Okay so today i went to a car show in a small town in Manitoba called gimli i went there for a swap meet, anyway i went into a small corner store for a Pepsi and OMFG there lighting was a such a mess they had 9 4x2 foot F40T12 fixtures and all of them had 2 or all lamps out and the ones that were running were flickering and had stritations there wasent a single lamp running properly so i just HAD To ask them if i could change the bulbs for them. The owner immediately seid "NO! You cant do that there a sealed uinit" (that gave me extreme pain) so i explained to her that they wernt and that i would do it for free and i would still buy a Pepsi from then she finally seid yes! so i replaced 36 lamps so all of them and she was in shock and she was so Happy that i did it that she gave me $100! i used sylvania F40T12 high cri lamps. so then i went on to the car show and i went into a restaurant and the saaammmmeeee Thingg... of coarse so i asked there manager if i could do there lighting too free of charge lol and he immediately seid Please DO!! so i replaced all there lamps they had 10 F40T12 fixtures and i did this at 12pm And the restaurant was PACKED FULL (it was a fish and chips place) and the ppl are looking at me like wtf, but its so much better now!!, the urge just became to intense when i was ordering that i had to ask! (i have one pic of the restarunt my phone was out of memory, Rip) and he gave me $50 unexpectedly which is awesome! so i carry on with doing crap and i go into the community hall for my swap meet and what do i see... THE SAME FUC*ING THING!! Soooo again i asked the manager person if i could do there lighting and he seid sure why not and he had 20 F40T12 fixtures i replaced all there lamps (im so tired at this point lol) he was so thrilled about it he was almost jumping he gave me $200!!! sooo i feel a sence of accomplishment lol, i used $200 worth of F40T12 Sylvanina High cri Lamps so i made $150!! i think thats pretty good! The amount of EOL and or EOLing lamps that i have now is insane!!

sorry if my story is boring im not a good writer at all..

Sounds like it's time to go into business, but don't hang on to every EOL lamp you get storage is expensive.. And you should hit up places like Wal-mart if you want a pile of lights (bring a trailer) big box stores like to do group relamping..

i would love to go into business with that but idk how that would work out because of all the led upgrades

Yep the person replacing all that gear to LED's normally gets to keep the classic old gear, just think of all the goodies you might get, and get paid to take home, plus you can start expensing tools and get to know suppliers so when you need some odd ball item you can get them to order it without much effort and even ask for samples, drink there coffee, eat there doughnuts, get invited to there Christmas parties, it's not all bad doing LED change overs, plus LEDs are still expensive so not every one is willing to change yet, I just talked to a store owner and he's done the math and is keeping hundreds if not thousands of T8 lamps they are still cheaper, and he supplies the tubes so I don't know his price, and his entire house is full LED, but he did change out the track lighting from MH to LED in the store and the lights marking the tills, the incandescent lamps burned the plastic, which really made him mad..

Plus if it's something you like doing, it really does make getting out of bed in the morning much easier, just ask anyone who dislikes there job if you need proof..   

I love that story that's so awesome

i do this sortof thing for my school and my current job, at the school the maintenance staff are completely worthless and at my work i am the maintenance staff LMFAO

Here is the story of my new headlights in my 2004 Volkswagen Jetta.  Last year, I wanted to install a pair of entirely new, crystal clear headlight fixtures as the original ones had oxidized and yellowed over the years.  I watched a few YouTube videos on how to do it and I was certain that it could be done.  The only supply I needed were some T-shaped screwdrivers.  I asked one of my friends if he could help me with the project, and he agreed to do so.  After we got the front bumper of the Jetta taken off after removing about 10 T-shaped screws, we could undo the T-screws that held each of the 2 headlights in place.  We removed the headlights, and this is where the problem started.  I discovered that the new aftermarket VW Jetta headlights use 9003 or H4 headlight bulbs, so the 9007 headlight bulbs that I already had wouldn't work.  Such a shame since they were expensive, high performance Sylvania Silverstar Ultras.  My friend and I drove up to the nearby auto parts store to find the right headlight bulbs.  I had to pay an extra $58 for a pair of 9003 sized Silverstar Ultras.  After that, we installed the bulbs, screwed in the new headlight fixtures and screwed the bumper back into place.  I would have never expected after market light fixtures to use different socket sizes, I learned otherwise.  After one year with the Silverstar Ultras, I switched to Philips Crystal Vision Ultras to replace the slightly dimmed out Sylvanias.  I installed them in 10 minutes.  Replacing the bulbs is so much quicker and easier than the project last year.  Please log in and see below for the pictures of my headlights.  The 1st one (4709) is the Sylvania and the 2nd one (5777) is the Philips