Some of the fixture types I like:

- Louvered fluorescent fixtures, 1950s/1960s style with metal sides in continuous rows on pendant stem mounts.
- Turret industrial fluorescent fixtures.
- Mercury Vapour recessed cans, with either a Alzak or black baffle trim.
- Incandescent recessed squares

- Powerlite PG17 fluorescent roadway lights
- MV clamshells
- Drop lens cobraheads
- Junior sized incandescent gumballs.
 

Panasonic fart fans for the US market have them as an option.

So far the 400w HPS teardrop luminaires in my area aren't being replaced or converted. They are still flourishing in the wild along with the 400w, Semi-cutoff Holophane mongooses. But all the other streetlights like AEL 125 and older are all replaced by LED and there is probably only 2 that I know of in the wild and they don't even work! It is already hard to find even a GE m400 3rd gen here and most of the city is LED except for the very old parking lots that still used AEL 327 mercury vapor.

I think the reason why people dislike 3000K fluorescent lighting is the low CRI and the 3000K still seems a little cool in color temperature to the 2700K incandescent lamps. But 52 CRI is almost like coated MV so I actually like the lower CRI because it reminds me of mercs. Personally, I like BX-type CFL bulbs in recessed can lighting, preferably 3500-4000K and low CRI because they work great in hallways and you don't need much CRI in that application.

Real question is why not more common here?

Why not just slap a new ballast in it and some fresh tubes? They're not that expensive. And keeping it fluorescent keeps its original "vibe" intact. LEDs just aren't the same it terms of vibe.

As for value. That's hard to say. Really that's in the eye of the beholder. Some people see that and see 5 dollars of scrap metal. Others see a Porsche. Personally I wouldn't buy it for more than 100 bucks. But even if it were 40 bucks the shipping would probably be pretty prohibitive.

I don't know why displaying would be considered "greedy"

Most of the lamps I have are loose and their cardboard cases disintegrated, burned, rotted apart long before I was even born.

Any cases of lamps I do have I keep together but I have a growing problem of loose tubes just free roaming in the basement corner and it looks really bad.

I do like the drum idea but I would like some form of horizontal storage. I know long totes/crates exist, but I was hoping someone here has a preference or discovered the best crate for the task.

Still looking....  I am open for trade if you out there want my nice NOS 8ft NOS PG17 gas station fixture style.  Mfg by Whiteway/Spaulding/Kidde.

If you just need something to hold them vertically and you have a ton of lamps, I'd look for a 55 gal drum or something similar. The plastic ones shouldn't be too heavy. The lamps will stick out the top but unless you wanted to stack the containers, this shouldn't be a problem. Here's how it would look like with lamps in them.

I personally just use the cardboard cases they come in but you wanted to avoid cardboard.