I hadn't really given it much thought or gone through my collection but I was sorting it today and I have a lot more stuff than I thought I did. Lots of shows specials and everything else. I have been trading just about two years now and I really didn't start with much at all. One minute you can have nothing the next you have to tell people you aren't interested in trading because you already have it. It makes researching TV a lot better too when you can actually see what you are looking up. I am actually starting to run out of things I really want. Trading may have some inconveniences but it is well worth it.

i started about exactly 2 years ago doing this

i had a set of the first 4 stargate seasons ,and a set of the mini series v

and thats the entire list i had

and all i had to copy was a very slow and crappy hp drive i installed in my slow hp computer

about 30% fail rate

and today , 2 years later i have about 11000 discs from tv on the list, and maybe another 2000 discs that arent ready to go on the list as of yet

it can be done, and its not all that difficult

especialy since some of us have dug up stuff and had them worked into decent sets, its even easier now than when i started since so much more is avaible


just because a person is new, doesnt mean they cant be a good trader and build their collection, keep plugging away, and you list and enjoyment can grow

I didn't realize you have only been doing it for that short of time. I had a feeling you had been doing it since the 80's or something.

I didn't realize you have only been doing it for that short of time. I had a feeling you had been doing it since the 80's or something.

no sir

im a newbie my darn self

i retired about 3 1/4 years ago, at age 48

i had some other hobbies, but always was a tv--addict

i stumbled across a web --messgae area, and saw folks that traded

well most were thieves and scammers

i took a crap load of lessons when i started

i did some good swaps here and there, and then i hit the jackpot, i was the one who put together the land of the giants set, i swapped that one about 50 times

i got a nice time tunnel set, and a little while later an invaders set, by swapping the giants

so those three sets were the real base that my collection was founded on

i narrowed my trades to a much smaller and trusted group, and later was established enough to proclain the --if i dont know you, you need to send first--im easy to find and have many references

since that day, my contributations to scammers has almost been zero

i guess thats why i hate scammers and poor tarders so much

i got taken as much as anyone ever has

i had to take chances since i was new, and needed to send first in most cases

the trade hobby is far more organized and civilized these days, as well as safe

i like to think i helped a lot in that, by exposeing many of the bad seeds

also message boards like this one, are filled with decent traders, i hope everyone does what they can to keep this one as cleana s possible

Tell me about it. I just wanted to find a couple of shows three+ years ago; 1) Gargoyles, 2) Batman Beyond, 3) Brimstone, and 4) Invasion America. I now have about 18 files drawers of discs stored in slim discs!

I've been recording and trading about 28 years. Started paying someone with a VCR to record for me in 1978, got my first VCR in 1980. Dropped out of trading in the late '80s, got back into about 2-1/2 years ago, I guess. I got a DVD recorder because I wanted to back up my most precious recordings, especially the ones on Beta. Between tapes, home-recorded discs, and retail sets, I couldn't tell you how many shows I really have - thousands, I'm sure, as I've got thousands of videotapes and thousands of homemade discs, and I don't want to know how many sets I've purchased retail. I have tapes so old the ink has faded to nothing. Only a small fraction of my collection is listed on my trade list.

I moved home 5 years ago to take care of my Mom, and it cost me over $5,000 to move all my stuff - hundreds of boxes of books and tapes (very few discs at the time). If I lived a thousand years, I probably couldn't watch it all again, but still I like to collect the shows I've enjoyed.

I've been recording and trading about 28 years. Started paying someone with a VCR to record for me in 1978, got my first VCR in 1980. Dropped out of trading in the late '80s, got back into about 2-1/2 years ago, I guess. I got a DVD recorder because I wanted to back up my most precious recordings, especially the ones on Beta. Between tapes, home-recorded discs, and retail sets, I couldn't tell you how many shows I really have - thousands, I'm sure, as I've got thousands of videotapes and thousands of homemade discs, and I don't want to know how many sets I've purchased retail. I have tapes so old the ink has faded to nothing. Only a small fraction of my collection is listed on my trade list.

I moved home 5 years ago to take care of my Mom, and it cost me over $5,000 to move all my stuff - hundreds of boxes of books and tapes (very few discs at the time). If I lived a thousand years, I probably couldn't watch it all again, but still I like to collect the shows I've enjoyed.


how did you afford to keep all thsoe tapes back then

i remember back in 1981, i got my first vcr

there werent any around where i lived, in the stores

so i was in philly at a baseball card show,and i stopped at strawbridge and clothier and grabbed one for like $600, with a wired remote, and able to program one event--period

anyhow i purchased a box of t-160 tapes for like $169, for the case of 10, they were $19.99 each,

and money was about twice as valuable back then

sorta like $35-40 in todays money

a far cry from the under a buck a tape they are now

i saved a lot of stuff, until my tapes were gone, then i start4d recording over them

some of those tapes i used a couple hundred times

for someone to save things from that time, with the over all expense, wow

I remember buying a case of 10 tapes for over $200. One of the reasons finding original network airings WITH commercials is so tough is the fact that tape was so expensive, you tried not to waste it by keeping commercials. If you recorded at LP, you could fit 5 episodes on a tape with the commercials edited out, while you could only fit 4 with commercials. When EP was introduced, the number went as high as 8 episodes instead of 6.

I actually started keeping commercials in around 1983, when my idiot roommate distracted me during a pause, and I missed some of the show by not taking it off pause. After that, if I could afford it, I just recorded the show, commercials and all. And the thing is, tape was so expensive, I couldn't always dedicate a tape to a single show - I might only be able to afford to buy one blank at a time, so there might be 6 or 7 different shows on a tape. One of the things that makes converting a show today such a challenge.

And at the time, most traders I ran into hated having the commercials intact, and wanted me to take them out in order to trade. It was frowned upon by most traders I knew at the time to have commercials left in, so even though I had some good stuff to trade, there were some who wouldn't trade with me because I did not have the time to sit there and take commercials out while dubbing.

As for how did I afford to buy tapes when my weekly take-home pay was less than the price of a case of 10 tapes ... I went without lunches. I didn't go out for dinner. I didn't own a car and I used public transportation. I didn't buy new clothes - I saved my money for my hobby. So when people come along today and demand that because I have it I have to share the stuff that I actually sacrificed stuff in order to get, I'm not impressed. I don't mean to sound like, "I had to walk 1,701 miles just to get to the video store," but those tapes cost me a lot to acquire, even just the blank media. I don't feel that I owe anyone anything as a result.

My first VCR was a rental, and I don't want to think about how much I spent on it over the first year or so. My first purchased VCR was over $1,500 in 1981 - a high-end Panasonic that had been modified to play PAL tapes without the need of a multi-standard or PAL-compatible TV. I took out a bank loan to buy it, my first ever. The unit ran for 13 years, with only one repair. The heads literally fell apart, I used that machine so heavily. The recordings made on it, even at EP, still look pretty amazing, not even accounting for their age.

For several years, I'd do an annual purge and consolidate the contents of my tapes by copying to new tapes and putting stuff in order and getting rid of stuff I no longer wanted. Then I'd re-use the orginal tape. That's why there are some gaps in my collection today that I'd like to fill - sometimes I didn't pay attention to what I was taping over as well as I should have ...

Ah, Strawbridge and Clothier. Now a thing of the past - the last of the Strawbridges, if it hasn't closed already, will close soon, taken over by Macy's. The end of an era.