Lost Episode of DS FOUND???

[Gothick]

It's too bad.  I'd personally much rather have a pristine color videotape of the 1795 episode depicting the arrival of Angelique and the Countess at Collinwood.  Now THAT would excite me.

G.

[The Doctor and K9]

It's too bad.  I'd personally much rather have a pristine color videotape of the 1795 episode depicting the arrival of Angelique and the Countess at Collinwood.  Now THAT would excite me.

That's another thing that bothered me. I didn't think about it until Darren alluded to it, but if color backups existed why were BW kinescopes sent to stations in the first place?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Yes, it does get stranger the more you think about it. And the really odd thing is, if the whole thing was a hoax, how did the seller ever think s/he would be able to get away with it once a buyer received the tapes and saw that what they ended up with wasn't as described? Well, unless the eBay ID is also a hoax and s/he planned to up and disappear. Though if s/he wasn't as legit as initially appeared, that could easily explain why s/he ended the auction. Perhaps s/he never expected questions from knowledgeable people - or at least that s/he could fudge through any questions. But when faced with probing questions, s/he got cold feet.

[PennyDreadful]

Wow, very interesting indeed. The fact that they suddenly took the auction down seems very fishy to me though.

[The Doctor and K9]

I was hoping to find the collection relisted, perhaps with more description and a higher starting bid. I'm almost positive this was a scam.

[Philippe Cordier]

This would be amazing if true. The seller does look legitimate. But it contradicts what MPI has stated - and wouldn't DCP have known if this episode existed somewhere? Please keep us posted.

[KMR]

This would be amazing if true. The seller does look legitimate. But it contradicts what MPI has stated - and wouldn't DCP have known if this episode existed somewhere? Please keep us posted.

While DCP might be able to know what was originally produced (original master tape, syndication copies, kinescopes, etc.), they would have no way of knowing for certain which of those copies were still in existence, or whatever other copies may have been "unofficially" produced.  It is certainly possible that a videotape copy of episode 1219 exists somewhere, for instance if a TV station taped the network transmission so they could broadcast it at a different time.  But the likelihood of that copy showing up, if it even does exist at all, is not very high.  But such miracles are known to happen, and are what give us hope.

[Darren Gross]

This continues to unravel, as expected.

The photo of the 16mm kinescopes that the seller on ebay used is a shot from a NY Sun article from 2008!  It's of a NY Public Library 16mm film collection.  All the rest of the images in the auction were framegrabs, easily pulled from the internet.  Not a single actual photo of film or the items supposedly for sale.

http://www.nysun.com/arts/public-library-liberates-trove-of-16-mm-films/84856/

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Taking and using a photo from an article in the NY Sun to represent the collection of DS eps was really sloppy. And as the evidence that this was nothing more than a hoax appears to be mounting, I still can't imagine how this person ever thought they could get away with it?! 

[The Doctor and K9]

Taking and using a photo from an article in the NY Sun to represent the collection of DS eps was really sloppy. And as the evidence that this was nothing more than a hoax appears to be mounting, I still can't imagine how this person ever thought they could get away with it?! 

I imagine he had thought he could rip someone off quietly and slip away. He doesn't have many feedback points, so he probably got the acccount with the intention of ripping a few people off and then abandoning it. I doubt he expected this much interest and probably got scared off when he realized he'd be swindling someone who had a community of people behind him (her). That's the only scenario that I think makes sense. Any other ideas?

[Gerard]

Did this person actually think that DS fans don't count among themselves those very familiar with everything and will spread the word about possible farces like this?

Gerard