I'm sure they are absolutely pristine, lovingly mastered DVDs, probably better than many official releases, that can be treasured forever. And I'm very, very glad that the programmes are being made available for people who want to buy them - maybe some of those 'bootleg' DVDs are even being used in schools right now to help kids learn to read - fantastic.

What bugs me is that the current ebay sellers are shamelessly profiteering from these wonderful old programmes. Assuming everything sells at it's starting bid, one seller stands to make almost £70 from selling 4 L&R DVDs just this week, and another £15 off of one taped-off-the telly DVD that must've cost him all of two quid to duplicate.

If they were making these things available at cost, which I imagine would give you plenty of change from a fiver, I'd eagerly (if surreptitiously) advertise them anywhere I could as a really useful service. But they're not. The principal aim in selling those DVDs at the minute is not to make rare and precious TV programmes available to people who would love to see them and find them really valuable; it's simply to line the pockets of the sellers by putting a high price on material that they don't own in the first place.

And if you were to get all high and mighty about it, you could mention that a proportion of the proceeds from any sale of this material should be going to the actors & writers, etc, who put so much work into making them in the first place. And remember kids: "Police believe money raised from selling dodgy DVDs goes to fund other criminal activities such as buying and selling drugs and guns"!
(No slander intended; any similarity to actual ebay sellers is coincidental)


That said, I would be very interested to see how they're being packaged - I'm sure it's very well indeed - if you're able to email me a scan or photo, Samuel. Assuming you're not too annoyed, of course!