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Post by John Green on Dec 15, 2011 17:02:24 GMT
As we speak,the population is moving away from VHS tapes to other media. In the past,unwanted tapes would have ended up at jumble sales. Nowadays,brick-and-mortar outlets are generally run by charities.Most of these shops are no longer accepting video tapes,although they get offered thousands every year. At present,the people running them aren't great archivists.My local charity shops won't display any non-dustjacketed books,even if they were issued without jackets.So all the signed First editions are going to the 'recycler' at 7 pence per kilo. Every so often Oxfam gets into the press because they have auctioned of a Rupert annual or an Oscar Wilde limited edition for thousands. Is there any way of turning these people to use in the quest for missing TV and radio? I think people would make an extra effort for their favourite causes.The question is: in the absence of a financial incentive,what motivation would they have? Publicity for their cause? I'm sure that something rare would be discovered every week,though a lot of drek would have to be sorted through.
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Post by Greg H on Dec 15, 2011 17:08:02 GMT
Best bet would probably be to go and get chummy with the people who run all of the local charity shops and ask them to give you a phone call if any old film cans should materialise in their shop.
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Post by John Green on Dec 15, 2011 17:22:20 GMT
I was thinking about older VHS tapes,too. As I've said before,some came in to the Red Cross shop,including Cold Lazarus off TV,but they wouldn't let me see them since they might contain porn. Certainly,I'll try local solutions,including writing to the local paper (for local people),but given that most of these charities are national organisations,approaching their head offices seems a good idea. These people are gatekeepers,meeting many more people than we could hope to. An anecdote.When I ran a bookshop,I went round a lady's house to look at her late sister's books. She also showed me photos of her late brother's days in the RFC in France in World War 1.The living sister intended to destroy the photos per her sister's request.Photos of crashed bi-planes with the brother sipping Champagne over the wreckage. In effect,charities and others who do house clearances are 'upstream'.They get to decide what is and is not junked. A last anecdote-promise.A woman rang one of the biggest dealers in old comics with a view to selling her late husbands collection.No agreement reached,she dumped them at a paper-recycling centre.The dealer then received a call from the recylers... There are obviously housefuls of cine-memorobelia out there.The question is: are we the sorts of people likely to be allowed to have access to it?
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Post by Peter Stirling on Dec 15, 2011 17:46:38 GMT
Its a shame that all this unwanted technology like 1000s and 1000s of VHS tapes etc, cannot be put in something like an exhausted mine or radioactive waste store and just left (obviously sealed properly from damp)..Some of it might just yield something to future generations? ??
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Post by Steven Sigel on Dec 15, 2011 18:56:02 GMT
It's pretty unlikely that anything missing would turn up on VHS -- not impossible, but not very likely..
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Dec 15, 2011 23:04:49 GMT
I disagree. Remember the B.S.B finds? There are plenty of shows since the introduction of VHS that have been wiped. Kids shows on BBC being one, but a surprisingly high amount of Regional shows too, mainly from ITV in a couple of Regions, Tyne Tees comes to mind.
There is a much smaller chance of non-VHS video, being older going to a charity shop, but....nonetheless....
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Post by Greg H on Dec 16, 2011 0:46:53 GMT
Ray has a very good point there. I should have expanded on my previous post a little.
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Post by Robert Belford on Dec 16, 2011 1:11:14 GMT
Continuity, ad breaks, trailers, local news both ITV and BBC. I suspect that on the whole national news programmes don't exist in full in the archives until the second half of the 1980's? It's pretty unlikely that anything missing would turn up on VHS -- not impossible, but not very likely..
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Dec 16, 2011 7:42:49 GMT
Continuity, ad breaks, trailers, local news both ITV and BBC. I suspect that on the whole national news programmes don't exist in full in the archives until the second half of the 1980's? It's pretty unlikely that anything missing would turn up on VHS -- not impossible, but not very likely.. In regard particularly to VHS, I do refer everyone to the 80's SHOWS thread on this Forum. Should any of you think of any 80's programmes that are definitely missing could you please add them. The chances of recovery from VHS are obviously higher than would be from a domestic recording prior to the advent of the video recorder taking place in the majority of the nations homes. I know the vast majority missing are children and regional shows, but there are some light entertainment programmes missing from the start of the decade (Awards and Variety shows come to mind) and anything that increeases awareness is good. So please add any programmes you know are missing to the thread!!!!
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Post by Rob Hutchinson on Dec 16, 2011 14:57:35 GMT
if you are going to go down the route of getting in with charity shops an even more likely source would be house clearance companies.
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Post by simonwells61 on Dec 17, 2011 0:34:44 GMT
It's a good point- I would also encourage everyone to have a word with their local refuse tip and get them to put anything in film canisters aside. I have.
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Post by Rob Moss on Dec 19, 2011 1:57:19 GMT
It's pretty unlikely that anything missing would turn up on VHS -- not impossible, but not very likely.. As has been mentioned, the Adam Lee wipings of the early 90s saw the junking of some kids' shows that were being repeated up to 1985 - the full-length Bod episodes, Chock-A-Block, plus numerous others which were certainly being repeated after 1980. Then there's things like The Adventure Game, where a couple of junked episodes turned up on Betamax. However, it's unlikely that anything major would turn up, but we should never rule it out as a possibility, albeit slim.
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Post by Ewan Montague on Dec 19, 2011 17:02:15 GMT
some additional suggestion, charity shops have quite a high turn over of volunteer staff so it would be best to speak to both the manager and deputy manager and any full time assistants rather than the person behind the till and perhaps suggest a little sign, make it clear you will pay(obvious I know but it's always best to make clear) and go in regularly otherwise they will forget. I suggest Saturdays, the weekend staff tend to be more flexible in this sort of thing. One good way would be to become a volunteer yourself at one of the bigger shops. Some Charities such as Oxfam, Red Cross and The British Heart Foundation have specialist shops in Books, Music etc. It's the Music shops that are most likely to get this sort of thing. If you are a volunteer you will get to search the donated goods personally. I have in the past been a weekend volunteer and quite a lot of VHS tapes do get donated but are always thrown away, unless you are there to get them. In addition if you are a volunteer and let the manager and staff know you want to keep the tapes they will save them for you when you're in next.
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Post by Richard Marple on Dec 20, 2011 18:35:07 GMT
I've bought a few used tapes from car boots sales over the years.
Nothing that interesing were on the tapes, the best being some footage from the ITV Chart Show.
It was mostly the video of Jimmy Nail's No Good For Me, which my video found to track properly.
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Post by John Green on Dec 21, 2011 19:58:09 GMT
Thank you to everyone who's contributing. It is difficult because it would doubtless be one in several hundred tapes that was interesting. What made me raise this was finding out about the BSB and childrens' shows from the 80s that were missing.Is it just the master tapes of Fulton Mckey's (wrong spelling) Fraggles that are missing? Every week our local paper has a nostalgia supplement where people express fond memories of almost touring with Jackie Trent.I'll have to keep more of an eye open for references to appearances since acts had a lot of incentive to find someone with a VCR to record them. I have (or had) a couple of home-recorded tapes with Bond movies etc.,but lots of Xmas.continuity/ad breaks from yonks ago.It was only when I saw these sorts of things on Youtube that I realised that the frame can be rarer than the painting!
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