coming across another trader who has so many things you need and you have absolutely nothing they are looking for. And most times they are too busy with other trades to accept blanks/money so you have to miss out on what you want. Seems like most traders that have what I"m looking for are not interested in sitcoms even though they have them in their collection

I know the feeling, but the opposite is true as well. I have run into folks who want to trade and have made a long list of my stuff they want and I'm not able to find anywhere near an appropriate amount from their list so I start picking stuff at random just so I can help them get started out.

Originally posted by Archimedes37
I know the feeling, but the opposite is true as well. I have run into folks who want to trade and have made a long list of my stuff they want and I'm not able to find anywhere near an appropriate amount from their list so I start picking stuff at random just so I can help them get started out.


Another thing that annoys me is when a trader assumes that you are a DVD trader. If i didn't specify DVD i have to be talking about VHS. I will get emails and the perosn will ask-"do you have them on DVD?

I'd have to rank dishonesty in any shape or form as the most irritating thing about tape trading. Whatever happened to good old fashioned integrity?

I have to agree with TVShow Analyzer that not having anything another trader wants is the MOST irritating thing about trading. The opposite, as Archimedes37 mentioned, doesn't really bother me. I can see how dishonesty would rank up there, but I guess I'm lucky as I have barely ever encountered it, and even then only on small trades.

Originally posted by lazygrae
I have to agree with TVShow Analyzer that not having anything another trader wants is the MOST irritating thing about trading. The opposite, as Archimedes37 mentioned, doesn't really bother me. I can see how dishonesty would rank up there, but I guess I'm lucky as I have barely ever encountered it, and even then only on small trades.


Yeah i never encountered any dishonesty i guess because i'm involved in smalll trades too.

Originally posted by TVShow Analyzer
Yeah i never encountered any dishonesty i guess because i'm involved in smalll trades too.
You haven't? Then you've been very lucky.

Maybe I should clarify myself...

Not counting getting ripped off entirely, I'd have to rank dishonesty in any shape or form as the most irritating thing about tape trading. To name a few:
[list=1]
Getting quality less than promised.
Getting fewer episodes than agreed upon.
Shipping later than they said they did.
Claiming to have an entire series only until they get what they wanted.
Agreeing upon SP but receiving SLP.
Using media mail when Priority was agreed upon.
Claiming to be delayed in shipping because of illness, school, etc. only to find that they've been trading elsewhere in the meantime.
Well seasoned traders taking advantage of newbies (happened to me several times).
[/list=1]
These are general problems I've run into, but I could list many more examples, with twists and turns that have irritated me since I started trading two years ago. I know that I trade more than the average person and have more weird experiences than I'd like to admit.

Most of these type of problems aren't enough to label the person as a bad trader, but certainly enough for me to not list them as reputable.

Originally posted by Agent 13
You haven't? Then you've been very lucky.

Maybe I should clarify myself...

Not counting getting ripped off entirely, I'd have to rank dishonesty in any shape or form as the most irritating thing about tape trading. To name a few:
[list=1]
Getting quality less than promised.
Getting fewer episodes than agreed upon.
Shipping later than they said they did.
Claiming to have an entire series only until they get what they wanted.
Agreeing upon SP but receiving SLP.
Using media mail when Priority was agreed upon.
Claiming to be delayed in shipping because of illness, school, etc. only to find that they've been trading elsewhere in the meantime.
Well seasoned traders taking advantage of newbies (happened to me several times).
[/list=1]
These are general problems I've run into, but I could list many more examples, with twists and turns that have irritated me since I started trading two years ago. I know that I trade more than the average person and have more weird experiences than I'd like to admit.

Most of these type of problems aren't enough to label the person as a bad trader, but certainly enough for me to not list them as reputable.



Nope haven;t experienced any of those problems. I guess i just been lucky so far.

I would say I'm out about a total of 5 tapes/discs as a result of the instances mentioned happening to me since I began collecting/trading in the early 90s. I figure that getting ripped off for $3-5 and a bit of my time once every 3 years is not worth my getting upset over.

Dishonest traders can be weeded out by having them send first, but finding something you desperately want and not being able to arrange a trade for it is SOOO darn irritating!

One of the things I've found exceedingly annoying is trading with people who are prominent in a given group, good reputation, lots of trading points, and when I actually do a trial trade with them, I have problems with the trade - the quality of the recordings is poor when they claimed it was perfect (or the soundtrack has a screech through it, or drops out repeatedly), the shipment is slow and I receive my tapes/discs weeks after I send to them, or I ask for episodes from the beginning of a series, and they send the last few because those were the first ones they taped in syndication and they couldn't be bothered to ask what I meant, or check an episode guide online. This has happened to me a couple of times, and I really haven't felt that I could post a negative comment about the trade because the traders in question were well-known and in one case, keeper of the trader reports for the group. I've just not been interested in trading any further with those people, but it has caused me not to trust trading reports quite as much.

