My ReStores told me a while ago that they aren't supposed to accept anything with Hg as it's too difficult and costly to dispose of if it doesn't sell . They also went on to tell me that they can't really control what comes in through large commercial donations .

 I do still stumble onto some interesting stuff from time to time .

interesting
I have a GE M400 250/400 watt HPS and to change between 250 AND 400 you unplug a lead to a section of the capacitor and I assume taking part of the choke coil out with it
and wondered if in theory having one set up say 150-100 and a relay to switch after midnight - I have seen 2 ballasts for one bulb fixtures and they switch between to run dimmed from midnight to around 6 am when it is reverted back to "high power" and if something like that was ever built?

There have been two metal halide spotlights at my local thriftshop for months now, for 15 euro a piece. Some of the old stuff is hard to sell. I'm not particularly fond of metal halide lamps so i'm not buying them either.

Can imagine that some shops are more selective in what they want to sell.
All of them still sell all types of residential lamps though.

If it's like on this side of pond I think it's quite common nowadays that second hand stores and such considers used light fixtures as junk that they don't want. Only exception seems to be more expensive design fixture. I kinda understand why they do it because there really doesn't seem to be almost any demand for used fixtures or "old" lighting stuff that is not considered antique.

I enjoy your photos, even though I’m not on here all that often and don’t comment a lot.

A lot of times I don’t get any comments on my photos either and I understand the feeling, but like I said, I don’t always comment on others myself, so I wouldn’t sweat it!

The ones here still sell fluorescent and HID if they get them in the donations but for the most part, most of the items donated are residential grade stuff or LEDs with the odd fluorescent or HID.

Don't really see stuff like ballasts now either.

Value Village/Savers seems to take and sell anything they get their hands on. I've seen stuff like LPS, CMH lamps, ballasts there before.

Mine still seems to take most types of lighting…they still have incandescent and CFL bulbs. I’ve found some nice vintage MV lamps in the past.

Haven’t had any luck with finding actual HID fixtures there though.

I do hear in general restores are getting stricter, I’ve heard lots of complaints that some won’t take used ceiling fans or any furniture or appliances that are over 10 years old. Of course I don’t know how they’d know the difference.

I think some of the Restores are trying to be like boutiques.

I’ve generally stopped trying to go to other restores than my local one. I’ve tried about 3-4 others and it was a waste of time and gas, I thought since they’re in denser areas and near the coast that I’d have better finds… but I came up empty handed every time.

Had some time off last week, so I went and did a ReStore run. I'm noticing that they will only take and resell resi-grade lighting stuff. No HID, fluorescent, or anything that contains Hg. In the end, I found nothing worth buying...guess it's time to hang it up when it comes to them. It was that way at all locations except one (visited six locations)...this seems to be coordinated.
Anyone else noticed this in their area?

I'm finding stuff that I donated to the ReStores/Second Use stores around the Seattle area showing up in Parrot175's videos...lamps and luminaires. 
Funny how when I tried to sell the stuff, no one wanted it!

@ icefoglights, but will looking at LG tell you where a particular lamp is.?