Title. It's one disappointment after another now and I can no longer see it the way I used to considering that literally everything is becoming LEDs. This along with other unrelated crap I've been dealing with in the past few months (no, year now? time makes no sense anymore) is really just convincing me that there's no point in keeping all this stuff around or collecting anymore. Some days I've come pretty close to saying screw it and just giving away all my stuff for free or super cheap on here. I might keep a few of my streetlights (in fact I just got some brand new custom AEL 115s, definitely keeping those) along with spare lamps for them but I'm so tired of the constant bad news regarding discontinuation of gear or lamp brands, new regulations, increasing unavailability of non-LED items, and lighting as a whole becoming homogenized and monotonous with LEDs. Seriously, the whole reason I got into lighting was because I thought HID and fluorescent lights were the coolest thing ever and now they are all disappearing. There's nothing interesting about LEDs at all and seeing members here defend this is making me not even want to come here anymore. Decided to come here again today after a much needed long break and what's the first thing I see? Information about new regulations/conventions that could very well spell the end of manufacturing for any light source that contains mercury, as well as my favorite lamp manufacturer (Eye) discontinuing their entire mercury vapor lamp line.  For now I'm going to keep up with this but I'm seriously close to just pulling the trigger and dumping it completely. It's such a waste of time, money, space, it's a drag on my mental health and there are other things I'm interested in that don't come with the constant disappointment and frustrations that this hobby does.

Anyways sorry about the rant, if you all have any advice on how to NOT feel this way I'm all ears.

I am sorry you are going through these tough times in collecting lighting. I also feel the same about LED lighting taking over the world and having fears about governments banning non-LED light sources in the name of “energy efficiency” despite the fact that some HID sources are more efficient than most LEDs. I personally feel the desire to stock up on thousands upon thousands of HID lamps, fixtures, ballasts, and ignitors so that I can have a lifetime supply of HID lighting in my dream home because I have this burning desire to light my dream home with mostly just magnetically ballasted HID lighting and preheat fluorescents since I enjoy watching their startup on a daily basis. Unfortunately, stocking up on HID lighting equipment to prepare for lamp, ballast, and fixture bans will be a huge drain on our finances.

Personally , I wouldn't let it get to you . This wasn't an overnight thing . You figure that MV has actually been basically dead for almost 15 years now with the replacement lamps on life support ever since. It was just a matter of time before someone "pulled the plug". Weather we like it or not , ALL technology will eventually fall out of favor and die. Good example , CD players . for years, they were available as std. equipment in almost every car built. Now only a handful of new cars come with them as standard equipment. I'm sure that someday in the not so distant future, the dreaded LED will become a victim of some "better, more efficient" lighting technology and future collectors will bitch and complain just as we do currently of the extermination of the once Mighty HID !! These companies aren't doing anything that hasn't been done for centuries. The newest , hottest thing gets thrust into the spotlight and the old gets swept out to the curb . As much as we complain , it's not gonna change anything that much . Case in point , the lamp bans from not so long ago  , even if the bans were overturned , the manufacturers still wouldn't have resumed making the old models as the demand for them just isn't there like it was back in the day .

 SO , collect what you love and hold dear while you can and keep it safe . If you get rid of your collection , you'll probably regret it for the rest of you're life !!

Yeah, I would just aim to save as much as you can right now, having one lamp is always still better than having none. Yeah, I still remember when T8 and HPS was starting taking over T12 and MV en-mass and a lot of people on this forum had similar opinions about T8 and HPS when ever someone mentioned that a installation of T12 or MV got replaced. Even I didn't really collect HPS that seriously until more recent years.  And truth be told ever since MV was sidelined by HPS and MH, it was been on a death spiral since 2008 when they stopped making luminaires.

And there's always groups of dedicated people that aim to preserve the older technology. You can see this in the people who have kept the physical music industry going by buying older tech like vinyl and cassette and even artists that release on vinyl and cassette. The same goes for the groups of people who restore and collect old cars. Same goes for old computers, old video game consoles, etc.

The only way I'd give up and call it quits is if the government says it's "against the law to use any other lighting source, other than LED."
Same with if the government says it's "against the law to operate motor vehicles with combustion engines." If LED and electric cars and motorcycles
took over, that's when I'd call it quits with both lighting, and vehicles. And... my life would get very boring... very fast.
Doesn't look like either scenario will happen anytime soon, so you won't see me giving up anything. I'd highly advise not to give up what you've
got, because the feeling of regret will take over, and the bad feelings will only increase, very, very quickly.
LED may be ramping up, but it's not dominant... nor is it the only option. So keep the quality lighting you've got man...

