Lars Jacobsson in Malmø, Sweden has lost his religion (i.e. he's giving up collecting old dusty video tapes) and he's selling off most of his treasured collection on eBay. The most interesting of his auctions is definitely his Swedish VHS release of the old Thai horror film KRASUE SAO from 1973, known in English as GHOST OF GUTS EATER. Lars' tape is the only known copy to exist among collectors (and the Swedish release is the only one in the entire world outside of Thailand! As a matter of fact I'm not even aware of any VHS or VCD releases FROM Thailand!!!) and in addition to this there's also the fact that GUTS EATER is actually a pretty entertaining film in that genre which I like to call the "flying head with intestines dangling underneath" genre (it may sound like common sense that such an expensive tape would be entertaining but trust me my scaly friend many VHS collectors pay good money for crap films simply due to their rarety!). 
The auction ended yesterday and an unnamed collector in Switzerland won it for the whooping price of 510 dollars. Not the highest price ever for a video tape but high enough. Apparently, the same collector also scooped up Lars' BLACK MAGIC WITH BUDDHA Hong Kong ex-rental VHS for $152.
Congrats to whoever that Swiss collector is (btw, a couple of years back I bought BMWB directly from TaiSeng in the US for ten whole smackeroos. Haha. But of course my tape is the sell-thru release and it doesn't have the rarity of an ex-rental tape (which also has a much, much cooler cover art work, that's for damn sure!!). The film and the version of it is entirely the same tho).
Read more about GHOST OF GUTS EATER in this old post.
Ghost of Guts Eater scans:
Top pic: The Thai poster. Middle pic: The Swedish VHS. Bottom pic: Custom made DVD cover done by some geezer Patrick knows. LOL.
Seems like someone once offered a burn of this movie to me ... I wonder who that could have been ...
ReplyDelete*winky emoticon*
I did not win this, as you all figured :( But I'll be getting a copy from Jack soon and the whole point is to see the movie, so I'm happy :)
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna write about this on my blog, of course. Or I'm not actually. Someone else is. Someone very close to my heart. So expect a little twist.
Enough with the self-promoting.
I'm gonna say this before it get's on my blog - I made a bid for $700, but it was to late! And if Lars weren't such a nice and loyal seller it would be mine now probably, but he is such a motherfucking loyal seller!
Jack: Well, I just came back from Stockholm with about 70 new Franco tapes so I wouldn't call it "losing my religion" exactly. And I just bought a peplum for 60€! Changing my priorities would be more like it.
ReplyDeletePatrick: I would have liked you to have won it, but what can you do? To be honest it striked me to try and sell it to you directly after reading your desperate blogposts, but for me at least it's kind of embaressing selling stuff at "assholish/idiot" prices. Better to put those few "the sky is the limit" tapes that a collector encounters maybe 1 or 2 times in his collecting days on ebay and let the bidders themselves decide the level of crazy! (about closing auctions and so on, i'd say it's not nice but still OK for an auction without bidders, for auctions with bidders a total "nicht-nicht")
Jared, I know I know. And yes I'm the slowest person in the western AND Asian world. But there is a flickering light at the end of the tunnel: I don't know if you saw it but the other day I made a comment to Patrick's post on his blog where you and he also mentioned my dvdr (or lack of) and my comment was that I've actually sent off Patrick's copy and yours will be on its way too, soon. I just need to make copies of a couple of more films.
ReplyDeletePatrick, a 700 dollar bid! Wauw, some bid!! (that never happened). Lars actually offered me I could make a bid and pay when I got the money so I was actually able to win the tape (well, unless that Swiss guy would have offered like 10.000 kr or something) but I didn't. It's a rare tape but altho I'm a longtime collector I'm not insane. And I'm not at war with my money either, haha. I've got the DVDr and it's fine. And soon (maybe today or tomorrow) you'll have it too. Hell, you may not even like the movie, LOL.
Lars, haha. Okay, I take that back; you haven't lost your religion with collecting tapes. And you've been as friendly and nice to Patrick and me as anybody could ever expect and thank you so much for that! And you're right; in the seller's position (and being a nice guy) it would be difficult for you (or anybody) to say to someone you're familiar with (and Facebook friends with, haha) that you wanted a ridiculous price for it. This is definitely the better way. At an auction where it becomes a trade and no personal relations are involved. And yes, this one time when you DO have something this rare why should you not try and get as much for it (from some collector who IS crazy, haha). I think we all fully understand that.
I totally understand, Lars. I'm not gonna say anything, I'll just agree with Jack. And of course you would want to get the biggest amount you can get. I was surprised that it didn't go for more actually. I was just waiting for it to explode in the last seconds. But the only thing that exploded was my head. I was smoking like crazy and shaking. Haha.
ReplyDeleteJack:
''Hell, you may not even like the movie, LOL.''
I know! That's the crazy part. HAHA. But the thing is that it wouldn't be hard to sell it if I didn't like it. And the first person I would have thought about would have been you. If you where willing to give $700 for it :P Haha
I hate that I didn't win it. But I'm getting a copy, and the whole point is seeing the movie. So I'm happy :)
Can't wait to see it!
By the way, I also made a bid on BLACK MAGIC WITH BUDDHA. My bid was $150.
ReplyDeleteI'm ashamed to admit I haven't seen GUTS EATER, but I do live for titles like that.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if I'm up for shelling out 700 bucks for it.
I thought US$300 for a (cut) version of HARD-BOILED was insanity.
Anyway, do I hear $800 for a GUTS EATER?
Uhh, I'm afraid an 800 dollar bid would be too late. Some anonymous bidder in Switzerland scooped it up for around $500. But maybe you'll get your chance to see it some day; Andrew Leavold keeps bugging me to translate it so he can put English subs on it. LOL.
ReplyDeleteIt's cool Jack. It will be worth the wait I'm sure. Let me know if you need anything I got, alright?
ReplyDeletePatrick: be thankful you didn't win the BUDDAH film for that price, it's totally not worth that much. A pretty enjoyable little flick if you don't expect too much, but nothing I would ever watch twice. I was quite surprised it went so high actually.
ReplyDeleteIn 1986 I was living in a small town in Sweden called Åmål and there was a small gas station that carried a few tapes for rental. This was one of them. Me and some friends of mine always made fun of that cover and that it was Asian and this haunts me to this day...
ReplyDeleteHaha, I can understand that, Magnus!! Oh man, it must be like soem Vietnam war nightmare for you!! xD
ReplyDelete