Review of the complete Three Stooges set from Ebay.

shemps#1 · **on:** June 03, 2005, 03:49:21 PM

About a week or so ago Xraffle brought to everyone's attention a complete set of all 190 Three Stooges shorts being sold on Ebay. I mentioned that I went ahead and purchased a set; and when it came in I would tell you about it. Well it came in today, and I watched a mixture of shorts off of the set so far.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=617&item=6400293117&rd=1

First a note about the seller: This guy was very pleasant to deal with and was very upfront and honest. I notified him that I wanted to pay by Money Order and not be PayPal, so we ended up circumventing Ebay altogether. This could have been disasterous for me as he could have easily ran off with my $235 (which included shipping) and all I would have had for evidence were a handful of disputable emails; but he sent out the set as soon as the MO reached him.

About the set: This is a 40 DVD set of all 190 Three Stooges shorts with a bonus biography of some kind (I haven't looked at it yet) for 41 DVDs in all. Volumes 1-21 are Moe/Larry/Curly, 22-37 are Moe/Larry/Shemp and 37-40 are Moe/Larry/Joe.

In case some of you out there haven't figured this out yet, this is a "bootleg" set not made by Sony/Columbia. If you are going to wait for Sony to release all of the shorts to DVD then good luck. The shorts are ripped from a variety of sources. Some are ripped from DVD, some from VHS, and some from TV. I viewed a good mix of readily available and hard to find shorts. I believe I've watched Hula-la-la, Self-Made Maids, Punch Drunks, Matri-Phony, Malice In The Palace, Horsing Around, Dunked In the Deep, Mummies Dummies, Heavenly Daze and a couple of others so far. The noticable problem with the majority of shorts recorded off the TV was a "hiss" in the soundtrack, but it's not too distracting. Horsing Around was the only one so far to have any picture problems, but it was for about 4 minutes in the middle of the short and goes away. It doesn't really make Horsing Around less watchable than it already is. The 12 colorized shorts are the 12 that have already been colorized (the 8 by Sony in their latest releases and the PD shorts).

Is the set worth the money? Yes. Not every short is in perfect shape, but I didn't expect them to be. The biggest selling point to me is the chronological order and having them all in one organized set. It's fabulous for an anal-retentive such as myself. I also have the piece of mind knowing that I do not need any of the shorts (I had all of the shorts before in various places, but I've probably lost some). If you can afford it I would highly recommend buying this set.

shemps#1 · **Reply #1 on:** June 03, 2005, 03:50:18 PM

BTW Baggie, On the link to the auction I think it says he ships inside the US only.

xraffle · **Reply #2 on:** June 03, 2005, 06:59:52 PM

I just have a few questions. Since some shorts are recorded from TV, are those shorts uninterrupted? If they were recorded from TV, there must have been a commercial break. Also, are the shorts really unedited, especially the rare shorts? Finally, do the shorts from TV have bright picture? Because some shorts that were broadcast long time ago on TV have really bright pictures that you can't even see the faces of people.

shemps#1 · **Reply #3 on:** June 03, 2005, 10:07:15 PM

The shorts are uninterrupted, unedited (as far as I know), and there has been no "bright picture" so far.

xraffle · **Reply #4 on:** June 03, 2005, 10:58:41 PM

Wow! I'm really tempted to get this set. I really wonder what other station, besides AMC, aired the shorts uninterrupted and uncut.

Dunrobin · **Reply #5 on:** June 04, 2005, 12:52:54 AM

Quote from: xraffle on June 03, 2005, 10:58:41 PM

Wow! I'm really tempted to get this set. I really wonder what other station, besides AMC, aired the shorts uninterrupted and uncut.

I believe WSBK in Boston used to. I remember seeing them on the weekends when we had the big satellite dish, years ago, and I'm pretty sure they were uncut and uninterrupted. Plenty of commerical in between the shorts, but none during.

I think the station in Chicago that shows the Stooges on the weekends (I've forgotten what the call letters are) shows them uncut and uninterrupted as well.

shemps#1 · **Reply #6 on:** June 04, 2005, 09:24:17 AM

I should also note that not all DVD players will play the disks. They play fine in my computers and in the newer DVD player (haven't tried the PS2) but won't go past 2-3 mins in the older DVD player we have here.

Baggie · **Reply #7 on:** June 04, 2005, 11:50:24 AM

Thanks for that review Jim. I'm even more interested in the set now. I've e-mailed the guy to see if he'll send it to the UK, but no reply as of yet, so I live in hope. I've just last week bought a multi-region DVD player and it hasn't come yet, so I can't see myself having problems playing the set should I be able to buy it.

shemps#1 · **Reply #8 on:** June 04, 2005, 01:24:46 PM

He told me he would be out of town until the 10th, if I recall correctly.

Genius In the Lamp · **Reply #9 on:** June 04, 2005, 02:01:58 PM

Quote

I think the station in Chicago that shows the Stooges on the weekends (I've forgotten what the call letters are) shows them uncut and uninterrupted as well.