Anyways sorry about the rant, if you all have any advice on how to NOT feel this way I'm all ears.

Easy. Close the curtains, light your favourite lamps, and forget about the outside world. Well, except for us, that is 

Don't quit! Eventually LED will be dumped and another lamp type(s) will take over. The only thing we can really do is to save as many fixtures as we can to remind ourselves of what lit the roads before LED.

You shouldn't quit your hobby with lighting Sam if it's something you love. Yeah HID lighting is being replaced with LED. Something we can't control. All we can do is save as many fixtures and lamps as we can.

You shouldn't quit your hobby with lighting Sam if it's something you love. Yeah HID lighting is being replaced with LED. Something we can't control. All we can do is save as many fixtures and lamps as we can.

Well said.!

I wouldn't make any rash decisions. I know this whole Covid crap along with the new strain "this is never going away, life is never ever going back to normal again even with a vaccines" fearmongering crap is getting to you and mixing that with the latest lighting news makes things very bleak. If I were you I'd stop reading Covid stuff for a while and focus on hobbies to be honest.

I know this whole Covid crap along with the new strain "this is never going away, life is never ever going back to normal again even with a vaccines"...fearmongering crap.

Don't even get me started!
The world isn't going to end and it will get back to normal. I hate it when I keep hearing "I think we're going to be in this for a few more years. BLAH!!! That's all I can say right now.

Title. It's one disappointment after another now and I can no longer see it the way I used to considering that literally everything is becoming LEDs. This along with other unrelated crap I've been dealing with in the past few months (no, year now? time makes no sense anymore) is really just convincing me that there's no point in keeping all this stuff around or collecting anymore. Some days I've come pretty close to saying screw it and just giving away all my stuff for free or super cheap on here. I might keep a few of my streetlights (in fact I just got some brand new custom AEL 115s, definitely keeping those) along with spare lamps for them but I'm so tired of the constant bad news regarding the discontinuation of gear or lamp brands, new regulations, increasing unavailability of non-LED items, and lighting as a whole becoming homogenized and monotonous with LEDs. Seriously, the whole reason I got into lighting was because I thought HID and fluorescent lights were the coolest things ever and now they are all disappearing. There's nothing interesting about LEDs at all and seeing members here defend this is making me not even want to come here anymore. Decided to come here again today after a much needed long break and what's the first thing I see? Information about new regulations/conventions that could very well spell the end of manufacturing for any light source that contains mercury, as well as my favorite lamp manufacturer (Eye) discontinuing their entire mercury vapor lamp line.  For now I'm going to keep up with this but I'm seriously close to just pulling the trigger and dumping it completely. It's such a waste of time, money, space, it's a drag on my mental health and there are other things I'm interested in that don't come with the constant disappointment and frustrations that this hobby does.

Anyways sorry about the rant, if you all have any advice on how to NOT feel this way I'm all ears.

please don't quit. if you do quit you can still keep your collection, you don't have to throw it out. there comes a time when you need to stop collecting and start holding.

The solution is to light your driveway with the technology you like. I've considered quitting a couple times too but then I realized that I would have wasted years of my time for nothing.

Slight problem there, we don't have a driveway

So we lit the living room instead 

Thanks for the kind responses everyone. I've decided that I'm going to keep going with this and not quit at least not yet, mainly out of fear of doing something stupid/impulsive and regretting it heavily. (I have some stuff in my collection that's pretty much impossible to find and if I got rid of it I came to the realization that I might never get a chance to get them back) I actually just found out about a new storage solution that I can do today so finally getting everything organized again will definitely help. And yeah I seriously think the whole COVID thing is just messing me up. A year ago I was a completely different person and would have found something like this unthinkable.

please don't quit. if you do quit you can still keep your collection, you don't have to throw it out. there comes a time when you need to stop collecting and start holding.

That's a good way to put it that I never really considered. The constant pressure of seeing everything be rapidly discontinued but not being able to stock up has definitely been what's really pushing me to the edge. I have some rare stuff I'm just going to hold on to for now.

Yeah, I would just aim to save as much as you can right now, having one lamp is always still better than having none. Yeah, I still remember when T8 and HPS was starting taking over T12 and MV en-mass and a lot of people on this forum had similar opinions about T8 and HPS when ever someone mentioned that a installation of T12 or MV got replaced. Even I didn't really collect HPS that seriously until more recent years.  And truth be told ever since MV was sidelined by HPS and MH, it was been on a death spiral since 2008 when they stopped making luminaires.

Lol yeah I like looking through old posts and threads about that and I'm just like "wow, you guys had no idea  ".