The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: happyattacks on May 10, 2006, 09:35:09 PM
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Been a while since I've posted, as life has kept me very busy...
This may sound like a stupid question, but I've caught myself up on the latest news and sites etc - I'm puzzled by something. There are many fine GS collectors (Most whom have fantastic web pages) - You know who you are, who've got literally tons and tons of stuff from the past 5 decades. Now, I see most offer to "Trade" for something else. Now my question is, how in the world do you manage to accumulate so many shows by just "trading"? It's not like I have a pile of old "Play the Percentages" sitting in my basement to trade. Where did you guys get this stuff originally? Do you really do that many Trades anymore? Just doesn't seem to me that most people wouldn't have anything to trade at all, short of all the stuff you can tape off of GSN, but anyone can do that... I mean, I have some stuff from the 80's and 90's that slowly deteriorating on Video, but that's really about it. So really, I have nothing worth trading, so how the heck do you ever aquire so many of these gems?
My Favorite show of All time was Face the Music, and I had a ton of them saved on VHS from the USA Run, but a big house fire nearly a decade ago destroyed them, and I have nothing to trade, and no way to really get them back.
Just some random thoughts this evening!
Matt :)
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If you have self-taped episodes from the 80s and 90s, you're in. I started with an episode of "Family Challenge," a "Feud" I taped from GSN at a friend's house, two episodes of "Double Dare" from Nick repeats and a few GS crossovers into regular shows, and managed to find somebody who did not have most of that. His tape bred my next trade, with bred the next...once I got somebody to trade for 3 tapes worth of stuff, that's where it started to blossom. What helped the most was finally getting GSN and adding a bit here and there to pad it. But basically, that's how it starts. If you are interested in the field, the collection you describe having now seems good enough to start on.
Two big traders, our very own Chuck Donegan and Mr. Page o Clips Jamie Locklin, still evidently trade as their webpages flesh out.
-Jason
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For me, I was lucky enough to find a few traders who were big wrestling fans. Fast foward through a few big wrestling/GS trades and my collection blew up. Another thing I found helpful was to find all the oddities I could get my hands on. Trebek's High Rollers, Pitfall, Super Pay Cards, and so on. Of course for the handful of really great guys, there were about a basket full of asses who a) wouldn't return my e-mails, or b) real rude saying they were interested. If you're not trading, fine, no skin off my nose... but don't be a game show god DICK about it. Don't act like you're superior because you have 6,000+ shows and I only have maybe 100. You all had to start somewhere too ya'know.
Sorry for going off on a tangent, not my intention. As long as you have 4 or 5 people you trust, you'll always find a way to make your collection grow.
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I started off by taping everything that interested me from GSN. I also went for syndicated programs showing in my area...sometimes they can be popular to trade since not everyone has all syndie game shows shown in their area. Anytime a game show special was coming on, I recorded it. Anytime GSN showed a special show or a rare episode (such as they do sometimes in the B&WO time) I recorded it.
My first trade came about because there was someone trying to acquire many of the GSN episodes of Lingo as they could. I used to keep an episode guide for the show and had recorded nearly every episode, so I was able to do a few hours trade and received many early TPiR episodes. I kept my eye on the game show trading boards...since I taped many episodes of shows from GSN and networks/syndication, I would often come across someone who missed a particular episode, so I would help them out and they would give me some rarities in exchange.
I have been trading off and on for about 3-4 years and between trading and keeping my eyes open for shows airing currently and on GSN, I have amassed a collection of over 16,000 game show episodes.
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[quote name=\'TV Favorites\' post=\'118167\' date=\'May 10 2006, 07:31 PM\']
I have amassed a collection of over 16,000 game show episodes.
[/quote]
By my count, and assuming 12 half-hour episodes on a 6-hour EP tape, that's a minimum of 1333 tapes. And I gotta think there are some hour shows in there, or that you don't record everything at the crappy slow speed, especially if you're keeping it for archive.
So my question is: where the hell do you KEEP all of those tapes? And what are you gonna do with 16,000 game show episodes?
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I always loved game shows, but I didn't know about game show trading until 2001. I thought it sounded like fun, and wanted to start my own collection. Since all I had were a bunch of "Legends Of The Hidden Temple" episodes I recorded when I was 7, I started taping everything I watched. Whenever GSN did a marathon or TPIR did a special show, I went out of my way to record it. I ended up with over 200 tapes in two years, and at that point I hadn't even done a single trade yet. I finally netted my first trade in February 2004; someone was looking for episodes of 100 Mexicanos Dijeron, and I happened to have 9. And I've been heavily trading ever since.