The biggest trading bugaboo I have is communication. I used to trade a lot in early '80s, the days before the Net - communication was by phone or letter, basically. Trades took longer because if you were correspondning by mail, you had to wait until the letters went back and forth. I dropped out of trading for nearly 20 years, and have only gotten back into it in the last year. Now we have instant access by e-mail, so for someone not to ask a question to clarify, or to drop a line to say they're having problems and the trade will be delayed, isn't quite so forgiveable. I'd have to say that the trades I've had that I didn't enjoy were mostly marred by poor communication.

Another problem I have with some traders I've encountered is greediness. I trade one for one, always have. I have a lot of stuff in my collection I'd consider rare - I went to great lengths to acquire it, in the case of my PAL tapes, I had to buy special equipment even to be able to play it. But I still don't add a premium to it in trade credit - that makes no sense to me. In recent months, I've encountered people who are willing to do my stuff at SP, as I've requested, but couldn't they just have their stuff in trade at EP, so they can get more? Sometimes I've said yes, but as I've started to trade more, I've started to refuse to do that - it just takes up too much of my time to be worthwhile for me.

Or a trader considers something they've recorded off TV as really rare in their opinion, and the only thing they'd consider worth its value would be three times the number of tapes or discs to dub it. I don't sell, and I don't really have a problem with people who do - I certainly buy, and I can make the value judgment whether the purchase is worthwhile or not. But in a trade, is one person's offering really worth two or three times the effort, two or three times the tape or disc, etc., as the other person's, just because they say so? I can understand when one person is offering VCDs, since they only carry an hour's worth of programming, that there should be more VCDs in exchange for two-hour tapes and DVDs. But is it becoming common practice to ask for more in trade than you're giving, or have I just run into a couple of oddities in my travels?

That said, I've met some very nice people trading video. Rediscovered a few old friends along the way, too, which is very cool indeed. I've definitely met enough people who are good traders and pleasant people to boot to keep me interested in trading for a while to come. :>

debwalsh,

This is exactly some of what I'm referring to, boarderline stuff. For example, I traded some of my primest shows with a high ranking trader on another board, and I ended up with only around two out of twenty tapes that I could actually make use of. When I confronted him, he assured me that the problem was with my VCRS, completely ignoring the fact that I could track a couple of them (why not all?). He's the only one that I've gotten tapes from where I couldn't at least track the videos in one of my eight VCRs.

The problem wasn't with my machines but with him copying tapes without watching the tracking. I realized that I couldn't win with him because he was a top dog, etc. I rarely post bad trader reports, but if I did so, I'm sure I'd end up looking like the bad guy in the end.

Another irritating thing is when someone emails you and let's you know they have the shows you are looking for and then for some reason you never hear from the person again.-lol

Not enough space to store your tapes :faint::lol: :wave:

... having to pay big $$ to pay movers to move your collection when you move out of state ... and then having them ask if they can borrow a movie that night.

How about having so many shows at your disposal and the family still can't decide what to watch. ;)

This one time I traded with this one well known trader a couple of times. The first time or 2nd she wanted my seinfelds. I had gotten them from someone who taped them himself. But I didn't know the last couple of tapes were bad tracking from the trader I had gotten from before. She was a real b+++ about it. Then when I had gotten the dvds in she wouldn't let me make it up to her. But after that we did two more trades and she complained about those. I had paid a hundred dollars for the mork and mindy
and I checked them all out and it was a good picture from a 1st gen dub. Then after a while I still hadn't looked at her tapes alot and after I went through them and they were bad. Her district and the guardians most of them had an annoying line hanging down at the bottom. I had to get them from someone else. Btw I hope she sees this.

Then I had this trade with another trader for the Jeffersons. And I got some of the tapes in sp when it was listed on the tapes enough epsiodes to be in slp. Then the guy says he is getting out of trading and doesn't even want to redo or get what else he wanted. I sure am glad to be getting out of trading myself probably after January.

The most irritating thing I have found is when someone lists all the stuff they have then tells you that it is not available for sale or trade. If it is not available, why list it?

I found the most irritating thing about tape trading is when its not trading and they make it sound as if they trade but only want cash, and 1 more thing i dislike is when you want 1 tape and they ask an arm and a leg saying but its a rare tape very hard to find so you get gouged. earlyer i was emailed about a tv show i wanted and the person said they had 1 tape was asking way too much it seemed as if they were selling me the 1st season of a tv series.

i havent traded very much but one time i was looking for some hee haw eps i didnt have and i found someone who had them and i asked him if he wanted any more hee haw eps he said no because he hates the show and so i ask him what hes looking for and he gives me a whole list of shows i dont have and then gets mad because i dont have them . so i ask him if hes looking for any sitcoms or game shows he says yes. now i think im getting somewhere with this moron he asks me if i have any gong show eps i say yes im all set to make a trade then he asks if they rae nbc broadcasts i say no they are reruns from usa network then he whines that he dosent want them ether. soo i try again i tell him i have a whole bunch of abc family feud shows from the last abc week in 1985 and a few nighttime feud shows as well with the comm and everything he wants me to prove that its the last abc week before we trade i tell him i taped them right off my own tv in june of 1985 he says what is interesting about the shows themselves i tell him its because its the final week of feud that shuld be interesting enough, he says he doesent want these ether im just about to slam the phone down when i try one more thing he tells me hes a norman lear fan and wants to know if i have any of his shows at all to trade i tell him hes in luck i have 2 cbs jefferrsons telecasts the last ep from 1985 and the last cbs rerun from july 1985 with comm. he says no i dont want them i say but you just said you wanted any uncut norman lear shows he but i dont want the jeffersons i say why? he says because i hate that show i called him a few names i wont repeat here and hung up the phone. by the way i hope to start trading sometime in 05 and im sure i have something to please everyone here at so

my top 3.
1. not having what they want but they have what you want and won't take blank dvd or vhs in trade.
2. nobody answering your posts asking for a certain show that really burns me up.
3. getting a tape transfered in ep.

