I apologize if this is a dumb question, but I know next to nothing about HID, I am more of a fluorescent guy. I am in the process of building a new shop, and I got a 1970s Norelco 175 watt mercury vapor fixture to put up on it. I expected it to come with a phosphor coated bulb, so i bought a clear one as well because I wanted the sickly green color that MV puts off. Well, to my surprise the fixture came with a clear bulb, but when fired up it just puts off a cool white color. No biggie, I bought another one as well. I get that one, and it does more of the same. Am I missing something here? These say nothing about color tone, I thought the clear ones were the ones which put off that sickly pale green color?

Here is the one I got for reference (probably not the best quality I am sure, but I wanted something not vintage bulb wise as I plan to run it regularly, so i want easily replaceable and inexpensive.): https://www.ebay.com/itm/361732412500?var=631036867235

The lamp you installed could be of a lower wattage than what the fixture is rated for, making it more white. But generally MV is a lot more white in person than it is on camera. I was also surprised with my clear MV at how unimpressively colored it was.

If you judged mercury lamp color only by photos previously, cameras (electronic and film) typically render mercury arcs greener that they are to the eye due to metamerism.

BTW a true intense green lamp is green metal halide. You may wish to pick one!

Yeah, it is the correct wattage lamp; one of them is the one which came with the fixture from factory which was NOS. I could have sworn I remember a specific street light at the end of my grandparent's neighborhood which was pretty green, not green green like pictures show, but a very pale green color. These have none of that, they just look like a daylight lamp color tone.

I could also just be remembering it that way based on pictures I saw later on though, so that is a possibility I suppose. Either way, I guess I will install the fixture on the shop.

Also, your lamp example on Ebay looks just slightly used. Heavily used/sputtered lamps, especially the ones behind plastic diffusers also heavily aged and yellowed, definitely look yellow-green to my eyes!

That lamp in the picture is definitely used right? I don't know why they would use that as their picture, the lamps are the same ones, but they are (the one I got at least) new in box and not used.

I'd say this lot is a bit dodgy. Seller describes his lamps as brand new, but by the look this is just untrue. Lamps are not at the end of life, but are definitely somewhat used.

This is almost exactly what it should look like: https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=7562&pos=1&pid=249898
That's a 400w one caught using a film camera. I corrected it to look like real life.

The white-ish light from an uncoated lamp does not look green. It looks a blueish white to most people. But then you let someone look at their hands - zombie colors.
It's one demo i do at work at talks about lamps and color rendering.

Yes, it’s more of a cyan colour 😎

When clear mercury vapor lamps are new, they tend to be a little bit bluer, once you use it for a little while it'll shift more green. As others have mentioned, there is some blackening at the ends of the arc tubes in that photo, but that can also occur if the lamp is switched on momentarily and immediately shut off, for example if the seller wanted to test it. If you let it warm up and the arc tube goes clear once extinguished, you'll know that it's new. But definitely use it for a little bit, it will turn green after a while.