I also got a small boost from a very unlikely source. About a year ago, my grandmother let me look through all her unlabeled VHS tapes. The end result? 8 episodes of 90's Wheel of Fortune, all in great condition, with original ads.
And if you're just starting a collection, just hang in there and tape whatever you can. And keep checking the game show message boards; you never know when someone's going to ask for last Thursday's Jeopardy.
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'118169\' date=\'May 10 2006, 10:58 PM\']
[quote name=\'TV Favorites\' post=\'118167\' date=\'May 10 2006, 07:31 PM\']
I have amassed a collection of over 16,000 game show episodes.
[/quote]
By my count, and assuming 12 half-hour episodes on a 6-hour EP tape, that's a minimum of 1333 tapes. And I gotta think there are some hour shows in there, or that you don't record everything at the crappy slow speed, especially if you're keeping it for archive.
So my question is: where the hell do you KEEP all of those tapes? And what are you gonna do with 16,000 game show episodes?
[/quote]
The tapes are in shelves and boxes...I had to stop taping for quite a while due to lack of space, but I finally modernized to a DVD recorder so I have been working on converting the tapes over. I haven't decided how many of the tapes will be converted yet...depends on how much time I have.
Much of the collection results from me recording shows to watch later. I never really started recording with the intention to trade.
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I had the same kind of experience. For me, it started with day after day in late 97 taping Season 1 Win Ben Stein's Money's. Made a full tape's worth. Then, a couple months later, I was doubly blessed with the new season, and my now wife's uncle having access to GSN to tape all the Tic Tac's, Joker's, and eventually all Card Sharks that I wanted. And as I kept taping, I started searching around these parts. Got the Larson shows right way from Connolly (anyone seen him lately, how's he doing now?), and it just grew...
Today, over 1800, I'd guess, counting what's not chronicled. Now, it's true I don't trade much, but it's from my busy-ness as a teacher. During the summer I can tear it up if I want. Meantime, I TiVo stuff, especially as it's airing if I see an episode that just stands out in my book. Taped yesterday's Lingo, for instance, because I loved Chuck's total state of looniness over the weird gameplay that day.
Best part, when I make trades, if there's space left on the tape I get, I use it when I can. And ultimately, I will DVD some more stuff. Just don't know what yet.
And for what I'd do with it all? Hey, I'm just the kind of guy who loves to share, and between some of my friends and my students, there's always something to show. Plus, you never know when you just feel like pulling a show out because you're in the mood to see Tom Kennedy host Price or something...
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In response to Gwarman's tangent (and in no means reflecting on you in particular Gwar), the WRONG way to solicit trades is to ask somebody whose trading status is unclear. Go out of your way to find out if somebody is active before you start to pester. I've gotten countless requests despite my collection page saying I am not active, then said page going down and thus no way for annoyances to tell whether I have shows - and yet people still ask me if I'd "like to see their list."
-Jason
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[quote name=\'happyattacks\' post=\'118162\' date=\'May 10 2006, 09:35 PM\']
Now my question is, how in the world do you manage to accumulate so many shows by just "trading"?
[/quote]
Time. I have 3,500+ episodes, but I've been at this since 10th grade. That was eight years ago. Holy crap, that WAS eight years ago...Wow...
Where did you guys get this stuff originally?
I recorded some stuff from GSN and got lucky. I got a bunch of justifiable rejections from folks who weren't interested. Then I got lucky and Chuck Donegan wanted some of what I recorded. From there my game show collection prospered.
Do you really do that many Trades anymore?
Not many, but that's not because I have everything. I have a job so that's time consuming. It's also a crappy job and I still live with my parents, which is pathetic. Trying (and failing) to find a better job is also time consuming.
So really, I have nothing worth trading, so how the heck do you ever aquire so many of these gems?
Again, time.
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[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'118176\' date=\'May 10 2006, 09:07 PM\']
and yet people still ask me if I'd "like to see their list."
[/quote]
Hell, I've had people do the same thing to me, and I've been quite open about the fact that I don't trade, have never traded, don't plan to start trading, and have never so much as published a SNIPPET of a tape list. And yet some idiots STILL try to swing a deal...that doesn't exist.
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For me, it started with a gift tape from Jake Tanner with a bunch of TPIRs from GSN and my interest in the John Davidson version of Hollywood Squares (can't imagine why I seemed like the only one) netted me a few original broadcast episodes that no one else had. Kris "Xanfan" Lane gave me a real good trade and as was previously mentioned by others, it sorta blossomed from there.
Rob
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[quote name=\'JasonA1\' post=\'118176\' date=\'May 11 2006, 12:07 AM\']
In response to Gwarman's tangent (and in no means reflecting on you in particular Gwar), the WRONG way to solicit trades is to ask somebody whose trading status is unclear. Go out of your way to find out if somebody is active before you start to pester. I've gotten countless requests despite my collection page saying I am not active, then said page going down and thus no way for annoyances to tell whether I have shows - and yet people still ask me if I'd "like to see their list."
-Jason
[/quote]
No sweat. I always check to see if they're page says whether they're availible or not. It's just the polite thing to do. There's always the possibility that I caught them on a bad day or I'm the 300th person to bug them for a trade, who knows. I know if I let people know I'm up for a trade or whatnot I go out of my way to make a trade work. But you know how it is, you always find someone being a real horses ass for no reason. That was the reason for my tangent.
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Personally, I don't see how one can have enough time to dub all those episodes...I hated having my TV occupised for 6 hours, while I was recording tapes.
Plus, I didn't care for how some ended, but this is not the time nor the place. However, I got started thanks to Mitch Groff...I taped some shows off GSN for him, and I got some stuff in return; and that was how I got started; and given that GSN has a reasonably decent lineup right now, you might find someone who is interested that doesn't have access to GSN.
While I'm at it, would anyone want a Snappy? Or is this now a badly antiquated piece of equipment?
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Plus, all of the "bad traders" are either banned or not interested anymore and moved to a newer topic. Most of my stuff (left in storage) were gifts from people from the original early GSC. Get to know a friend mod or loyal poster and things with start picking up via email or im, not posting here. ;-)
Charles
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[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'118182\' date=\'May 11 2006, 01:27 AM\']
Hell, I've had people do the same thing to me, and I've been quite open about the fact that I don't trade, have never traded, don't plan to start trading, and have never so much as published a SNIPPET of a tape list. And yet some idiots STILL try to swing a deal...that doesn't exist.
[/quote]
A certain individual who currently is not allowed to post -- and is extremely unlikely ever to regain that privilege -- has insisted that the only reason others wouldn't agree with his arguments is that he's the "only person on the Invision board who doesn't trade tapes." I pointed out to him that I haven't traded in years (partly due to time and partly due to medical concerns), that you have said repeatedly that you've never been in the trading circles, and that we're definitely not alone. Said individual's response was to proclaim that my reference to "other fellow traders" on the page of my web site where I give a brief bio proves that I'm still trading -- never mind that the page that's actually devoted to, well, trading says that I'm not. (Somehow he didn't have a response regarding you. :-)
For what it's worth, I was able to get into trading because I'd recorded the following in 1989-91 and kept the tapes...
- Pat Sajak's last NBC WoF
- Rolf Benirschke's first four NBC WoFs
- The first episode of The Pat Sajak Show
- The last LMAD from the 1990-91 run
- Six hours' worth of TJW90
...never expecting that these shows, particularly the last item, would be trade bait years in the future. Who knew?
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My start was when I was in tenth grade (Wow! Like Adam, I've been at this (http://\"http://www.mitchgroff.com/gameshow/tapes.html\") for at least eight years!) when I heard rumors that my local barber was on Tom Kennedy's Name That Tune. I went to him and pestered him for a dub...he said the episodes were on Betamax and that he would convert them for me.
He didn't find those NTT eps, but what he did find for me proved to be the beginning of my collection: the entire run of a Bob Goen show called "The Hollywood Game" including the pilot hosted by Peter Allen, who passed away before the show was produced. The pilot was brand new to the trading circuit as it existed at the time, so that's all I needed. (Later, after much cajoling, he found three NTT eps he taped for me, complete with commercial cuts to save tape space!) I had also recorded an odd Pennsylvania Lottery 25th Anniversary special (a Jonathan Goodson production) hosted by Dick Clark in '96... no one else had that, either.
I found a guy named Steve in 1998 who lived across the county and taped a lot of dark-period GSN (which he received on Dish, local cable didn't have GSN until 2002, IIRC) for me in exchange for blank tapes...those dark-period episodes were a huge start to my collection because he inadvertently caught some gems for me.
And some of the talk on here is true: the vast majority of guys who trade and have trading sites are awesome to work with, like Chuck Donegan, Adam, Dave Zinkin (when he traded), Travis Penery from the UK, Chris Powney from Australia, and too many more to mention. There are some tools, though - one in particular who comes to mind - who don't have a shred of simple manners, like returning emails. (But now my collection is far better than the tool I have in mind, so there. Haha!)
One hard and fast rule I think we'll all agree with: stay away from the telephone. I've had two traders find my name on WhitePages or wherever and call me, which is super creepy. Email is just fine, thank you.
One tip I have, and I think it's kind of a good tip if you do what I do...I sell a lot of stuff on eBay. I open up most of my bidding internationally. Sometimes, if the mood strikes, I'll ask the buyer for a few hours of random, taped game shows in lieu of payment. Most people snap at this offer very quickly, and I've never been disappointed with what I receive...some of the best stuff I've received from the UK and Holland came from eBay deals like this...and once, someone from Hungary sent me six tapes when I only asked for two! I'll usually research what's on air in their country and ask them to tape certain shows. Sometimes the buyers refuse, and sometimes they don't have a VCR (you'd be surprised). Most of the time, it works out well if you're looking for international shows, which I love. (And I have a PAL VCR, which helps if it needs converting...most modern DVD players have PAL conversion built-in.)
The Lovely Hayley and I are doubling our residential square footage at the end of this month, which means I'll finally have all my tapes in one location again, instead of most of them sitting at my folks' house. I'm looking forward to getting back into trading...I've been surprised at how much great stuff from the late '70s/early '80s has been turning up lately.
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I've been at this for 10 years now! (Wow) I was able to launch my first trade because I had an '87 "Dating Game" and '87 "Truth or Consequences" that nobody else had at that time, and also clean copies of the Larson "PYL" episodes. What really helped was having GSN almost from the beginning as I was able to do several trades by recording GSN stuff for them.
I now have close to 2000 episodes and am very happy with what I've been able to acquire so far. Sometimes it boggles my mind to think what's available out there now as opposed to when I started. I've made a lot of "internet friends" and have had fun doing this (except for the two times I was welshed on, but that's another story).
This summer I plan to buy a DVD recorded and start converting my stuff to DVD. I'm looking forward to watching everything again. The odd thing is that when I first get a tape I watch it all the way through, and have noticed over the years that the only times I ever seem to watch them a second time is when I'm dubbing episodes for someone else. Not really intentional, but just time contraints cause that to happen. It will be neat to see a lot of that stuff again when I start the conversion!
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[quote name=\'dzinkin\' post=\'118187\' date=\'May 11 2006, 05:34 AM\']
- Pat Sajak's last NBC WoF
- Rolf Benirschke's first four NBC WoFs
- The first episode of The Pat Sajak Show
[/quote]
You have no idea how grateful I am for you recording those particular shows! Especially the 2nd one on the list! ;-)
-Joe R.
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I can't add a lot more than what already's been said, but I started taping GONG eps on GSN for posterity, figuring that once GSN stops airing them, they'd never air them again. Turns out I was right. I then started taping CS and P+ episodes, and it just snowballed from there. I did have a couple of things from original airings (not sure why I managed to save those and not others, but oh well. . .).
I didn't start out trying to do trades (especially considering I didn't have the means to duplicate the tapes). Once I got a dual-deck VCR and thus had the means, I had some casual conversations with a few who had massive collections and got some episodes in return. I don't do a tremendous amount of trading (I'm on the lookout, though).
Doug
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I have been trading for about a year and a half. I started my collection when we got previews of GSN before a new independent local channel signed on. Also, I won tapes from the game show giveaways at www.gscentral.net. Then I got a second VCR and in a year and a half, my collection has grown from about 100 shows to over 900 shows.
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I've been on the circuit for almost 9 years, albeit very minimally over the past 5. For me, it started out with Matt Sittel's Dream House Megamix. He collects license plates from across the country. He didn't have a specific type of Ohio plates, a type which was on my first car. Matt got what he wanted, as did I.
[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'118185\' date=\'May 11 2006, 02:21 AM\']While I'm at it, would anyone want a Snappy? Or is this now a badly antiquated piece of equipment?[/quote]
An antiquated piece of junk it is. The company which made the Snappy, Play, went out of business in 1999 or 2000.
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[quote name=\'hmtriplecrown\' post=\'118212\' date=\'May 11 2006, 12:46 PM\']
An antiquated piece of junk it is. The company which made the Snappy, Play, went out of business in 1999 or 2000.
[/quote]
I still use mine. So antiquated, yes. Piece of junk, no. I'm always very happy with the results. Frankly, I'm surprised to find that it works better with DVDs than it does with VHS tapes.
This summer I plan to buy a DVD recorded and start converting my stuff to DVD.
Well, remember to have some patience about that, Ian. I got mine 2 1/2 years ago and just now finished.
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[quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' post=\'118214\' date=\'May 11 2006, 01:43 PM\'][quote name=\'hmtriplecrown\' post=\'118212\' date=\'May 11 2006, 12:46 PM\']An antiquated piece of junk it is. The company which made the Snappy, Play, went out of business in 1999 or 2000.[/quote]
I still use mine. So antiquated, yes. Piece of junk, no. I'm always very happy with the results.[/quote]
Different strokes for different folks. My Snappy went kaput in less than two years, shortly after the company went under. Since then, I've used a PCI TV card. I have had no issues with it over the past seven years.
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[quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' post=\'118214\' date=\'May 11 2006, 10:43 AM\']
I still use mine. So antiquated, yes. Piece of junk, no. I'm always very happy with the results. Frankly, I'm surprised to find that it works better with DVDs than it does with VHS tapes.
[/quote]
Do Snappy's take video capture as well as still-shots? I thought it was just a screen-capture device.
If that's so, and you're working with DVD, why do you need it? Every decent PC-based DVD player (PowerDVD comes immediately to mind, but in checking I see that VLC does too, and that's not only free, but not region-restricted) has a screenshot function built into it, DVD drives are dirt-cheap, and you're guaranteed to get way better results than you would with something that is converting digital to analog and then back again.
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While I don't have a massive collection, I managed to get my start by lucking into some rare content. The Radio/TV station i worked for game me some NATPE tapes that included a MG98 pitchfilm and a pilot for 100%. I posted on ATGS that I had these and would only make 5 trades for these. Thanks to the responses I got, I was able to cover the basics and got a lot of shows I wanted to see (Including an excellent copy of the Larsen eps, pre GSN).
Following that, I had a bit of a strange trade that involved some WWF/WCW eps. and a Dreamcast NES Emulator.
However, that's the only 6 trades I've ever made.
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[quote name=\'nWo_Whammy\' post=\'118221\' date=\'May 11 2006, 11:36 AM\']
Following that, I had a bit of a strange trade that involved some WWF/WCW eps. and a Dreamcast NES Emulator.
[/quote]
Interesting. If I knew you could turn Dreamcast software into a game show collection, I could be set for LIFE.
/no, don't ask.
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I'm not into tape trading myself, and I have a good idea of how much time people put into bulking their collections by reading this thread. Something else I'd like to know is how much money people put into their hobby (equipment, blank tapes/DVDS, etc.). Is it a budget-buster, or do you get by relatively cheap?
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My collection overview in brief:
My very first trade was back in February 1997 with Mandel Ilagan. I only had 3 tapes of Wheel of Fortune episodes from 1996-97, which didn't interest him. Luckily, he was interested in my copy of the Jeopardy PC game in exchange for a 6 hour tape of shows.
Then in March, my cable company previewed GSN for 3 days...and I taped the entire thing, running the VCR 24 hours each day, sacrificing sleep for it. (Silly 14 year old, I was)
Finally on September 30, 1997, I got GSN and taped it almost compulsively leading to my library's major "boom," archiving both the good (Chain Reaction, Go, Break the Bank) and lousy shows alike (Diamond Head Game, Ruckus, Hollywood Connection). In retrospect, I'm glad I did since it was only 12 days before GSN dumped the G-T library and added all those other shows we would have never seen otherwise.
These days, over 9,000 episodes later, I haven't taped anything from GSN in 3 months and have pulled myself out of the mainstream trading circuit save for on a VERY irregular basis. Instead, I share my library with the masses through The Page O' Clips.
Last March I discovered, completely by chance, an obscure source with connections to some major gems, and now he's been only one of two private collectors with whom I "do business" reguarly. In addition to setting my sights on scrounging around for and acquiring "lost episodes," I'm focusing primarily on transferring the library onto DVD, so far having transferred a measly 500 episodes. Some shows will be expended; I have no use for 150 Wheel of Fortune episodes from 1995 to the present, for example.
The seemingly endless stock of the untransferred tapes are stored in my closet on built in shelves, organized numerically. The DVDs are stored on a bookshelf next to my desk, and the transferred tapes are in boxes, some of which are waiting to be shipped to a couple of traders.
Fin.
--Jamie
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[quote name=\'dale_grass\' post=\'118224\' date=\'May 11 2006, 03:00 PM\']
I'm not into tape trading myself, and I have a good idea of how much time people put into bulking their collections by reading this thread.
[/quote]
Nooo, don't bulk your collection!! :0. (That is a little joke for you guys who worked MCR).
Back in the early '80s, I wanted to tape things in SP, but the cost of the tapes ($15-$16 each) made me rethink things and most of my tapes from that era are EP. The off-brand tapes I have from that era are not holding up well, so don't go cheap if you're serious about keeping them. Hoping to get a DVD recorder soon before the tapes fade away.
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[quote name=\'Jimmy Fiono Coyne\' post=\'118225\' date=\'May 11 2006, 12:37 PM\']
Some shows will be expended; I have no use for 150 Wheel of Fortune episodes from 1995 to the present, for example.
[/quote]
And with that, TMQ800's brain just asploded.
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[quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' post=\'118214\' date=\'May 11 2006, 01:43 PM\']
This summer I plan to buy a DVD recorded and start converting my stuff to DVD.
Well, remember to have some patience about that, Ian. I got mine 2 1/2 years ago and just now finished.
[/quote]
Hey...I know. I figure it will be a labor of love. I can just imagine after a year, my wife saying to me "...are you STILL doing that?"
I'm planning on getting a recorder with a built in hard drive. That way I can edit out anything I don't want (like GSN commercials). I'll keep the original commercials! :)
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I didn't know about GSN until 2000 (when the cable company started carrying it) but I never had it (it's on the digital tier that IMO is a ripoff). I wanted to see the shows I missed watching when they originally aired so I Yahoo searched "game show trading". I was lead to the Classicgameshows.com trading message board, and several websites with collection pages. I taped some episodes and game show related shows to get started. I've been trading for almost two years and have close to 100 episodes in my collection.
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I gotta have to start tape trading myself but I have such a big VHS tape collection which is mostly game shows plus game show clips shows and I want to trade with some of you guys and matchgame74fan lives not too far away(in southwest Georgia) and I'll give him one of my tapes by First Class U.S. Priority Mail and I haven't known anything about Game Show Network until 1997 when the promo first aired during the endings of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!.
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[quote name=\'irismason42\' post=\'118238\' date=\'May 11 2006, 06:03 PM\']
I gotta have to start tape trading myself but I have such a big VHS tape collection which is mostly game shows plus game show clips shows and I want to trade with some of you guys and matchgame74fan lives not too far away(in southwest Georgia) and I'll give him one of my tapes by First Class U.S. Priority Mail and I haven't known anything about Game Show Network until 1997 when the promo first aired during the endings of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!.
[/quote]
I think I beat TMQ800 to the punch - my brain just asploded.
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[quote name=\'irismason42\' post=\'118238\' date=\'May 11 2006, 03:03 PM\']
I gotta have to start tape trading myself but I have such a big VHS tape collection which is mostly game shows plus game show clips shows and I want to trade with some of you guys and matchgame74fan lives not too far away(in southwest Georgia) and I'll give him one of my tapes by First Class U.S. Priority Mail and I haven't known anything about Game Show Network until 1997 when the promo first aired during the endings of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!.
[/quote]
Best. Post. Evar.
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I got lucky.
There's a very nice guy in Virginia who I once suggested joining this board. He gave me for free in '02 two hours of Davidson 'TPIR' and Dawson 'Feud' from '94. A collection is born. After that since did not have GSN I was able to reapy him. He later gave me a lot of material from '88 - '95 that he didn't have to. All of it was in excellent quality and practicallly none of it was circulating.
Also at that time with Adam I did a few big trades for my NBC Letterman for his game shows.
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I gotta have to start tape trading myself but I have such a big VHS tape collection which is mostly game shows plus game show clips shows and I want to trade with some of you guys and matchgame74fan lives not too far away(in southwest Georgia) and I'll give him one of my tapes by First Class U.S. Priority Mail and I haven't known anything about Game Show Network until 1997 when the promo first aired during the endings of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!.
And then Gene Rayburn said, "The Aristocrats!"
Something else I'd like to know is how much money people put into their hobby (equipment, blank tapes/DVDS, etc.). Is it a budget-buster, or do you get by relatively cheap?
So long as you're close to a Sam's Club and/or Wal-Mart, it's a reasonably-priced hobby. I plunk down less than $5 every couple of weeks for fresh tapes and postage on an average trade will come to $4-$5. It also helps that DVD-Rs have gone WAY down in price. 2 1/2 years ago when I got my burner, a spindle of 50 was $60 at Sam's Club, today I'm only paying $14. The closest that tape trading ever came to being a budget buster was when I was in college and without a car, which meant that what I paid for tapes depended on how far I was willing to walk. I was paying $2.50 for a single tape at that point, and that was with an hour of walking involved. (Still cheaper than gym membership, folks.)
Short answer: It's a cheap hobby. I mean, yeah, I have no doubt I'd cry if somebody showed me a grand total for what I've spent over eight years, but I would have just as easily wasted it on wrestling magazines and peanut butter cup milkshakes.
One more thing and then I'll shut up. Given that a lot of people come around here probably are looking for tape trades or at least help getting started, I make a motion to archive this thread after everybody's given their two cents. Somebody might appreciate it down the road.
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[quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' post=\'118245\' date=\'May 11 2006, 07:59 PM\']
One more thing and then I'll shut up. Given that a lot of people come around here probably are looking for tape trades or at least help getting started, I make a motion to archive this thread after everybody's given their two cents. Somebody might appreciate it down the road.[/quote]
Consider it done. Now, as long as we're telling stories...
Back in the age of dinosaurs (or at least before GSN), there was Shokus Video, and maybe one or two other sources for a tiny sampling of old game shows on video. In the earliest days of the Usenet group, I made a dear friend (let's leave proper names out of this, but he knows who he is) who happily gave me copies of maybe a dozen shows from the seventies in exchange for some extra TV Guides I had lying around. Those shows are in just about everybody's collections today, but at the time, before GSN and before widespread tape trading, seeing these games from my childhood that I thought I'd never see again was almost enough to make me weep.
I've never had the desire to own eleventy-billion episodes of Press Your Luck, or even of the civilian shows Cullen hosted, but I'm glad you guys out there are doing it so I can send people your way when they're looking for a particular show. In the meantime, my collection today is of a decent enough size that I've been able to do some good with it. When I can help a fellow whose grandfather appeared on IGAS as a Bill Cullen lookalike, it's a great feeling. I've also been fortunate to watch shows that aren't in the "circuit", from museums and from private collectors who plan to stay private.
As for transferring stuff from VHS to DVD, that's actually part of my "real life" job, but ironically, I've been very slow to do that with my own collection. I've done a lot of the Cullen stuff, of course, but usually I wait until I make a trade with someone else (which I do very rarely anymore) to put something on DVD. I still have several hundred very well-organized VHS tapes (library training pays off) in a single bookcase, where they'll probably stay for a good long time.
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I started taping "Super Password" and the daytime "Pyramid" when my family finally got a VCR in 1986. As luck would have it, I was channel-surfing in 1988 and stumbled across USA showing reruns of the 1982-1988 "Pyramid," so I started taping all of them. Of course, getting GSN in 1998 was a big boost to my collection.
To answer Chris' earlier question of what we do with all of those episodes, besides using them for trades, I do go back and watch them little by littile. Mainly, when the weather's too cold for me to take my outdoor walk, I pop one of my "Pyramid" tapes in my VCR and play along with the show while I'm on the treadmill. A 40-minute treadmill walk goes a lot faster when you're trying to think of good clues for THINGS YOU PERCEIVE.
Brendan
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I've been hanging around here (and ATGS before that) for about 7 years now and when I would ask about how to start tape trading I never got many answers..There's just a few things I really want to see..
Anything of You Don't Say (original NBC version)
Original Match Game
Downs' Concentration
Price Is Right (Cullen-ABC years)
Jeopardy! (Fleming)
Original "Hollywood Squares" (Other than what was shown on GSN)
Most of these are childhood memories..I don't have a big desire to "collect" Just to see these shows and others from say 1964-72.It seems that Blank VHS tapes don't do it (from what some have said in the past) I have taped some from GSN over the years, but I dont know if anybody would want any of it. Other things I have taped include many Christmas Specials and One of a kind programs (Life And Times, etc.) from the old TNN..and other programs such as One of Don Webster's "Upbeat" Specials and 50th anniversary specials from WKYC and WEWS Cleveland. I have never looked for any favors..Just my take on things..I do appreciate one poster who was kind enough to put some audio of a famous Game show host on a cd and send it to me a while back..
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I started collecting game shows the day I returned from the Museum of TV & Radio in NYC. I was about 16 when I went in and saw shows that were faint memories of mine from the 70s... Since I knew the museum didn't have every game show, I thought about collecting one episode of every game show I could get off air, with the intentions of donating them to the museum much later in life.
Years later, thanks to the internet, I discovered that I wasn't the only one out there with a few videotapes of old stuff. 3 tapes of mine slowly became two hundred.
It's taken 10 years, but I can proudly say that i have one episode of just about every game show out there. Unlike other traders, I'm not interested in collecting the entire run of Break the Bank, or every Pat Finn appearance... I just appreciate the genre, and thanks to most of you, I can appreciate it even more.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'118250\' date=\'May 11 2006, 09:11 PM\']
Consider it done. Now, as long as we're telling stories...
