Rob Butcher or Glen Radford?

[lightningxlock]

Out of interest, does anybody still get stuff from traders? I do occasionally but nowhere near the frequency I used to. And it's usually stuff like Chikara from Smart Mark Video if I do

[Taylorslade]

What the fuck happened to Dave Pick anyway? When I used to be on here all the time, he was heavily into the whole thing. To be honest, I thought he was a dickhead and a smug, condesending prat at times and I never bought off him, but I know that he had lots of people that did and he had Smart Mark UK going, so for him to vanish like that must of caused quite a bit of mess.

[adequate8]

Mark Rentcome took hundreds off me, he was so quick with deliveries, top notch.

[Gladstones Bitch]

The first purchases I made were ECW Matter Of Respect 1996 & IWA Kawasaki Dream, my friend also bought Barely Legal at the same time but all 3 were delivered to mine so I got to watch them all off the belt.

 

When did Rob sell off GWI? I'm sure he was still in charge when I bought those which will of been 1997 time.

 

Your initials wouldn't be KM, would they?

 

Like many, I saw one of Rob's adverts in "This & That", the phrases used in the ads were always something like "Rob Butcher is selling videos of promotions from the US, Puerto Rico and Japan", so I knew this was my chance to get my hands on some of these ECW shows, and see if they were as good as they seemed to be in Powerslam's show reviews and the reports in the Apter mags at the time.

 

I was a loyal customer right away after experiencing Rob's first class service. Then in, I believe sometime in 98, I got the dredded letter that he was selling his business to move to America and pursue his Journalism dream, and that anyone interested would be welcome to send any offers to him. I remember being gutted that morning when I walked to school and I thought I might not get any more ECW for a long time. I had a standing order type thing going, I sent him a fair enough payment that would run for a few months so that as soon as he got any new ECW commercial tapes, PPV's and TV blocks then he would send them right out for me. I had one hell of a paper round for it though.

 

So, as I remember, he and GWI sent a sort of joint letter out announcing that they were the new owners, and whilst they highly respected Rob's years of service, they were going to take it to the next level in terms of both quality and standard of service. Well, as everyone have already pointed out, the service was fucking shit under GWI and they didn't keep anywhere near as up to date as Rob did. The average delivery from Rob was about 10 days or so, GWI (global wrestling imports) took around 6 weeks. SHIT.

 

Then they announced that they would be opening a shop, in Manchester I believe, called "Extreme Central", but the mail order service would still be available. I remember them doing an "offer", where they would swap two original VHS WCW or WWF tapes, for one ECW tape, of course, a dubbed tape. That was how I got Anarchy Rulz 99, as I had two copies of each Capitol Combat 89 and Future shock 89 or 99 (the one with the black Scorpion, cant be arsed to look it up). But, unsuprisingly, they took a lifetime to sort that out aswel.

 

Then, somewhere around 2000, I discovered Mark Rentcome, who had a killer ECW selection and charged only

[Cousin Jim Bob]

I too must have spent hundreds on Mark Rentcome tapes. SiMania as well. Both were cheap, very fast and very honest about tape quality. Early 2000's I think they were the best around. Both could turn around large orders in days.

 

Rentcome had WCW, ECW and Indies covered. Plus WWF if you asked nicely. Si for Japanese, Lucha and Barnett comps\tv blocks.

 

I bought from Dave Pick a couple of times. He was a good tape trader but quite the little shit on this board.

[SiMania]

Barnett stopping doing the Japan comps really annoyed me, every couple of months you could just get the best stuff from that period and watch it at your leisure. Now with DVDs being cheaper it's easy to buy or download all the shows to get the matches you want and end up overwhelmed with the amount of footage there is so end up not watching it.

 

I wish someone would do those again.

[Taylorslade]

The first purchases I made were ECW Matter Of Respect 1996 & IWA Kawasaki Dream, my friend also bought Barely Legal at the same time but all 3 were delivered to mine so I got to watch them all off the belt.

 

When did Rob sell off GWI? I'm sure he was still in charge when I bought those which will of been 1997 time.

 

Your initials wouldn't be KM, would they?

 

Like many, I saw one of Rob's adverts in "This & That", the phrases used in the ads were always something like "Rob Butcher is selling videos of promotions from the US, Puerto Rico and Japan", so I knew this was my chance to get my hands on some of these ECW shows, and see if they were as good as they seemed to be in Powerslam's show reviews and the reports in the Apter mags at the time.

 

I was a loyal customer right away after experiencing Rob's first class service. Then in, I believe sometime in 98, I got the dredded letter that he was selling his business to move to America and pursue his Journalism dream, and that anyone interested would be welcome to send any offers to him. I remember being gutted that morning when I walked to school and I thought I might not get any more ECW for a long time. I had a standing order type thing going, I sent him a fair enough payment that would run for a few months so that as soon as he got any new ECW commercial tapes, PPV's and TV blocks then he would send them right out for me. I had one hell of a paper round for it though.

 

So, as I remember, he and GWI sent a sort of joint letter out announcing that they were the new owners, and whilst they highly respected Rob's years of service, they were going to take it to the next level in terms of both quality and standard of service. Well, as everyone have already pointed out, the service was fucking shit under GWI and they didn't keep anywhere near as up to date as Rob did. The average delivery from Rob was about 10 days or so, GWI (global wrestling imports) took around 6 weeks. SHIT.

 

Then they announced that they would be opening a shop, in Manchester I believe, called "Extreme Central", but the mail order service would still be available. I remember them doing an "offer", where they would swap two original VHS WCW or WWF tapes, for one ECW tape, of course, a dubbed tape. That was how I got Anarchy Rulz 99, as I had two copies of each Capitol Combat 89 and Future shock 89 or 99 (the one with the black Scorpion, cant be arsed to look it up). But, unsuprisingly, they took a lifetime to sort that out aswel.

 

Then, somewhere around 2000, I discovered Mark Rentcome, who had a killer ECW selection and charged only

[Gladstones Bitch]

I got a bollocking a few times for those bastard hotlines I never did learn people have it easy now with the internet and results up within minutes, Fin Martin had far too much money from me ( or my granda I should say )

 

Aye a remember just before we finished school you had started to collect other indy groups as well I remember seeing my 1st CZW in yours back in the day. I just pick bits and pieces up online for free as its so easily found now, I don't end up watching half of it though I've still got the Nitro set here to watch.

 

Your right about the time frame I stopped, Anarchy Rulz 99 was the last tape I bought, its still one of my favourite ECW shows well PPV anyway. I was more interested in getting stoned back then so sold up to fund my habit which included selling all my original WWF videos for about 10quid to Curly which was stupid.

 

More into MMA now really the only Wrestling I watch is the Rumble & Wrestlemania every year but I still like to keep upto date with everything. Actually it was a video I got off you what got me back into MMA in 2002, was UFC Ultimate New Years Eve 2001 what was on for about 6 hours or something including matches from UFC 1 up until that point.

 

Did you ever get into trading yourself then? I know you were starting to do copies with the 2 VCR's hooked up and were thinking of trying to do it properly. Well I think you were anyway my memory isn't the best these days

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The bowling alley in Sunderland was the place for the Power Slam hotline. You could dial the number and as soon as it answered a voice said "incert money to speak to the calling". So you just ignored it and let Fin Martin ramble on. Little did I know at the time that Ashley from Coronation Street was actually the editor of Power Slam using a fake name.

[Taylorslade]

Aye a remember just before we finished school you had started to collect other indy groups as well I remember seeing my 1st CZW in yours back in the day.

 

Yup, the COD (3 I think) from the ECW arena. It didn't take too long for it to hit me that re-creating ECW was a far more complex formula than ECW arena+ex ECW talent+mindless violence, and that it was one of them "had to be there" type things.

 

....and if I'm not mistaken, that was the day we found that fuckin white ferret.

 

I can't believe it's been ten year since ECW folded and almost 14 years since our little wrestling klique came about.

 

I remember us in 1997, showing our love for the wrestling business to the max, especially when it came to backing school exercise books I remember one of yours having Van Dam and Sabu holding the ECW tag belts on it. I find it funny now when looking back to 97-late 98ish when we would get a little bit stick off people for STILL being into wrestling, but when the attitude-era boom kicked in full force everyone kissed our arses.

 

More into MMA now really the only Wrestling I watch is the Rumble & Wrestlemania every year but I still like to keep upto date with everything. Actually it was a video I got off you what got me back into MMA in 2002, was UFC Ultimate New Years Eve 2001 what was on for about 6 hours or something including matches from UFC 1 up until that point.

 

Fuckin hell, I forgot about that. I think at around that point, before I gave you that tape, I think I was probably one of the very few to be watching it in the city, probably apart from Ian. I think it was around 2001 that I came into a good few MMA shows, at least 20, so I went into Bodyzone to sell them to Trev and his customers, but he didn't know what it was himself and neither was anyone else who went to his shop, so I couldnt even give them away at that point. Two or three years later though and it just took off, I was flogging them in the gyms I was working in at the time and made a little bit here and there.

 

I traded, aye, but it was only with 2 or 3 specific lads constantly because we all had stuff we wanted off eachother, bit of a fuck on sometimes though.

 

And, Ian, looking at your Sig brings back some memories for me, Halloween Havoc 2000 weren't it? I used to stay up during the night when I first got the internet, when the last few WCW PPV's were happening, going on their website and getting a new still picture every 30 seconds or so, seems fuckin daft when I think of it now but I was loving it at the time.

[nfc90210]

Edit: Nevermind

[Pete10165]

I used to be a tape trader back in the day just recently found some tapes so in the New YEar if they still work im going to convert them to DVD wish I had stayed in touch with some traders and buyers I used to deal with Rob more than Glen I am friends with Rob on Facebook I wonder if hes still about I always remember his lists they were all done on typewriter in block caps if anyone still has Rob or Glens lists I would love to see them as mine all got left behind in a house move if anyone remembers me I used to be Woodytapes I think

[Guest]

51 minutes ago, Pete10165 said:

they were all done on typewriter in block caps

Did he at least use punctuation?

[Lord-Mountevans]

Glen Radford was rock solid. Bought loads of stuff off him & went on to actually do business with him, as he was happy to sell my merch for me. 

It has been not doubt already mentioned, but his handwriting was appalling. I still have loads of books that came from Glen, including a signed Lou Thesz book that is now worth a few quid. He also had a good sense of humour, after telling me he was thinking of closing i suggested that he should warn people well in advance to spike sales & promote panic buying, to which he replied " I am a bit like All Japan, i don't really do angles!"

[harlow2]

Any of these traders still in business