Well, here we are. Another guy decided to start looking for a few episodes
of Get a Life on the internet and it turns into a compulsion. Now I have all
my clothes on the floor and my tapes where the clothes used to be (in the
dresser drawers).
Update - Now they're all over the floor most of the time also.
The following are a set of 'rules' that I abide by when trading tapes:
1.) I always send USPS 2-3 Day Priority mail.
It gets to the person quickly. I've never had any problems with tapes getting
lost or damaged. And it's only $3.20 to send 3 or less tapes.
2.) I always use the same brand of tape.
I think I finally found my brand. Lately, I've been using the Professional Grade
Maxell HiFi tapes. And plus, Sam's Club sells then relatively cheap and in
bulk. I don't expect to get these in return, but something of a close match is expected (Maxell Gold, Sony V, TDK...)
3.) I'll tape on any speed for you.
Also, from my recent beginnings in this hobby, I've learned that most collectors
like to have their stuff taped on SP speed. The quality is better, but frankly,
if I had all my stuff taped on SP, I'd have to put on an addition to my house
for all my tapes. That is why I like to have some of my shows taped on EP (SLP). The
quality drop isn't too bad, and frankly, all I want from a tape is that it has
decent sound, good video, and none of those annoying lines going up or down or
sideways or whatever. The only time I would want it on SP, would be if the
quality is already terrible, it's only 2-4 hours of programming, and I really
must have it. So, if you prefer SP speed I'd be happy to ablidge, but in most
cases (not all) the original copy will be in EP.
3(a).) I might change to SP for some stuff.
Now that I'm really gettin into this tape trading, I may start recording some
shows on SP speed (South Park, Tom Green Show...), but these would only be the half hour programs. Also, I just went out and bought some really good dubbing cables. They
were recommended to me by a friend at school who is a big a/v nut. They're
called Monster cables. They have
the gold-plated connections and I read somewhere recently that these kind of
wires make a world of difference in the quality of a dub. Well...we shall see.
But there is no way that I would ever use up a whole tape for one episode of
Mystery Science Theatre 3000. By the end of it's run, I'd have about 200 tapes
of it laying around the house.
4.) I trade time for time.
Another thing I picked up from my recent experiences. I feel this is a fair way
to work out trades. And if someone comes up short with hours of shows, I'll
usually just ask for a few bucks to even out the deal towards the cost of the extra tapes and the like. But when one
wants their stuff on SP and the other EP, other things come into play. Tape for
tape is also alright, as long as the difference in time isn't too far off. What
I'm trying to say, I guess, is that it's easiest to trade equal amounts of
programming on equal amount of tapes....whatever.
5.) I will usually cut out the commercials of the shows I'm taping off of TV
(if I'm around).
Some people like the commercials, some don't. I don't. A lot of people who
prefer to have the commercials included, fear that by stopping and starting the
tape, precious seconds can be lost. I feel the same way about losing a few
seconds off the beginning of the segments, but I have become pretty damn good
at editing those commercials out (most of the time). A lot of shows have little second or 2
'bumpers' that they show every time the show breaks for a commercial and comes
back. These are very helpful in knowing when to hit that pause button.
Occasionally, I will miss a second here or there, but I feel that's it's a
small price to pay for continous, flowing joy. So, if you see something here
you might be interested, chances are that the commercials have been edited out,
and there is a chance that I might have missed a second or two, although with
such shows as Quantum Leap (which I may did start taping again, now that I have the
Sci-Fi Channel) and The State, the chances are slim to none as they have
'bumpers'. And if you have stuff that I want with commercials, don't go out of
your way to edit them out (not that I wouldn't wind ;) ), it's just that I
prefer it otherwise.
5(a).) If I have something recorded with commercials, I will edit them
out for you.
If you want me to, that is.
6.) I don't affix any of the labels or write anything on them.
I do this because it's how I like to receive tapes. I like to write down what
is on the tape in my own way of cataloging, so when I recieve a tape with
nothing written on the stickers yet, I find this very easy to do. So, I do
the same for the people I send my tapes to.
7.) Here's just a couple resources that I use(d) to get me to where I am
today:
alt.video.tape-trading homepage
alt.video.tape-trading - The
newsgroup
alt.marketplace.videotapes -
another newsgroup that I frequent
alt.videos.bootlegs - the newsgroup with
the scary illegal sounding name
DejaNews - handy for getting the dirt on
your prospective traders.
Yahoo's
page of Tape Traders Don't update it too often though. I think I sent in
my address a year ago and it still isn't up there.
Also, if you're looking for episodes of a certain tv series, chances are that
a newsgroup for that series exists. Look around. Maybe you'll get lucky.
Ok, so now that that's over with...onto the list