Back in the age of dinosaurs (or at least before GSN), there was Shokus Video, and maybe one or two other sources for a tiny sampling of old game shows on video. In the earliest days of the Usenet group, I made a dear friend (let's leave proper names out of this, but he knows who he is) who happily gave me copies of maybe a dozen shows from the seventies in exchange for some extra TV Guides I had lying around. Those shows are in just about everybody's collections today, but at the time, before GSN and before widespread tape trading, seeing these games from my childhood that I thought I'd never see again was almost enough to make me weep.
I've never had the desire to own eleventy-billion episodes of Press Your Luck, or even of the civilian shows Cullen hosted, but I'm glad you guys out there are doing it so I can send people your way when they're looking for a particular show. In the meantime, my collection today is of a decent enough size that I've been able to do some good with it. When I can help a fellow whose grandfather appeared on IGAS as a Bill Cullen lookalike, it's a great feeling. I've also been fortunate to watch shows that aren't in the "circuit", from museums and from private collectors who plan to stay private.[/quote]
As I posted earlier, I don't desire to own a huge collection, just a few of some favorites. I finally took the Shokus Video plunge and have ordered 3 DVD's two of which are game shows..One has Original Concentration from 1968, People are Funny from 1958 and Steve Allen's I've Got a Secret from 1967 (Pearl Bailey). The other has a 1957 Cullen TPIR , the 1965 PDQ Pilot and Truth Or Consequences (Barker-Color 1966)..The Other DVD consists of Perry Como (Nov. 1949) You Asked For It (Dec. 1951) and Pat Boone Chevy Showroom (Dec. 5, 1957)..They appear to have the best quality possible considering the age of some of the Material..I made the order late last night by credit card and They say it will be shipped today.. (May 19.)..Very pleased with their prompt service
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[quote name=\'TraderRob\' post=\'118183\' date=\'May 11 2006, 12:45 AM\']
For me, it started with a gift tape from Jake Tanner with a bunch of TPIRs from GSN [/quote]
It really does make me feel good to hear that I somehow helped someone get their start into the collectors circuit. I'm thrilled to see that it appears I managed to do something right for at least one other person at some point during my game show rollercoaster ride!
There are a few people out there, several of them still speaking up today, that I reserve a truly special place in my heart for the parts they played in the meteoric launch of my collection all those years ago. Between their help plus getting GSN full-time in 1996 or so, my collection started on day one and then grew so fast that I don't believe that I ever truly was able to manage it (cataloguing, trading, etc) or keep everything reasonably up-to-date. Hell, to this day, there are still probably 100-200 videotapes (or more...eeek!) that were the last added to my collection that have still not yet been reviewed and catalogued...doubt they ever will.
There were three people who were there from the start...two of them were Matt Ottinger (my hero) and John Ricci (luv him forever, especially once Comb Lock finally becomes the hit he deserves)...they were followed quickly by the rest of my extended family consisting of Chuck Donegan and Brad Francini. So many other great guys revealed themselves shortly after (not gonna keep mentioning names...this mess is too long already) but they know who they are.
Oh, and the remaining member of the original three mentioned above...Randy Amasia...my life changed the day he entered it and it really hasn't been the same since he left us all way too soon, he with so many things left to accomplish and tons of people to terrorize in a way that only Randy could do...those of us who happened to be terrorized by him have truly been made better people as a result.
Sorry for the rambling melancholy babble...I don't poke my head up often anymore so I hope you'll indulge me on the rare times that I do.
Jake
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First off, thank you to Jake for the mention...w/a collection like his (that I, as large as mine is, never thought I'd one day near the size of!), it's quite an honor to be part of his "GS trading family". :-)
Anyway, how did I get started? It happened quite by accident: from about 85-93, there were a handful of shows I'd taped myself from various sources, be they original broadcasts, repeats from USA or other sources, etc. Upon discovering how many GS fans were out there and that a market existed for trading GS eps, I invested money from a summer job (being 17 @ the time) in a 2nd VCR and started trading (before then, I managed to get a nice assortment of 60 eps by passing on my old C64 GS games to the aforementioned Matt Ottinger!)...in fact, my first 3 video trades were with Jake, Brad Francini, and John Ricci.
And now, w/a collection nearing 10,000 eps that I'm currently in the tedious process of dubbing to DVD and recataloguing accordingly, I thank each and every one you, whether mentioned here or not, for the part you played in contributing to that amount...you guys rock! :-)
Chuck Donegan (The Grateful "Chuckie Baby")
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For me, it started out as a couple of episodes at a time, then 2002 was the year GSN came on my cable system. 4 years later, I have almost 1800 episodes and I don't even have the time to trade or even tape anything anymore. That's life, I guess.