Uhm... are QUITE sure about that? Most collectors never complete their collections, a little because you never know when something "new" might pop up, and a little because... well, while a complete collection is indeed source of satisfaction, the thrill of the chase is probably better...



Blimey, no... he used to be considered the most beautiful child in the world, in his time, the poor tyke...

http://kittypackard.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/thekid1.jpg

And then everything went wrong for him, that's quite a sad story, with uncle Fester actually being a bit of a happy ending...

Speaking of Chaplin, did you hear about that totally lost and forgotten Chaplin film that turned up on Ebay?!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/nov/05/charlie-chaplin-ebay-reel-tin

well, i originally read the story in a magazine, this month's Fortean Times. According to that article, its been pretty much confirmed as a new (i say new, the film was made from out-takes from Chaplins other films for propaganda in the first world war) "lost" film.

The last i heard of this story is that the owner of the film was offered £900,000 (!!!) but refused to sell it. I bloody well would - for that sort of money you could pay to clone Charlie Chaplin!

Just curious PhilGlass, you say you found some of the missing colour episodes in colour of Steptoe? What did you do with them? Did you lend them to the Beeb or something? I was wondering about this, would letting the BBC copy them devalue the originals? What made me think of it was hearing that some of the missing Doctor Who episodes are actually in private hands but the owners refuse to let them be copied .... So the rumour i heard goes.

Lol Gomez, I was being a little ironic... saying that most of what is on the net is untrue, and I wrote that on the net, therefore it must be untrue...

The quality of the copies I have are not perfect by any means.  I have not sent them to the BBC at all, they chose to record over them originally so they should learn their lesson.  Of course, I do not own the copyright, but they also can not make me turn the tapes over to them - they are not on original BBC reels, so I own the actual tape out right.

The BBC do have some of them, "A Winters Tale" was handed in to them as a telerecording, with the colour information still in tact.  They had the first 15 minutes then another collector came along with the second half. 

The problem I have with collecting is this:  I spend a lot of time and money collecting - something I choose to do.  However, many fans then seem to think that I am obliged to let them see it because they are "huge fans", but couldn't be bothered to actually collect themselves.  One of my room 101 items would be youtube.  Many fans have fallen out with me because they believe it is my duty to post all the rare and unreleased clips I have on to youtube for them, when they could simply collect them themselves.  "But I don't know where to get them from"...  Neither did I.  I was not born with a collection - it took a LONG time to get them, and a lot of work.

I might take a few stills from the colours I have and share them around.  I actually wish I hadn't mentioned it as I don't want too many people to know.  I wish I had them in brilliant quality but don't.  Of course I have them backed up and if I play them, I use the DVD transfer.  Interestingly, if I turn it to black and white for a laugh, they are still in better quality than most of the BBC released episodes (but then most of the Steptoe episodes were previously released in better quality by the beeb on video, and without all the stupid cuts they made on the dvd set... grrr...  Right, I'm off to room 101....)

I love this thread! Its turned into a facinating insight into an area i'd never even considered before now!

I take objection to the word selfish (don't worry I'm not mad at you).

What is selfish to me is someone who can't be bothered to collect expecting someone else to do it for them.  EVERYONE can end up with the same stuff if they just make the effort, and it's not to do with money.