Whatever happened to that ebay auction?

[Jeremy Williams]

Someone tried asking over at The Mausaleom Club but the thread was locked...again!!!

After doing some digging around i've discovered that the buyer, mary's sheep is no longer a member and has some negitive feedback, resulting in a -1 score, you can't view the comments as the buyer has made them private.

The original seller has nothing to sell at the moment, but due to the new ebay rules, he has an immaculate feedback record.

So, what did happen to it?

Has Kalidoscope had any more contact with the buyer?

[hartley967]

It seems to be that both Kaleidoscope and Mausoleum club members have got egg on their faces and don't want to talk about it.
If you recall they were the ones telling everyone not to bid as they were in control of the situation and the seller 'was a nice man, a very nice man' or words to that effect.

At the end of the day anyone selling videotape can only sell blank tape with a hint that the contents are the same as what is on the label .They cannot promise anything else. Especially if the replay machine has long gone. Yet the last day bidding was totally hysterical with someone (who had just joined Ebay ) supposedly the buyer.

Because this was such a large collection from a time when VT was expensive .I suggested that this might be the collection from the known late eccentric who had used computer tape (nicked from his works) to record the shows. His estate had been in touch with the BBC a while ago who found they could not play any of it .

However there was too much of 'gold fever' frenzy for my post to be answered .

[Jeremy Williams]

I said all along that the picture of the tapes looked wrong, in fact a few people noticed that, they looked more like reel to reel tapes.

So the seller posed as the buyer, put in that rediculously high bid and no one was the wiser?

Did he pay himself though, and was he dissapointed in what he got? ;D

[Richard Bignell]

jonny said:

the people at mausoleum, KAL & the Bfi & BBC seems either pretty incompetent or disinterested in bringing out information on archive tv, whether missing or existing, in to the public domain. they do get quite excited about dr who (kids tv) but thats about it.

That is a *grossly* unfair thing to say.

Richard

[Kev Mulrenan]

jonny said:

the people at mausoleum, KAL & the Bfi & BBC seems either pretty incompetent or disinterested in bringing out information on archive tv, whether missing or existing, in to the public domain. they do get quite excited about dr who (kids tv) but thats about it.

this missing episodes site is the one & only place to get any decent info on some better past programs & from people genuinley interested in it.

I, like Richard, believe your comments are both unfair and untrue.

[B Thomas]

kevinmulrennan said:

jonny said:

the people at mausoleum, KAL & the Bfi & BBC seems either pretty incompetent or disinterested in bringing out information on archive tv, whether missing or existing, in to the public domain. they do get quite excited about dr who (kids tv) but thats about it.

this missing episodes site is the one & only place to get any decent info on some better past programs & from people genuinley interested in it.

I, like Richard, believe your comments are both unfair and untrue.

I agree. A lot of us here are regulars at the Maus Club too...

[John Fleming]

I would say Kal have done more than most to raise the profile of archive TV. The BBC could do considerably more IMHO, not least as someone suggested here leave the US stuff to Channel 4 and use this budget for archive TV.

Back on topic though, IIRC the buyer posted negative feedback stating that the collection was a load of blanks. I don't know whether that was true or not, and the feedback doesn't appear to be there anymore.

[jonny]

ultimately the blame must lie with the Bfi & BBC who have the stuff stashed away year after year for none to see except the occasional thing on bbc 4. its true alot of stuff can be found on the trading scene if you know where to look but i still think theyre all too sloppy, disorganised, incompetent & most of all out of touch. its a waste!!

[Mark Smith]

richardbignell said:

jonny said:

the people at mausoleum, KAL & the Bfi & BBC seems either pretty incompetent or disinterested in bringing out information on archive tv, whether missing or existing, in to the public domain. they do get quite excited about dr who (kids tv) but thats about it.

That is a *grossly* unfair thing to say.

Richard

What, that the quoted institutions are "disinterested", or that Dr Who is kid's TV?

[Ian Watlington]

So is anyone in the know prepared to come out and say it was a hoax all along? or did the collection actually get sold to someone with whom Kal has no contact?

If the latter, it seems inconceivable that anyone with the capability to play those tapes back would be unknown to the collecting community.

[Greg H]

I dont know about inconceivable mate! Thats a prety strong word!

Some people arent really interested in the 'collecting community' for one reason or another and just quietly get on with their stuff behind closed doors.

[Christopher Perry]

Hello

I just noticed this thread.

