hi, found the following posted in the yahoo group Want_Have_Tapetrading:

From: "dakiel666" <insanes22@...>
Date: Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:47 am
Subject: New England Area Collectors dakiel666
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I Purchase Estates and the contents of Storage lockers, Yesterday I
acquired at least 50,000 Beta and VHS tapes, the majority of which were
used to record television shows and movies. Most are from the 1980's
into the early 1990's almost all are cataloged as to what is on what
tape. It took Two full Truck loads to move these. I am interested in
finding collectors in the New England area who may wish to
substantially increase the size of their collections. If interested
please email me @ insanes22@...

Thanks

makes me wish i lived in New England. i would check out this collection if i did.

holy krap

thats a bunch

i hear stories similar to this from time to time

there was an auction in the chicago area about 6 months ago, but the reserve was $5 per tape and you had to buy them all, like 15000 pieces

well theres nothing in the tv world i woudl pay $75 000, even if i choose what was on the tapes

and remember these things were not stored in film vaults, so the chance to being damaged is very high

before anyone gets too excited

remember how poor cable was back in the 1980s

and many people recorded right off the air as well

theres a very good chance these sound intersting, but arent of a whole lot of use

even the cable where i live right now, is nasty

its hd cable, or digital

i had it when i first moved to the small town, even the hd cable sucked

so to assume that groups like these from 20-30 years ago are going to be a great thing, probably not

no this isnt sour grapes, just a bit of reality

hi loren, i have tapes that are 20 years old that play just as well as the first time. it depends on the quality of the tape used, storage, etc. if the owner of these tapes took as good of care of theirs as i do mine, then i believe there could be "gold in dem dar hills". thanks

Yeah, I agree. And this post makes me sorry I left New England, where I lived for over 20 years, and taped some of the best stuff in my collection ... sigh.

hi loren, i have tapes that are 20 years old that play just as well as the first time. it depends on the quality of the tape used, storage, etc. if the owner of these tapes took as good of care of theirs as i do mine, then i believe there could be "gold in dem dar hills". thanks

i dont know if your old enough to remember the prices of video tapes back in the early days

my first vhs machine was in 1981

i remember very well i purchased a case of tapes at a huge discount

i paid $179 for a case of 10 t-160 fuji 8 hour higrade tapes

that was very reasonable

store prices at $20 for a t120 was the normal

betas werent any cheaper, and far less in recording length

the odds of them buying top quality blanks,and keeping them stored in correct conditions, are fairly slim

and sure some folks may have this and that that work yet

if these types of people had stored them correctly, use top grade media, recorded that from a good source, and at 2 hour speed, then they have something

the odds on all that happening are very limited

everyone i knew back then, recored at 6 or 8 hour speed due to the cost

im pretty sure that $10 an hour for blanks, would curtail anyone from doing it the best way

i threw away all my stuff from those days

why--quality sucked, both off air and the cable, coupled with 8 hour speeds

this is why i wouldnt be very excited by a story like this

then the next point is

whats on the tapes

maybe the person was a news freak and its all 60 minutes and the like

or even the lawrence welk show,

maybe he recorded movies from tv back then, you know all the ones in the walmart $1 bins now on dvds

no one said it was all the 80s hard to find sitcoms, etc

all i know for sure is i could have gotten the group in chicago at $5 per tape and flat out wasnt interested

yes i would have played pick it, at $5 a tape and taken my chances

but not @ $75000

if you follow the net trade sites, you can get a lot of tapes for free, just pay the postage in many cases

theres a reason they are free

i've gotten some good tapes for just the postage. also, have picked up some rare gems on tapes at thrift stores. it maybe tv movies or all news or all sports, but then again it could be all of me & the boys, life with louie, the ep "blood money" from petrocelli, or something else that is very hard to find. i wouldn't mind having more eps of the above as well as others even in just watchable quality. thanks