Any advice on finding a rare Japanese Laserdisc?

I’ve never been one of those music fans who is an obsessive collector of absolutely everything related to their favorite artist, but now I find myself in a position where I really want a product that seems to be pretty damn rare.

Called Poguevision, it’s a collection of all the non-live music videos that the Pogues have done. It was released on PAL VHS in Europe and Laserdisc in Japan. The VHS is in pretty limited supply, but I’ve been able to find it for purchase online. Only problem there is that, well, it’s PAL. I’d have to buy a PAL VCR (cheapest one I can find online is $120!) and a PAL->NTSC converter, which will probably run me at least another $80 or so. I love the Pogues, but $200 is a lot of money for devices I’ll only use once. And, of course, the picture quality wouldn’t be as good as a Laserdisc (though that’s not really my main concern).

I just bought a Laserdisc player for $30 on eBay - not just for the Pogues disc I’m hoping for, but also for some Queen LDs that are much more readily available.

I’d bet that there are plenty of Japanese people who have this disc sitting around collecting dust, but they sure aren’t selling them on eBay. A Google search for references to the Laserdisc yielded only three stinking results. Two were useless, but one was actually a guy looking to sell an unfathomably massive Pogues collection. The disc I’m looking for is in his list. Unfortunately, at the top of his page, he notes that not only does he not list prices for the items, but that some are even sold and he didn’t bother to remove them from the list. Also, in visiting other parts of his site, I found a plethora of dead links. The site appears not to have been updated in the last year. I emailed the guy, but I’m not too hopeful.

Anyone have any suggestions?

There are places that do NTSC<->PAL conversion for you. I don’t know the cost, but I doubt it’s $200.

Maybe you can find one in your area.

Thanks for the suggestion, panamajack. I don’t know why I hadn’t considered that. I wonder how much quality loss is involved in the conversion. I just checked online and found a guy who’ll do a two-hour tape for just $10. Can’t beat that.

I really would rather have the Laserdisc, though. I know it’s a longshot, but if anyone can suggest some source for rare stuff like this that I’m missing, I’d appreciate it.

Oh happy day! Nobody probably cares, but the guy selling the Pogues videos emailed me back (quickly, too!) and said he still has the disc for sale! It’s $60, but I think that’s a pretty decent deal for something this rare.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got happy jigs to dance. :slight_smile: