[QuadList] The demise of Vidipax

[Preservation]

Hi All

I was one of the few to attend the Vidipax auction in person (there  
were around 4 bidders in the room), though I recognized a few  
QuadList and OldVTR folks who were bidding on line. They were piping  
you into the room every once and a while.

For those of you who weren't there, it was something of a bloodbath.  
The auctioneers were in a rush to get out of there, going through  
something like 1000 lots in 3-4 hours. I've been to quite a few audio/ 
video auctions and that many lots usually go well into the evening.  
They lost the internet feed about an hour in and I suspect not  
everyone was able to get back on. There were very few bidders,

If there was no interest in an item it was grouped with the following  
items on the page(s) as a single lot, without any logic. Let's say I  
wanted item 71. I might have to bid on 60-79 for one money to get it.  
I wanted the RTI 1" cleaner, but had to take the VPR-1 (SMPTE A)  
console, 5 Mark III Scan Tubes, 3 AVR-2 capstan motors, plus a bunch  
of other stuff.

Some examples of prices: An Adrenaline Suite went for $1000, DaVinci  
Suite for $1750, working Mark III for $100. I got a Thomson DigiBeta  
for around 4K but had to take a D-2 and a DVCAM deck as well. Got the  
repair room for $100, which had a lot of gear in it that had been  
fixed but not put back into service, I work with smaller formats, esp  
EIAJ and U-matic, so I filled a storage space with that alone mainly  
for parts.  Don't think the Quads got any bids, but deals may have  
been made after the fact.

Didn't seem like anyone from Vidipax was in attendance to protect  
their interests, though they pulled some items after the fact.  
including the Mac and Aja card I thought I won.

Went back after the ridiculously short time for load-out to pick up  
some of the stuff I had the building staff stash for me, since we  
couldn't fit it on the truck even after 6 trips. The owner came down  
and started harassing me, accusing me of stealing her garbage. As if  
she didn't have more important things to worry about. Sad.

Oh yeah, at least 3 large dumpsters were filled with whatever was  
left, including working machines, parts, ephemera, and client tapes.  
I just hope they did their due diligence when it came to client  
materials.

Anyway, we're still sorting out what we actually got and what we're  
going to keep. There are a number of items that I'm sure would be of  
interest to folks here that I will be unloading. Once I get an  
inventory I'll pass it along, before it goes on ebay. Feel free to  
let me know if there's anything specific you need.I suspect anyone  
else who bid is in a similar situation, so perhaps there may be some  
trading opportunities.

Best

Bill Seery
preservation at standby.org

PS  One sad thing(apart from their staff being unemployed, some after  
20 years)......the website including the museum, which I have found  
to be a good resource for info seems to be down. Hope someone had the  
good sense to copy it or back it up.