Hey,

I was thinking, since some of us are die-hard collectors but can only store what available space we have, it could be great to share our finds, from eBay, Craigslist, other online store, estate finds or better, local junk shops, with other fellow collectors, in case the person who found the collectible is not interested but is worth sharing

What can be good too, since this is a lighting gallery, is to post pics of it for eye-candy since craigslist ads or eBay last a mere week and pics won't be available. (Use image upload services such as imageshack, don't post the image URL from the ad, it will disappear).

I'll start with what I found today:
Two Vintage Chrome Preheat F14T12 Fluorescent Fixtures





Interesting Chrome 2-Lamp Halfpiper with Glass covers





Enjoy!

I was thinking about bidding on that half piper, or maybe it's a quarter piper, but I saw it already has 2 bids which might be from LG members so I decided not to. In general, I prefer to avoid outbidding fellow collectors whenever possible, although that has become more difficult since ebay now obscures the usernames of the bidders.

I'm now thinking about placing a bid on those chrome F14T12 strips but I will have to act fast since the auction ends in a mere 16 hours and I will be at school most of tomorrow.

I was thinking about bidding on that half piper, or maybe it's a quarter piper, but I saw it already has 2 bids which might be from LG members so I decided not to. In general, I prefer to avoid outbidding fellow collectors whenever possible, although that has become more difficult since ebay now obscures the usernames of the bidders.

I'm now thinking about placing a bid on those chrome F14T12 strips but I will have to act fast since the auction ends in a mere 16 hours and I will be at school most of tomorrow.

Daveman, I bid on that decorative "halfpiper" but the bid was run up rapidly at the end.  Awesome looking fixture, but it appears the back of the housing is missing.

Found a pair of those similar 2-lamp chrome halfpipers with their original glass on Craigslist for $20.

The listing is here

No need for image as they are the same as the pic I posted above.

Here one I found today. If I were to bid on it, I would want the guy to leave the original ballasts in the fixture.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Chrome-Bathroom-Fluorescent-Wall-lights-Vintage-50s_W0QQitemZ230449227707QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a7d827bb

Here one I found today. If I were to bid on it, I would want the guy to leave the original ballasts in the fixture.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Chrome-Bathroom-Fluorescent-Wall-lights-Vintage-50s_W0QQitemZ230449227707QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a7d827bb

The funny thing is that it looks like one of them has a rapid start ballast in it, yet they both have starters and starter sockets. The one with the preheat choke also appears to have a newer preheat choke in it. Either way, these don't look like the original ballasts and one of them is most likely not either.

Dave, I looked at it closely and the last picture the guy has of the fixture shows a ballast that says "preheat start lamp", yet has the two red wires on one end and two blue on the other, like some rapid start F20 ballasts I have.  That has got to be interesting!  Definitely a newer "choke" in the other fixture.

Miles, I sent the craigslist guy an e-mail to see if he still had them and would ship.

And for the chrome valance lights, it looks like someone placed a bid. I hope that's someone here cause there is 4 hours remaining and normally I'd use that as a decision as to whether or not to place a bid. Plus I'd like to see one of these lit up, with the perforations in the valance shield.

I had esnipe all set up for this: 260570849451 The power groove demo fixture and bulb.
Ended up going for $202. I was going to go $100. I hope someone from here won it.

Static, that thing is COOL!!!
I did not get the craigslist fixtures as the guy was not willing to ship them for fear the glass covers would get broken.

I had esnipe all set up for this: 260570849451 The power groove demo fixture and bulb.
Ended up going for $202. I was going to go $100. I hope someone from here won it.

WOW!!! That must be a dealer display to show how Power Grooves work!!??!! Would it have been on the counter at a lighting store?
I've never seen anything like it before!

Magnotronic Twin Ex Platinum point fully automatic starters on ebay, here is the link. They appear to be pretty old and the tops are painted red. However, the name makes me wonder whether it's a glow starter or if it has some other type of technology in it, such as a thermal starter or something else.

EDIT: And shortly after I posted this, someone bought them. I hope it's someone from here. Also, I showed these to a fellow collector, Rick Delair aka Ricksbulbs here on LG and he said that they are indeed glowswitch type starters, BUT they have platinum contacts and tend to last a while. If someone from here bought some, do take some pics, some inside shots, maybe even an in action shot. I'd like to at least know what color they glow. For that matter, are the sparks during the preheat blinks any different colors either? None the less, hopefully we will know soon enough. I've also found a few more listings for stuff. Standby.

This first one is just an ad, but it's still cool since there's a building or two at the university where my dad works that has these same fixtures. They are known as the Cubic series by Holophane. Here is the link to the ad. Although these are incandescent fixtures and there is no visible space for a ballast, I saw the ones at the university all lit up once and they clearly had HPS orange glow coming out of them, meaning they had HPS lamps in them. I suspect that they were remote ballasted somewhere. Note that the glass diffusers have the more recent and current Holophane intensive pattern, which has the sunburst grid on one side and the fresnel pattern on the other.

Speaking of Holophane intensive pattern glass, I found a 12 inch square of Holophane intensive glass in their old style, however it looks like it already has a few bids on it and the auction ends pretty soon. Like the current design, it has a sunburst pattern on one side and a fresnel pattern on the other. However, instead of having the sunburst arranged as a grid, the sunburst is actually done using a random teardrop pattern. If the price wasn't so steep and I didn't think fellow collectors were bidding, I might bid on it. However that is not the case, and I have a holophane glass panel and frame that I'm not using as of yet, albeit it is of the newer intensive style. Here is the link to this vintage holophane glass diffuser. Next time someone makes a reference to "Holophane teardrop glass" on here, you'll know what we're talking about, and this is it.

Here is something very unusual. We've all seen screw in 5/7/9 watt preheat PL-L adapters, but how many do you see with metal bases like this? Here is the link for it and it's a lot of 10 so I hope you're hungry for them. I don't remember seeing any like this before so chances are this is a rarity. All in all, an unusual design, but that's one thing that makes them cool!

Anyways that's all for now. Enjoy!

Pretty old looking industrial reflectors: Here

Anyone think it's preheat? It says 8 foot but looks like it's two 4 footers in line.

Miles, I don't think that fixture is preheat, but I found one on ebay that I'm pretty sure is.

It's a Markstone! It's the 2 foot version. Here is the link. Enjoy!