Btw, anybody living in the Milwaukee, WI area Graybar has about a dozen brand new Philips 90w Low Pressure Sodium (SOX) lamps on clearance for $8 each. I bought two just for shits and giggles

Holy cow! This is truly surprising, but also wonderful! Demand must really be that much to justify resuming a discontinued product. I won't bet on it being any more than a temporary, limited production run for now, though. If anyone has the funds, get them while you can!

But now here's something that confuses me. From Silverliner on the discontinuation thread:

It is confirmed by a reliable source that the T17s and Power Grooves are done for good and will never be made again. The machinery was removed and scrapped.

If that was the case, how are they being made now? Maybe Dave's source isn't so reliable...  

Now this makes me wonder, could T17 lamps be produced again with enough persuation...!?

Too bad I cant just order one lamp, minimum of 1 case. I would really like to see the brand new one fresh from the plant. Im afraid if I buy one from an online retailer ill get NOS and not the ones they are producing now. Ide be willing to bet theyre made in china

I think the Power Groove bulb was also made in Europe and Canada.
May be some of the equipment still exists in those places to make the PG bulbs.

There is a bulb manufacturer in Germany that still makes the F54T17 super blue bulb.
Right now Germanys manufacturing base need a boost in the worst way as their GNP is starting to slide.
 
Sometimes smaller bulb manufactures will buy up old equipment from big manufactures and make discontinued bulbs if there is still a demand for them.
Supply and demand at work may be.

BTW: The F40T17, F90T17, F54T17, and all three sizes of the PG bulbs were not included on the government bulb ban hit list.

Has anyone bought one/a case of these yet?

I would LOVE to get a case of them, as the case of Daylight ones I bought arrived with six of the eight tubes destroyed.  I have five lights that are perfect for Power Groove tubes (four dual tube and one single tube).  I have one pair of F96PG17/D tubes in one and Sylvania F96T12/VHO/CW tubes in the other three.

I just removed two old 8' VHO T12 (4-lamp) gas station parking lot lights that are dated back to the 70's according to the owner of the gas station. Three of the lamps installed in one of the units were PG's and very very used, the phosphor in all three lamps is an almost charcoal-gray color and the black end-banding extends almost 5". I took all three lamps home and tried to light them with an electronic VHO ballast. Two of them lit for about three seconds then the ballast shut them down. The third lamp stayed on, the color from these is very similar to cool green as the phosphor is so degraded. The electrodes in the lamp that the ballast "approved" of and kept running became incandescent and glowed about as bright as a 15w incandescent!

btw I was hoping to score 4 nice big magnetic 2-lamp 215w VHO ballasts from the removal of these fixtures, but only became disappointed to find Fulham Sinehorse electronic ballasts, one of which must've shorted because it tripped the breaker as soon as power was switched on. 
What was even more disappointing was the super cr@ppy lightweight LED units I had to install in place of these vintage 1970's VHO's

btw I was hoping to score 4 nice big magnetic 2-lamp 215w VHO ballasts from the removal of these fixtures, but only became disappointed to find Fulham Sinehorse electronic ballasts, one of which must've shorted because it tripped the breaker as soon as power was switched on. 
What was even more disappointing was the super cr@ppy lightweight LED units I had to install in place of these vintage 1970's VHO's

The power Groove ballasts show up on ebay from time to time.
I bought two NOS 96 inch PG ballasts early this year.
I bought a case of NOS F96PGWMs on ebay and they all arrived ok, but two of the eight bulbs lost vacuum after running for 30 min.
They look like new but just don't work, they make a nice bulb for display for people that have never seen one.
I have two 96 inch PGWMs that are still operating, for now anyway.
It seems that the 96 inch PGs don't hold their vacuum very well as other members here have reported vacuum loss in the PGs also.
 

You can still get new magnetic VHO/PG ballasts, though the only ones I've seen are these Sola units. In my experience their electronic stuff is junk but the magnetic stuff is fine. I imagine VHO ballasts are cheaper on eBay though.

I wont buy any SOLA product. Their magnetic HPS ballasts (250w and 400w CWA) run super hot, burn up and go short circuit, If I had a nickel for every overheated SOLA HPS ballast ive removed from parking lot fixtures/wall packs etc... I mean, if they can manage to screw up a magnetic HID ballast then im not even going to consider their electronic stuff.

I checked my local GE lamp Distributor and they say Discontinued and Recommended the T12 1500Ma. Lamp to replace it with.

The GElighting website shows Discontinued.

Are the WM versions of these lamps worth buying? I found someone who has 9 cases of these. I really only want 1 case right now.

Darn, that's too bad. Well it was a good run, if even a short one.

In my opinion, if you can find any at all, WattMiser or otherwise, get them.

I hope so, but so far I have been unable to find any by the case.
May be there was such a demand that they went back in production.
There has got to be a lot of fixtures still out there that need them.
If you have a factory or warehouse with thousands of PG fixtures that need bulbs, replacing all the fixtures could be cost prohibitive.
A few cases of bulbs a year is a lot cheaper.
Not everyone is going "green".

I did buy a case of NOS F96PG17WMs off of ebay early this year, but have not found any for sale since.
Many sites still list them for sale, but have none in stock and are too lazy to remove the listing from their site.

Some sites will even let you order them and confirm the order and shipping only to have it canceled as it has not been stocked for a long time and just too lazy to remove the listing.
You think it is on the way, but it was never in stock in the first place.

good example I saw granger had  them on clearance  for 8 bucks  each my heart was racing  but when called they gave different  stock # and 90 in stock for 43$ I should of known something  was up when  they  came 15 case made my order flew down pick up and they came out w regular straight 215vhos I  was disappointed sad day

No way. It's gotta be too good to be true!

cause it is