Originally posted by tulsa1960
my top 3.
1. not having what they want but they have what you want and won't take blank dvd or vhs in trade.
2. nobody answering your posts asking for a certain show that really burns me up.
3. getting a tape transfered in ep.

I defintely agree with number 1

I had one experience with a member of this board awhile back which irritated me...

He contacted me wanting to trade DVDs in XP mode. I told him that the least I'd do is trade SP. He insisted that he only wanted to trade XP, and again I insisted that SP was the best I'd do.

Well, since he contacted me first, he sent first, and lo and behold he sent several discs, most of which were in XP [2 half hour episodes] or inbetween XP/SP [3 half hour episodes]. The bottom line is that he took advantage of me, and I'm stuck with too many discs that weren't worth the XP mode or the space it takes to house them.

Though irritated, I ended up sending him discs that were inbetween XP and SP, just so that the quality I was sending him was close to what he'd sent so I couldn't be accused of anything.

Needless to say, this wouldn't be deemed a bad trade but definitely not a good trade.

I ran into a trader like that on this board - I ended up not completing the trade. I'd already done my part at SP, and found out after the fact (but before I mailed) that he would only record at XP, and only disc for disc. So my three 45 minute episodes to him would only have resulted in one 45 minute episode back to me. I cancelled the trade.

Another thing I find really annoying is trading with someone who actually calculates out the minutes of the trade. "I'm getting 5 minutes less than you, so I think you should come up with another show for me." Oy.

Then there's the folks who copy a tape to DVD, and just copy it. No editing, no titles, just a straight copy of the tape onto a disc. When I copy to disc, I always edit out commercials, add the titles (or at least the episode numbers) to the menu, and have each episode individually listed. I don't put chapter breaks in, but I do the other stuff - one of the reasons why I've got to revise my trade list to show which shows I have available on disc, which ones I have planned to convert, and which ones I won't put on disc (because they're coming out or are already out commercially).

I also find it very upsetting when someone contacts me about trading for something in my collection, and when I can't find anything on their list that I want, they keep insisting I *have* to trade with them because they *need* something in my collection, like it's an obligation on my part. It's one thing if the person is a friend - trading for blanks isn't so much of a job, because you're doing it for a friend (unless they constantly take advantage - been there, done that). But for a stranger, it is a lot of ask for me to spend the time dubbing a show for someone and get only blanks that I don't really need in return. I don't have enough time to keep up with my collection (and there's the whole separate issue of having a life outside the hobby) as it is, and to add that extra burden - so I don't have any time left to engage in trades for stuff I actually want - is an imposition, sorry.

I know it's frustrating to find something you really, really want and have been looking for in the collection of someone who doesn't need something from you. I've been there, too. Sometimes I've been lucky enough to find something else they were looking for from another trader who wanted something from me, and work the trade that way. But if I can't, I look at it this way - one person has it, odds are good another one will, too, and I just keep searching.

Well DEB there is always buying instead of trading and if money isnt an option then there are alot of other trading sources u can try ebay amazon.com other trading boards there are lots of them.
I can usually get what I want somewhere, this show i wanted that this person was asking an arn and a leg for, i found the show on ebay and i was only charged an arm for it i got to keep my leg to walk with. Good Luck.

I actually do a lot of buying on eBay. I've found some great sources that way, especially among folks who are film collectors who've transferred parts of their collection to tape or disc. I've come to the conclusion that everything I've ever wanted to have on tape/disc is out there somewhere, and if I'm just patient and diligent enough (in my searching), I'll find it and I'll be able to get it someday. For me, half the fun is the search, because you never know what else you might stumble across on the way. I always dread finding that last piece, because the quest is over - until I come up with something else I want to track down. :>

Originally posted by debwalsh
I actually do a lot of buying on eBay. I've found some great sources that way, especially among folks who are film collectors who've transferred parts of their collection to tape or disc. I've come to the conclusion that everything I've ever wanted to have on tape/disc is out there somewhere, and if I'm just patient and diligent enough (in my searching), I'll find it and I'll be able to get it someday. For me, half the fun is the search, because you never know what else you might stumble across on the way. I always dread finding that last piece, because the quest is over - until I come up with something else I want to track down. :>



I know all about search. I was searching for a 1993 NFL Game on CBS for the longest. The search started in 1994 and It took me until July of 2003 to finally get it. It was worth the wait.