| Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.) Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Cliffhanger Classics On Video Cassettes; Only $109.95 | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 2 2013, 01:19 PM (2,497 Views) | |
| Fantomas | Jul 2 2013, 01:19 PM Post #1 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
There's a great article about film collecting over the years on the Greenbriar site, and this ad they reprinted (from the 70s? 80s?) ought to be interesting to Balconyites:![]() (By the way, that's $109.95 for each title, not for the whole batch.) I can imagine serial obsessives of the time thinking that was sure a lot of money, but, on the other hand, they could OWN The Purple Monster Strikes. And own it FOREVER. Were there really people who were willing to pay $109.95 (plus $1.00 postage and 6% sales tax if they lived in California) for tapes of serials? And where are those tapes today--moldering in a cardboard box in a dusty corner of the basement? I wonder what future generations will make of them when it comes time to sell the house and they go to see what treasures Grandpa was hiding in the downstairs storeroom. Now that I think about it, I suppose it won't be all that long before our DVDs and Blu-rays join the VHS and Beta tapes on the media junk pile. But at least I never paid $109.95 for Zombies of the Stratosphere. |
| "For life is short, but death is long." | |
![]() |
|
| JazzGuyy | Jul 2 2013, 02:12 PM Post #2 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Well, the laserdisc serials mostly listed for $39.95 though you could typically order them from places like Ken Crane's for 20% off. There were quite a few people, like me, who paid that price for serials. That was down quite a bit from 109.95 but high compared to today's prices of around $15 for most serials on DVD. I'm not sure the picture quality is much better though since the masters everyone uses for these are either copies of the laser discs, from TV broadcasts captured on VHS tape or from usually poor quality 16mm issues. |
| TANSTAAFL! | |
![]() |
|
| Frank Hale | Jul 2 2013, 03:34 PM Post #3 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Yeah, I bought a lot of the laser serials also. In retrospect it seems like a lot of money but I don't really regret it because: 1) Dang it! I enjoyed them. And after many rewatchings the per cost viewings probably came down to somewhere around normal theatre prices. 2) In accounting-speak, it's what we call a "sunk cost". There's nothing you can do about it, so obsessing about it will only drive you to an early grave. And let it be said, if the Columbia DVD Archive suddenly issued all their old serials for $100 apiece, I would reject it...but I would have to think about it first. |
![]() |
|
| AndyFish | Jul 2 2013, 06:40 PM Post #4 |
|
Movie Watcha Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Count me among the dumb that paid those prices! And I was just a kid! Keep in mind it was the only way you were ever going to see these. I bought batman, captain marvel, captain america and probably batman and robin for $90 each back in the early 80s. And these were film chained dubs, but I was happy to have them. |
| www.andytfish.com | |
![]() |
|
| Pa Stark | Jul 2 2013, 10:06 PM Post #5 |
|
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
When tape first came out, all prices were expensive. In the late 70's, a blank tape might have cost $10-20 and a VCR cost $700. $100 for a serial was standard. Many serials from private individuals were projected on a wall, and a video camera recorded it. For many titles, it was that or nothing. I was at one convention, and one dealer was dubbing Disney films right at his table.
Edited by Pa Stark, Jul 2 2013, 10:07 PM.
|
| Honest and Lovable Pa Stark | |
![]() |
|
| Meandering Tortoise | Jul 3 2013, 12:00 AM Post #6 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I started buying serials on video cassettes (beginning with Adventures of Captain Marvel) when the price dropped to $29.99 each. All of the ones listed in the ad are Republics, so those might have been the Republic Home Video releases (I vaguely remember some later ones having a small "Cliffhanger Classics" logo on the sleeve). But Captain America? Was there ever a legitimate Republic release for that serial? I only recall seeing some public domain VHS tapes at Woolworth's (I'm really dating myself here)... |
![]() |
|
| Laughing Gravy | Jul 3 2013, 04:42 AM Post #7 |
|
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
There was a video rental place near me that had The Nostalgia Merchant tapes of several serials; I recall specifically Captain America and Manhunt of Mystery Island in the batch. I never rented them, since we watched serials one chapter a week as God intended and the cost of renting them for 15 weeks would've been prohibitive. Our first three serials were Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe ($11.99), Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers ($15 or $20 each, I forget, in four volumes sold separately) and then the jump to our first Republic VHS, Cap'n Marvel, $59.99. By the time we'd finished that, they'd cut the prices on Republics to $29.99 and later to $19.99. I also bought a $20 tape of Zorro's Fighting Legion in a big poofy box; it had crappy quality. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
![]() |
|
| riddlerider | Jul 3 2013, 10:08 AM Post #8 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