It is sad to note that a couple of people have turned this into a 'let's have a dig at Mauso, Kal, the BFI and BBC' thread.

Mauso is a group of posters and is not an organisation, so its newsgroup members can say and do whatever they want. If something is not being reported its probably because there is nothing to report.

The BFI and BBC do indeed have poor reputations which are sometimes deserved and sometimes not deserved, dependent on case by case. I think you would all agree that Andrew Martin is excellent at sharing BBC information, and we print books packed with info they have given us to share. (I don't think it is fair to label Andrew incompetent or disorganised.)

I agree that their reshowing of archive TV is limited, but the sheer amount repeated on UK Gold, or released on DVD, is massive compared to even 10 years ago. Many gems remain to be screened, but alot more is now out there.

As for us at Kaleidoscope? We are in our 20th Anniversary year this year. That's a lot of events where we've shown old material and a lot of books we've printed to share information with you all. Along the way we have found a few missing shows, all of which have been shared on this forum - including a very long list from last year's Raiders initiative. Much of this was shown by us or the BFI aswell.

I don't think it fair for people to accuse us of hiding what we do or trying to keep things secret. We have returned every missing show we've ever found and announced it very publicly by showing them in many cases.

Last year alone we provided Objective North, ITV Productions, the BFi, the BBC, Granada International and the Dr Who Restoration Team with material that could be used on clips shows or DVD projects. We have a free Lost Shows website that helps people and our Kal website documents a lot of our work.

I can't ever remember burbling on about Dr Who endlessly, where is the proof that we are obsessed with this show? Look on our websites, I don't think you'll find much obsession there.

It is a shame if anonymous people want to hide behind newsgroups like this to have a dig at us. In the last year I have been through a particularly painful divorce, and have had to move house twice consequently, I have started a new and very time-consuming job, worked with ITV on two projects and done all the Kal stuff; I am not superman so forgive me if I forget to come on this website and update you all on matters.

It may be that Mauso, Kal, the BBC and BFI do indeed choose to keep some things private for many, many good reasons.

In this case, the sellers and buyers concerned in this ebay affair don't want it discussed in public. So it will not be discussed in public again until something useful can be served by that purpose.

May I finish by saying that this year I know of three missing shows that have been found and returned to the BBC or offered to us/BFI:

Last Chronicle of Barset, some Barlow film sequences and a Sailor of Fortune.

Kal had nothing to do with those finds which is why I have not reported them, but the collectors concerned have CHOSEN not to post on here because they are very saddened by the actions of some posters who do not congratulate, but instead just moan and moan and moan.

I am not incompetent and I am not disinterested, but I am reluctant to visit this website again, so I can be publicly abused further.

Enough said.

Chris

[John Fleming]

Kal do a sterling job, I only have the one book, Top Pop, but I reference it just about every day. Likewise there are and always have been individuals within the BBC whose tireless efforts should be recognised and yes, Andrew Martin is one of these. I do see Jonny's point of view though regarding the BBC. He is particularly interested in music TV and the BBC's treatment of its music archives has been woeful. Maybe things are on the verge of picking up as has been discussed on these pages but the statement was all to do with maximising profits; I would hate to see the shows flogged to the highest bidder, possibly overseas, and never seen in the UK again. UK Gold sometimes shows good stuff from the archives but a significant percentage of its output is frankly rubbish, shows that are far too recent to be called "gold" but which are simply repeats.

[hartley967]

Chris Perry.
blimey ! what a stonking over reaction on your part eh? .
calm down lad calm down

There were two posts on this thread, one mildly critical from me and the other from Jonny talking about 'incompetence' ' disinterested' etc . If you look at the other posters they have all
rebuked Jonny's claims and come to the support of your organisation.
So its a bit sad that someone as respected as you are, has tarred everyone here with the same brush.

The reason people are interested in 'the great tape caper' is because you or your associates made it public in the first place, and told people here not to bid, and now suddenly its all gone quiet.
I dont know if I was the first but I discretly brought 'Barset' to Andrew's attention . I also brought a 'Hippodrome' and 'Boyd' to the attention of one of your associates here ages back and he didnt even bother to thank or tell me the follow up (I know he/they bought them).

So Chris and Co most people are quite aware of what you do/done and are thankful for it, but maybe if you and your associates didnt throw the toys out the pram when questioned
so often and treated others with a bit of respect you could perhaps turn this into a full time commitment rather than worry about doing another job as well?





..

[jonny]

& leave poor 'hartley' alone, hes still tryin to find that fly fishin book!!