the families and their resultant sounds; in other words, they appear to be interchangeable across families.

Disclaimers
I have acted in good faith to buy and test these ICs. I am a hobbyist I did this because I enjoy these devices and helping others enjoy them. I am not an engineer and this is not a full-time job. I cannot guarantee that these are 'genuine'--  only that they work as demonstrated in the videos and pictures. These are electrostatically sensitive devices and although I take ESD precautions, they are subject to damage from static discharge. There is a good reason that highly qualified people like Steve Daniels at smallbearelec.com don't have them anymore. Some of these are NOS and some are pulls, and you can evaluate that based on the photos and documentation. I have invested my own money in buying and testing a bunch of these.