The answer is yes. And they paid it cheerfully. Prior to marketing video tapes, Nostalgia Merchant sold high-quality 16mm prints of Republic serial for $500 to $600. If you were an avid collector who knew the market, you could get inferior "dupe" prints for $300 or $400. But those were the only options available to us, because by the early Seventies most TV stations had stopped running serials. I was thoroughly dedicated to 16mm collecting, but many fans with no emotional attachment to celluloid were perfectly happy with video tape, which was a less expensive alternative. Besides, a significant number of serial devotees -- including some of our fellow Balconeers -- had first seen the Republics on TV and were satisfied to revisit them on the small screen. The collector base for serials on tape was small but loyal. Bob Sigman, the last president of Republic Pictures, used to say that he knew almost exactly how many units of each new serial release he could count on selling. And though VHS collectors didn't all make the transition to laserdisc, after the first few serials Republic released in that format, Bob knew how many discs he could plan on selling. Those numbers remained constant until Republic gave up the ghost. I think it was as late as 1994 or '95 when Jack Mathis offered VHS tapes of the two King of the Royal Mounted serials on a sub-rosa, private-order basis. He asked $150 for each and got it, although he was disappointed more collectors didn't buy both serials. That's what discouraged him from bringing out DAREDEVILS OF THE WEST, as he once thought about doing. I was tickled to death to get the Mountie serials, especially the first one, and would have been happy to pay $150 for DAREDEVILS. But I'm equally happy to have gotten them on DVD for much less. |
![]() |
|
| Chandu | Jul 3 2013, 01:53 PM Post #9 |
|
Champeen of Justice and Seeker of Knowledge, but rascal at heart!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I guess bein' a latecomer to all these goin's on isn't all a disadvantage. I have all the sound serials that I know of and rarely ever paid more than $15 for any of 'em, as I'm somewhat |
| Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me... | |
![]() |
|
| The Batman | Mar 9 2016, 05:05 PM Post #10 |
![]()
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I lucked out, when I got into serials in the early 80s, I found BATMAN, BATMAN AND ROBIN, FLASH GORDON CONQUERORS THE UNIVERSE and THE MASKED MARVEL in a Toys 'R Us, for less than $10 each. I then found CAPTAIN AMERICA at a video tape convention of some kind, again early 80s, and paid about $25 for that one. My last serial on VHS was SUPERMAN, which I picked up in the late 90s, at a VHS specialty store (when's the last time someone wrote/said that?) for about $30. After that, my serial collection has all been DVD, and now Blu-Ray. |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
![]() |
|
| Lamont Cranston | Mar 11 2016, 03:19 PM Post #11 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Okay, I know I only post about every 3-4 years but I read the board just about every week. I guess I'm like RiddleRider. I bought the 16mm serials for about $500 for a 12 chapter serial and $600-$650 for a 15 chapter one. That was for Republic. The Universal ones were usually cheaper because they were almost always dupes. Columbia serials were the hardest to find. Yep, I bought the $109 VHS tapes and I still have several sets gathering dust in the basement. They're right next to the Laserdiscs. You see the big challenge was finding serials at all. If you went to film conventions like Charlotte or Houston you could pick up odd chapters. The full serials were actually closed-door negotiations through collectors you found through the Big Reel collectors newspaper. I remember driving from Georgia to Mississippi to meet a collector at Shoney's to buy Captain America, The Fighting Devil Dogs and The Spider's Web. That was over 100 pounds of film reels and I was luck to get them. I guess we get a little spoiled by DVDs and accept some pretty lousy quality. Maybe my memory is getting bad but I'm pretty sure the images I saw on my projection screen were better than most of the stuff I watch on my LED TV. But again, we are luck to have what we have. |
![]() |
|
| Sgt King | Mar 14 2016, 08:18 PM Post #12 |
|
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Lamont!!! Sgt King orders you to post here more often! |
![]() |
|
| The Batman | Mar 15 2016, 05:48 AM Post #13 |
![]()
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
When I say I lucked out, I don't mean to disparage those of you who did indulge in the $500 film reels and $100+ video cassettes. If I had been into serials when those were the only viewing options, I would have been plunking my cash down, too, for at least a few of them. |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
![]() |
|
| Lamont Cranston | Mar 15 2016, 07:14 AM Post #14 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I forgot to mention that all the film wheeling & dealing was before getting married and having four kids. It's odd how real life tends to cut into the movie hobby. Several years later I sold all the films to buy a new refrigerator, stove and a washer and dryer. Thinking back I wonder if that was a good trade. |
![]() |
|
| The Batman | Mar 15 2016, 08:16 AM Post #15 |
![]()
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Do you still have the refrigerator, stove and a washer and dryer? |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
![]() |
|
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · Continued Next Week · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)






12:26 AM Jul 11