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Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?

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Kester Pelagius	Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	Lead	[-]
Posts: 920 (04/01/08 21:47:02) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None Has the bubble burst? I stumbled on a message about Shocking Videos/Revenge is my Destiny being gone. The message can be found here. Curious I ventured over to VSOM. For those who remember the message about the site/'company' being for sale a while back it seems to have been sold. At least snail mails now to go to GA. Wonder if the quality has improved any? Speaking of improved quality I noticed that while MV has shut it's site down from ordering there is a message up about how it will be reopening soon to sell "original/official VHS tapes from around the world". They promise "No bootlegs!" but does it even matter when VHS prerecords now sell for as little as a quarter at flea markets!?
frankie marino	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#1	[-]
Posts: 897 (04/01/08 21:51:43) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	*Quote:* I stumbled on a message about Shocking Videos/Revenge is my Destiny being gone dang! i only bought from him 2 or 3 times, but he had the rarest shitt and wrote really good blurbs. the Shocking Videos catalog was great bathroom reading BT has been eating away at bootleggers profits no doubt, but it's getting harder and harder to find a good tracker. the end of an era...
Latarnia	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#2	[-]
Posts: 12298 (04/02/08 03:22:48) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Yeah, the big boys are shutting down. The torrent sites, bootleggers on eBay, and the official releases of lots of euro/asian cult on DVD are the cause, I'd think. I suspect that Midnight will be having some eBay store that will work hand in hand with Midnight's auctioning of videos. Bill Knight should make a nice buddle on this, and there's no reason he doesn't have an absolute right to. Mirek
John Bernhard	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#3	[-]
Posts: 855 (04/02/08 04:35:21) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	All I know is he started an aggressive e mail assualt on me ( and I assume everyone on the mailing list ) a few months ago, and then one that told me I'd be removed from the list if I did not respond.. Dopey headers and a hard sell approach that quickly had me deleting the messages without even opening them. It really rubbed me the wrong way and reeked of despairation.
Latarnia	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#4	[-]
Posts: 12298 (04/02/08 05:34:57) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	*Quote:* All I know is he started an aggressive e mail assualt Who? The Shocking Video guy or Bill Knight? Mirek
MonsterKid71	Errrr?	#5	[-]
Posts: 111 (04/02/08 07:01:47) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I cant imagine Bill email assaulting anyone! Very odd if'n he did. As far as VHS selling for a quarter at flea markets......yeah they do but I doubt you would find the kinds of vhs that Bill has in his collection. A used Japanese VHS of say City of the Living Dead just went for $41 on ebay.
Kester Pelagius	Re: Errrr?	#6	[-]
Posts: 920 (04/02/08 08:20:11) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	*Quote:* As far as VHS selling for a quarter at flea markets......yeah they do but I doubt you would find the kinds of vhs that Bill has in his collection. A used Japanese VHS of say City of the Living Dead just went for $41 on ebay. Last weekend I sighted CALIGULA: THE UNTOLD STORY (Label: EDDE) for $2 at a flea market. Same vendor had Caligula II (aka Messalina, Messalina) on DVD (Woodhaven crap) for either $5 or $3 (the vendor had a sign that said all DVDs were three bucks but some had stickers on them and he was such a crotchety old goat I just kept walking). I had no idea EDDE released this title to VHS so I'd call that pretty rare, granted if it's like the rest of their stuff it was probably garbage. As for prices they depend on the Flea Market/vendor but, for the past couple months, I've noticed many vendors that sold VHS (and a few that sell DVDs) have started to dump them. I've picked up a few things for 50 cents, like THE DEMOLITIONIST, but you're right that most of what's out there is common stuff. Alas the trend with vendors here seems to be lowering their prices to get rid of VHS, or just not bothering to carrying them anymore. Don't know if it's the same in the rest of the nation?