That would be WCIU-TV, Channel 26. They are run on Saturday nights uninterrupted, although 2 shorts (THREE LITTLE BEERS and UNCIVIL WARRIORS) have edits that were the fault of the distributor, not the station. (I'm disappointed, but not distraught; I already have those two uncut.)

BTW, they're showing SWEET AND HOT tonight. Consider yourself warned.

Baggie · **Reply #10 on:** June 04, 2005, 03:09:05 PM

Thanks Jim, I wondered why he wasn't replying. Cheers, and enjoy the set, I only hope he can send one over here for me.

Baggie · **Reply #11 on:** June 05, 2005, 01:10:52 PM

YES!! The set is mine! The guy (who is as Jim says, very pleasant) has a few sets left he says, so if anyone else wants one, you should get in touch with him quickly.

xraffle · **Reply #12 on:** June 06, 2005, 03:28:11 PM

I was just wondering. What exactly was the picture problem in "Horsing Around"? Was there a lot of dirt or vertical lines in the picture or something?

shemps#1 · **Reply #13 on:** June 06, 2005, 10:11:44 PM

The best way to describe it would be that it gets warbly.

xraffle · **Reply #14 on:** June 09, 2005, 08:19:35 PM

I emailed the guy asking him if he would only sell me the portion that I need for my collection for a cheaper price. He said he would ask his roomate, who is in charge of the set, if he would do it. However, he never got back to me. It's been four days. I guess they don't like it when people break up the set.

FineBari3 · **Reply #15 on:** June 15, 2005, 06:10:30 PM

Quote from: Genius In the Lamp on June 04, 2005, 02:01:58 PM

Quote

BTW, they're showing SWEET AND HOT tonight. Consider yourself warned.

Hehehehe!!!! ROTFLMAO!

Baggie · **Reply #16 on:** July 03, 2005, 06:32:42 AM

Just to let you all know, I received my set yesterday and started watching the shorts I haven't seen. Like Shemps#1 I am very pleased with the set. The guy who sold it is very pleasant and he organised a quick international delivery for me. The set is well worth the money. If anyone is interested he still has sets, so send me a message and I'll give you his e-mail.

Robbie883 · **Reply #17 on:** July 03, 2005, 02:15:19 PM

Im intrested Baggie! How much are they though, I dont have more than 300 bucks to spend on them.

xraffle · **Reply #18 on:** July 03, 2005, 06:27:16 PM

The set costs $219.99

xraffle · **Reply #19 on:** July 12, 2005, 05:40:50 PM

From day one since I saw this set on Ebay, I've been really tempted to get this set. After hearing people's positive reviews of this set, I got even more tempted. I did very well in fighting the temptation until now. I gave in. I purchased a set from this guy. I had millions of question to ask him and he was very kind to answer them in a very pleasant manner. He will ship it soon and hopefully I will receive the set by the end of this week. Once I receive it, I will also give my review on this item.

Billybagobagels · **Reply #20 on:** July 12, 2005, 09:22:41 PM

I also bought the set and am happy with it. Quality ranges from excellent to fairly good. Some shorts seem to be copied from the Columbia DVDs and others seem to be from VHS tapes of AMC broadcasts. A couple may come from 16mm films (not an expert on this). They are DVD-Rs and play well in one of my DVD players and poorly in another. There are a couple of shorts that have some distortion in both players. I think somebody else mentioned this.

I'm glad I got the DVDs in order to complete my Stooge shorts collection. I'm still going to buy any other DVDs that Columbia releases for best picture quality though.

xraffle · **Reply #21 on:** July 15, 2005, 03:42:47 PM

I just received the set today and I watch some of the rare Shemp shorts. I am going to be completely honest here. The quality ranges from excellent to very poor. Now some of you may be asking: are all shorts uncut? The answer will surprise you. The answer is no. I just watched 'Slaphappy Sleuths' and the part where Larry eats the popcorn from the exhaust pipe is missing. 'Scotched In Scotland' is also edited. "Horsing Around" is not the only short with picture problems. A lot of the rare Shemp and Joe shorts also have picture problems. On my previous post, I asked whether there are any bright pictures. The answer is yes. Some shorts have bright pictures. Am I sorry I got this set? Absolutely not. A lot of shorts are extremely hard to find and this may be the only way to get them today.

xraffle · **Reply #22 on:** July 16, 2005, 05:17:50 PM

I just watched "Sweet and Hot" for the first time. Now I see what people are talking about. The short is pretty bad. A few bits in the doctor scene was ok, but the rest was bad. I absolutely hated the scene with Tiny as a child. That part was absolutely awful.

shemps#1 · **Reply #23 on:** July 22, 2005, 04:42:27 PM

Some of you may notice that more than two pages of this thread have been removed. The reason for this is because this thread was monopolizing the board with what can best be described as pure bullshit. I had a hand in said bullshit (along with two other members, one who left) and apologize for it.

Billybagobagels · **Reply #24 on:** July 22, 2005, 04:50:36 PM

I would also like to apologize for my part in the BS and am content to let the matter drop.