Thank you for the responses! But the video seems to be now deleted...

@coolbeans: We've corresponded, but it's been long time.
@Bulbman256: Guess I could leave a tag with 'LG-BT25'in them...but then someone else will buy it.

You should leave a cryptic message inside a luminaire next time you donate one.

That funny and pretty cool to see. Have you reached out to him before?

I have avoided the restores in my area. One focuses on furniture, and no mercury or non-specalty incandescent lamps at any locations. I did find some interesting things at the restore up north in McHenry, but selection is not great. My biggest gripe with resore are their prices in general are at or just below retail price. There is a massive independent thrift store by me that I like to frequent and they sell anything you could imagine.

I carried around things related to my interest, I became known for it in a comedic good way. The only problem is all my lamps which are good to hold are rare or I only have one of them. I used F40T12s as a stick, when I found them while walking with my friends.
Here, if you do something random again and again, you get known for it in a comedic way. I still remember the guy who used ram sticks as a scale in school, it became a trend and the highest capacity would win.

I went to 3 ReStores yesterday (Santa Ana, Anaheim, and Bellflower) and they were all pretty much like what you described. Modern residential lamps and fixtures from large donations, and mostly LED bulbs. Some incs but modern ones from just before the ban. Bought nothing. Total bust. Last score was a few weeks ago at another ReStore in Oxnard and got a bunch of NOS Luxor incandescent bulbs. Scored a few new fluorescent and HID lamps at others.

This has been my experience with a lot of Restores now too. The two in my city have been like this since ~2019 or so. A lot of the lamps (mostly LED) they're trying to sell aren't any less expensive than they would be to buy new. As of now, I've found that Restores in smaller towns and cities usually tend to have more interesting stuff.

You should've checked out the Fanimation Fan Museum in Zionsville.

Hey Dave,

I will say that you are an important piece of the community and I speak for most if not all of us that you are liked here. Activity here has just slowed down since when I joined back in 2020. Everyone's just gotten busy, definitely the case for me. I haven't had the chance to post or talk here for a good long while. Unfortunately life gets in the way but we still enjoy the presence of you and other members on the site.

Spent the past couple days visiting a college out in Indiana, figuring that all out now. Also had a chance to check out the Studebaker museum in Indiana, really cool place.