Kester Pelagius	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#7	[-]
Posts: 920 (04/02/08 08:32:22) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	*Quote:* Yeah, the big boys are shutting down. The torrent sites, bootleggers on eBay, and the official releases of lots of euro/asian cult on DVD are the cause, I'd think. The 'collector's video' market has always competed with official releases. What made this possible was availability of product. But with fewer brick and mortar retailers stocking legit releases, preferring instead to waste shelf space on Hollywood garbage in multiple formats, thus forcing more and more consumers to seek the movies they want online, meaning through either legit online vendors or by purchasing direct, where's the gray market vendor fit in? Online vendors who actually stock hard to find releases, that may have been the real death knell for gray market DVD. That and the prices. Would you rather spend 25+ dollars (sans S&H) on a DVDr or buy a legit DVD release, with extras and (sometimes) nice box art and amaray case, for roughly the same amount or cheaper?
Squonkamatic	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#8	[-]
Posts: 3486 (04/02/08 13:12:53) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Just the day before yesterday I was desperately searching for one more Anolis R2 of FORBIDDEN WORLD and went looking at Luminous and he has more or less abandoned imports re-selling and is concentrating on his homebrew DVD-R catalog. He also still has his Alfa Digital, Eurovision and old Shoarma Digital releases not only for sale from his site but Xploited and I think Diabolik has a couple of them too. Sinister is obviously still there as well as Incredibly Strange Filmworks, both of whom have retail representation at Movies Unlimited (who do not identify the media as being recordable) and both of whom have official eBay stores as well. Something Weird may not be making DVDs with Image anymore but you can certainly still get their VHS and DVD-R material from their website and I doubt that their coldpressed retail releases are going to dry up anytime soon. And of course that Z Media clown with his $12 DVD-Rs and free global shipping is still there, and as Mirek points out the same material that all these people seem to share is all over eBay, with sellers like Mars Collective apparently being so untouchable due to revenues generated for eBay that they are even able to get away with bootlegging GALAXY OF TERROR, though one would expect with how the overseas Corman DVDs have all been discontinued they will be cracking down on him too at some point. An insider's ear tip is that Bill is vary wary of eBay and PayPal, I don't see him selling his genuine rarities there so much as bulk lots of stuff that he's tired of tripping over as well as memorabilia items that he's ready to part with. But yeah, I even took a screenshot at about 1am on Monday after he closed it down, it's the end of an era for sure. One thing to keep in mind with the motivations of these people is that many of them have been in this business for 20 years+ at this point, are approaching their middle aged years and probably would just prefer to not be at the beck and call for every sonofabitch on the internet who wants a DVD-R of KUNG-FU COCKFIGHTER. Life is short. That is news about Shocking Videos though. As far as I know they were the only place to get the widescreen Scandanavian print of OPEN SEASON -- I had actually been tempted to sell off my copy of it on VHS last fall (I also had his DVD-R and shelf space is getting tight again) and am glad I decided against it after reading this.
luisj40	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#9	[-]
Posts: 2873 (04/03/08 13:25:33) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	As long as there are films that someone wants to watch and there is no official DVD release available my guess there will continue to be a demand for some grey market sellers. Personally I've held off on buying several DVD-Rs in the hopes that official DVDs will eventually get release but I see this may be getting hopeless in some case especially with Mexican horror films. What I can't believe that several American International Pictures' movies have not been released on DVD mainly because of the rights owner sitting on her a55 on them the list of these films include some the 1950's classic Sci Fi/Horrors films like INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, etc. Well Im close to going over the fence to start buying several of the grey market releases of films that look like they will never see a legit release for various reasons.
Koukol 5	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#10	[-]
Posts: 2145 (04/03/08 16:58:34) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	You're right Luis...I want TEENAGE FRANKENSTIEN badly
Squonkamatic	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#11	[-]
Posts: 3486 (04/03/08 17:13:24) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	LOL and someone sent me a burn of INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN that I have enjoyed many times.
frankie marino	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#12	[-]
Posts: 897 (04/03/08 19:48:48) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Saucer Men is probably the best film of it's type. hard to believe it's not on dvd
John Bernhard	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#13	[-]
Posts: 855 (04/04/08 05:04:55) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The email baarrage was from Shocking. It was all jokey come ons to buy stuff, special offers and sales, with these obnoxious headers. I just started deleting them as I had bought from them and was reasonably happy with what I bought ( though frustrated as I could never set up a trade with them ). A couple others still around RETRO FLICKS CREEPY CLASSICS
frankie marino	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#14	[-]
Posts: 897 (04/04/08 09:46:08) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Mark did come on too strong towards the end, and i too started just junking the emails.
