I found this intgeresting . I went to one of my car club meetings today and afterwards I was talking to one of our members in the parking lot . When he opened the door to his truck , I saw a large fluorescent ballast sitting on the floor. I asked him about it and he said it's no good and he's trying to find a replacement (F96T12/HO) I said "eBay!!" He had apparently checked with a number of electric supply shops and was told that all flourescent lamps/fixtures/parts have been banned and are against the law to sell in the US !!!  I told hime BULLS*** !!!  I told him that The /HO tubes are still available at Lowes & Home Depot and that I buy & sell stuff like that constantly , Just check eBay !!! When I got home I searched "F96T12/HO Ballast" on eBay and found about 40 of them !!

 Sounds like more of the electric supply store "I don't want to deal with older stuff"  B.S. !!

 Thoughts ?  Opinions ??

IIRC I think there was some sort of ban covering F96T12HO ballasts around the same time HPF magnetic F40 ballasts got banned but it only applied to the magnetic ones so it could be either the person misunderstanding the ban or the "I don't want to deal with older stuff" BS at work. Anyway there should still be electronic ones available as they were used in signs for years.

 My thoughts exactly !!  I just get tied of these people who are either lazy , or just don't know what's going on spreading B.S. like that ! 

 I went throught something similar awhile back while trying to find parts for a couple of my Wide-lites . I talked directly to someone at Wide-Lite Corp. about parts and was told that 95% of the parts for them are still available but they don't sell directly to the public and told me to contact a electric supply shop for my needed parts . All of the shops I contacted told me "All of that old crap is long discontinued and needs to be replaced anyways!" I then told them that Wide-Lite said that almost every part is still available ! I was then told " Whoever told you that is a liar" !!

Agreed, so annoying when you know they're BSing you and they still say it to you with a straight face. 

The person I asked when I was trying to buy some 69A21/CL/TS lamps from was initially confused and thought they were no longer available but when I gave them the part # they were able to have some ordered in for me.

As for the F96T12 ballasts, I think you can still order new strips for them even. Anyway at least you directed him to eBay, I probably would have pulled up the eBay page in front of him and shown him few examples.

The loose ballasts might be a bit harder to find now, I think I still saw them at Home Depot around 10 years ago. 

According to the industry newsletter” Inside.Lighting” Accuity Brands,which includes Lithonia Lighting, will be discontinuing manufacture of all their remaining Fluorescent and HID products by the end of this year. These products accounted for only 5% of sales.

Just found out that Universal is going out of business and is not going to sell. 

What Universal going out of business? Isn't Universal the last company that manufactures HID ballasts?