In my own case, my hope for more pre-86 episodes stems from a desire to make partial amends for my shortsightedness in not taping the classic TPIR episodes frequently off GSN when I had the chance. At the time I was making a petty statement of protest of my own over Bob's refusal to let the James episodes air because of the fur coat issues, and that was done at a time when I would not have thought they would disappear from GSN forever. I only taped something like five episodes of TPIR myself off GSN (two half hour shows, the Yolanda episode which aired on a "Weekend Showcase", Vanna's contestant episode, and quite by accident one time, an episode that was part of the WIN-TV presentation) and compared to what I did with other shows, that was a drop in the bucket, for which I have only myself to blame.
OTOH, I was not shortsighted with the Cullen TPIR episodes and did get a large chunk of them but I was never quite clear on how many episodes overall were part of the GSN cycle that aired. I know there were only six ABC primetime episodes that aired and at least something on the order of 45-50 NBC shows (and one NBC daytime show from 1957 which was the first episode in the GSN cycle).