Kester Pelagius	Re: Grey Marketers - Who's Still in Buisness?	#15	[-]
Posts: 920 (04/06/08 08:19:44) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	*Quote:* As long as there are films that someone wants to watch and there is no official DVD release available my guess there will continue to be a demand for some grey market sellers. Personally I've held off on buying several DVD-Rs in the hopes that official DVDs will eventually get release but I see this may be getting hopeless in some case(s) <...> I, too, have a laundry list of movies either not available on DVD or not out on R1 DVD. But between the outrageous prices, complaints I've heard and read about the poor quality DVDr media used, and allegations in recent years some folls out there are just selling burns of stuff downloaded from torrent sites or ripped from PD discs how do you know which vendor of collector's video is worth it? OTOH I suppose DVDr side steps the whole region encoding issue.
Atomic Mystery Monster	Minor nitpick...	#16	[-]
Posts: 932 (04/06/08 10:25:00) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	*Quote:* What I can't believe that several American International Pictures' movies have not been released on DVD mainly because of the rights owner sitting on her a55 on them the list of these films include some the 1950's classic Sci Fi/Horrors films like INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, etc. From what I understand, she isn't sitting on them so much as she was having trouble reaching an agreement with potential licensors regarding the price. I believe that she licensed some titles to Lionsgate, so perhaps the titles you crave will get a release if those sell well enough.
luisj40	Re: Minor nitpick...	#17	[-]
Posts: 2873 (04/06/08 13:19:45) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	*Quote:* I believe that she licensed some titles to Lionsgate, so perhaps the titles you crave will get a release if those sell well enough. Those arent owned by Susan Hart but rather they belong to the heirs of Samuel Arkoff, from what I heard Mrs. Hart is asking for too much money for the films of her late husband James Nicholson.
Atomic Mystery Monster	Re: Minor nitpick...	#18	[-]
Posts: 932 (04/07/08 18:58:55) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	*Quote:* Those arent owned by Susan Hart but rather they belong to the heirs of Samuel Arkoff Ah, thanks for clearing that up. *Quote:* from what I heard Mrs. Hart is asking for too much money for the films of her late husband James Nicholson. Yeah, that sounds right. The silver lining to that cloud is that those movies got VHS releases, so it's at least possible that she'll find someone who'll "play ball." Speaking of which, I was poking through Amazon's VHS section and was surprised to see that the VHS tapes of those films aren't as overpriced as I would've expected for such in-demand titles. The highest price I found was $24.35 (plus shipping) for INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN. Everything else was around 9-15 dollar range (not including shipping). While admittedly expensive for the format nowadays, I've seen far worse prices for used VHS tapes of genre titles.
luisj40	Re: Minor nitpick...	#19	[-]
Posts: 2873 (04/08/08 15:18:33) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	*Quote:* I've seen far worse prices for used VHS tapes of genre titles. I think many fans of these films have been spending their money on bootleg DVD-Rs instead of buying beat-up 20 year-old VHS tapes.
ECC	Re: Minor nitpick...	#20	[-]
Posts: 1976 (04/08/08 16:47:36) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	*Quote:* Last weekend I sighted CALIGULA: THE UNTOLD STORY (Label: EDDE) for $2 at a flea market. Same vendor had Caligula II (aka Messalina, Messalina) on DVD (Woodhaven crap) for either $5 or $3 (the vendor had a sign that said all DVDs were three bucks but some had stickers on them and he was such a crotchety old goat I just kept walking). I had no idea EDDE released this title to VHS so I'd call that pretty rare, granted if it's like the rest of their stuff it was probably garbage. Edde was a poor quality label which also had the "T-Z Video" logo on their boxes. I believe their CALIGULA was cut. They also put out Wizard's version of ZOMBI as ZOMBIE 2, the censored VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD as ZOMBIE 4, REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER as ZOMBIE 5 and MONSTER HUNTER as ZOMBIE 6 (I have no idea what ZOMBIE 3 was). I have a copy of the film MYSTERIES from them which I'm guessing a video label before them retitled EVIL MYSTERIES. "I just spent all morning watching a VH1 special on Gwen Stefani. I don't know what a Hollaback girl is. All I know is that I want her dead." -- Brian the Dog from FAMILY GUY.

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