Hey all,

Anyone know where I can score a few starter sockets? Manually preheating things is fine but gets rather tiring when testing lamps. Most of them I have seen are $10 each, which is really pricy. If you know where I can get a few for good money let me know.

If you want to start lamps that only use a 120v choke ballast, you could use an empty C9 Christmas light string to get E17 base lampholders that you can use as extremely cheap starter sockets for Japanese FG1-E and FG7-E starters. In that case, you could get 25 E17 starter sockets for $15 instead of paying that same price for normal starter sockets for lamps requiring 120v OCV:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/301596825897

Here are some Japanese FG1-E starters that you could use:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/323610204225

For lower wattage lamps from 4w to 10w, you can use Japanese FG7-E starters:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/231750914637

In that case, a starter socket from an empty C9 Christmas light string would only cost $0.60 and if you use a single Japanese FG1-E or FG7-E starter along with the starter socket, you would get a starter and socket for less than the price of a normal starter socket on eBay.

If you only want one starter socket, you could also get one of those E27 to E17 reducers in a 2 pack for only slightly over $2 and use an ordinary E26 socket to insert the reducer and Japanese starter inside to make for a really cheap starter socket:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/373967994675

However, for lamps requiring much higher OCV such as 32w circlines and F40T12 fluorescent tubes, you will need a normal starter socket for those as there are no E17 starter sockets for those lamps even in Japan.

Semperlite has a good variety of starter sockets for about 3 to 5 dollars each, or if you're looking for really cheap, then here is a pack of 10 from AliExpress for just under a dollar each.

At least this helps to save money because North American starters are much cheaper than Japanese E17 starters.

If you're looking for a specific style to fit a specific fixture design, Semperlite has a good variety.

eBay will also have a few. That Aliexpress pricing is the cheapest I've seen but if you're in a rush to get one, they might take up to 4 weeks to arrive as they ship from China.

Surplus Sales of Nebraska has these for $1.50 each + shipping. Decent price if you want a US seller.

Some older mom and pop style hardware store might also still have starter sockets. Usually the Leviton style that's built into a lampholder base.