Sorry for the long post but I'm having a hard time finding HID lights.
I don't know why but I barely ever find HID lights of any kind for sale in second hand stores here in Australia and it's driving me nuts!
All I find is junk quality halogen work/floodlights, LED junk and every lighting related item that isn't a HID fixture, bulb or gear.
There are only 2 ReStores in the whole of Australia and even they don't have a thing HID related! I know that HID lights weren't commonly used on houses in Australia. (Blame our stupid laws banning DIY electrical work that cause injuries instead of preventing them.) Anyway, HID lights were still very widely used on industrial and commercial buildings and by the millions for street lighting. For example, millions of Sylvania B2224's were made between 1989 & 2003 and installed by the thousands on roads and buildings but finding one second hand in a store is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Currently, the only ways I have of getting HID stuff are:
1. Jumping the fences at demolition sites during the night after the workers are gone
2. Facebook Marketplace
3. Hard Rubbish (similar to the bulky item collections in the USA)
4. Asking family and friends
5. Dumpster Diving
And when I do find something, it's
a) Metal Halide which I don't like because it explodes,
b) Very badly broken that I can't fix it or salvage parts,
c) Either a bulb without gear or gear without a bulb,
d) Too expensive,
e) Miles away from where I live,
f) Not able to be given to me because of our BS health and safety laws
I'm so annoyed by this and don't know what else to do. I don't want to constantly post in the wanted section because it will seem like I'm begging.
Any tips on what I can do or where I can look?

Result C doesn't seem that bad as eventually you'll find a match.

I'd keep a couple of Halide lamps as you may find another collector to trade with.

H & S rules are very annoying, this response has worked once for me: "I understand the risks associated with this item, but the only person I would be putting at risk is myself. With that said, I know how to safely use it; and you won't be held responsible if something does go wrong". A very long shot, but you might hit the target.

If you want a HID street light, you could always look for contractors out on the streets doing replacement schemes. I have gotten 4 lanterns by speaking to the crews. Most are quite friendly and are happy to give over something that is just scrap value to them and would go in a skip. A small cash incentive wouldn't hurt, but don't be too persistent. There is a website that list all planned roadworks in the UK, and what the job is. I look on that for planned street light replacement schemes near me. I don't know if there is an Australian version, but you can look. There is also always the option of emailing the council to inquire about upcoming replacement schemes.

Yeah that’s a shame about the electrical installation laws in Australia, so does that mean you also can’t go into electrical wholesale and order stuff?
I use to get all my stuff from the street lighting yard next door to my auntie Christine’s house when I was still at school, this was back in the day’s of no CCTV or locked gates in the 80s!, but when I started working and earning my own money, I would buy everything from electrical wholesale.
Luckily though this was still in that era when HID stuff was still plentiful on the shelves.

I confess I get most of my stuff either from trades on here or eBay. I've never once come across a crew changing out lights, and it's too late around here now as anything worth having has pretty much all gone now except for literally a handful of HPS dayburners. I've got pretty much all the HPS stuff I want now anyway.

Yeah, the laws over there regarding electrical work are crazy. Here, as long as we get anything that's permanently connected to the supply checked out and tested by a qualified sparky, then we're fine, although to be honest if it's your own property and you've done the work to code, as our American friends call it, then I doubt anyone would say anything. We're in a rented flat and even here we've only had one official electrical inspection in 25 years..! It's supposed to be every 5 

They didn't find any problems, and I told them I'd installed a few things, including a spur point to feed an emergency light over the front door, and they just said 'Yeah, that's fine' as they could see I'd done the work properly.

By the way, are all the electrical switches in Australia those little Clipsal rocker types..? Every photo of an Australian light switch or power outlet shows them, and I just think they're horrible, they're too small and don't look particularly well made to me. I've never actually physically handled one though, so I may be doing them a dis-service, but I don't like the appearance of them.

I found stuff like flea markets or car boot sales are sometimes good places to look for this stuff. Other online classified sites too, I believe Gumtree is the one commonly used in Australia. Some antique markets are also good for this stuff too.

It's a shame the electrical installation laws in Australia are so strict. Over here if you own your own property you can do you own electrical work as long it's done to code and inspected after afterward (In practice inspections only happen on initial occupancy or when a property changes hands, or during major renovations).

Wholesalers are also a good source of new HID lighting. Over here most will sell to the public but I heard in some countries they restrict sales to trade accounts or people with a license.

Most of my stuff is from places like Restore with the rest filling in the gaps.

Also regarding bulbs without gear or gear without bulbs, it might be worth it to grab it if it's cheap and you have the room to store it. Sooner or later the missing lamp/gear will show up for sale.

I'd grab the metal halide stuff IMO, maybe use the lamps in trades with others and then the gear can probably be reused to run MV or something.   

I get my stuff mostly from electricians which are retiring and there are also a bunch of utility companies which I know for decades which I occasionally get called for emptying their stocks. I could even obtain lamps and fixtures from our nuclear power plant where I had temporarily employment years back. As a kid I could go to our local recycling center to get some dented street lights as I knew the owner of the facility.

To get new HID lamps here in Switzerland one could only buy them at electric wholesaler or via electricians. These weren’t sold in hardware shops or groceries with a few exceptions like reflector mercury lamps (HQL-R 80W) as a plant grow light and sometimes double ended metal halide lamps HQI-TS 70W.

It’s crazy and sad how strict some regulations are in other countries which makes it almost impossible to obtain any old lamps or lanterns.

We never had discharge lighting (LPS or HID) sold retail here. Before the days of t'interweb and eBay, it was wholesalers or nothing, and some of those could be awkward when it came to selling to non-trade customers who didn't have an account.

Yeah, I suppose those of us in North America were lucky in that regard as during the heyday of HID, most larger hardware stores had a  small selection of lower wattage HID lamps and fixtures for sale. 175w MV and 70w HPS were the main types used in domestic HID with 100w MV, 35w, 100w, and 150w HPS and 18w and 55w SOX also popular.

I've never seen HID lamps in grocery stores before but I heard in the US, they sold the commonly used domestic wattages with the rest of the household lamps.

Yard lights and on rare occasions cobraheads were sold in some stores here catering to a more rural market.

I found most electrical wholesalers will sell to walk-ins here but some might require you to pay with credit card or similar. I suppose they might not be setup for cash since most of the sales is probably through accounts or credit cards. 

Well I suppose that apart from farmers, or landowners with large properties, the average domestic user wouldn't have used discharge lighting. I've certainly never heard of the concept of 'domestic HID' or seen any lamps on residential properties; but then I've never lived in very rural places, I've spent most of my life in or near large cities like London.

I guess that if you did have a large property, you'd probably hire an electrician or specialist lighting contractor to fit external lighting rather than do it yourself. Unless you're lighting nuts like us, of course 

To me HID lighting was something very special because of the fact that it was not available for the public and only a small number of peoples that had the advantage of using such lights.
My ambition spurred me to get in contact with guys which were handling with such lights and I felt very proud once I got called by the chief electrical engineer of a large city electric utility company to get the wanted lights.
That’s why I made friends at utility companies through all the years. To all these workers which most of them are retired now I still have connections and one guy for example which I asked for help to get my first HPS gear is now my surrogate father.