Yeah i have an NOS compax lamp still in the box. Very heavy lamps LOL but yes, very cool! I personally like those Enertron PL adapters (and ones like it) since they whole unit isn't a throw-away thing, though lots of times that's what i see happeing to those PL and circline adapters; they're simply unscrewed and CFLs are installed when the tube goes EOL.

I have four of them, NOS from 2004 I believe. I also have a few PL adapters too including one with a screw on reflector.

I used to have an ABCO 13w PL adapter but I threw it out when the lamp died before I knew better...

aww man! If you ever wanted to, you can always hardwire the ballasts inside the adapters by breaking the plastic and cutting it out. You definetly don't want to do that to a vintage adapter though. That's the beauty of not having a cardboard circut: it's all universal stuff! and more repairable! I look at circut boards and go "Nope. Can't solder. Can't weld. Can't fix this this."

There was actually a CFL adapter that used a remote ballast instead of one built in the adapter. Here's a video of one in action.

I can imagine a non-lighting person accidentally forgetting to use the wall plug ballast... But that thing is awesome! I remember seeing a F20T12 strip with a ballast in the plug. Don't remember if it had a manual preheat or a permanent starter in the strip.

I'm talking a screw in adapter, not those "electric saver system" ones that ABCO also made...those things sound cool!
I have a manual preheat blacklight with a "wall wart" ballast though...

I remember when the ABCO & LOA magnetic adapters were plentiful at local stores. Wish I had bought them! I hadn't predicted the demise of the good CFLs in favour of those instant-start spiral things. There were a few 2-piece electronic adapters back in the day (and I have a handful of them), but since the lamp usually outlasted the ballast, and they didn't have replacement ballasts for sale....I guess that concept didn't go so well.

I have a video of my comax starting up. click here.