Well i knew the exchange rate was bad, but 700 bucks for Jedi? That just sucks. I thought it was bad enough for it to be 375 pounds. Unfortunately, this is an expensive hobby, hence the fact that i have so many more cutdowns than features. We`re fairly lucky in the UK though, as the hobby seems to be very much alive- not only do we have the two major distributers here (Classic Home Cinema and Derran), we also have a lot of collecter and trader fairs during the course of the year, so bargains are always there to be had. Star Wars is always expensive, though. Mine cost me 420 pounds, and it`s one of the later run prints, so not even the best out there (in fact, i have a sneeking suspicion it was taken from the same print that the UK 1993 thx video and European thx laserdiscs were taken from, the red scartch is present over C3PO on the Tantive 4, and various other tell tale marks present themselves through the course of the movie. It`s not long after this time that Derrans master print broke, and no more copies were made).
And yes, i did make enquiries to Puggo last year, but he was busy with paying clients at the time and understandably declined to do the transfer, saying i could get into contact with him at a later date if i still wanted it done and he could find the spare time, but due to a combination of being both busy or just too lazy at various points of the year, i haven`t done so. I have, however, been trying to build my own telecine machine, but i don`t think the results from it would be as good as a workprinter as it is. Basically, i need to sit down and have a proper look at it and figure a few things out- it needs a new lens, the drive assembly needs work, needs to be more stable in threading the film through, but again it`s finding the time- the last time i did anything with it was back in March. And, of course, any further modifications are going to cost money that i don`t have.
And wow, you really know your Gordon. I`m actually surprised that there aren`t more of the serials available for free download, as i wouldn`t have thought the original material was copyrighted anymore. If you go to www.archive.org and search for Flash Gordon under moving images, they have only the one serial- Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (is this Space Soldiers under a different name? I don`t have enough knowledge about the subject to know), available as one movie or it`s separate chapters. Maybe it`s just a case that decent versions of the others haven`t been located and uploaded yet. I hope you win your auction and that it is the serial you want, though.