Question
Dumb question, but I just had an auction for a VHS tape end and the buyer is in England. Will it play on her machine? I don't know the answer! (I don't know the answer to the question of why she waited until now to ask, either!)
Thanks!
Edited to mention that she's very new at eBay - 3 feedback & registered last month.
Answer
The standards are different. Great Britain uses PAL format, the USA standard is NTSC, and they are not interchangeable.
Some VCRs sold in Europe will play all three standards (SECAM is the 3rd), but there is a difference in the number of frames per second and an NTSC video may not play properly even in a machine that is supposedly "NTSC capable".
Your bidder probably won't be able to use the tape.
Sorry.
Answer
Thanks, d.u.i., that's what I thought. I knew I'd read or seen somewhere that the machines over there were formatted differently. I'm off to send a message - I'd much rather cancel the transaction than have an unhappy buyer.
I imagine that if you got a tape that wasn't the right format, and you weren't aware of the formatting difference, you'd just think your seller had sent you a piece of junk!
Thanks for the info - I feel like I may be narrowly missing a problem!
Answer
I just noticed something...
When I was doing the auction listing, the Item Specifics form had me enter the format (NTSC vs. PAL, etc.). But I notice in the auction listing Item Specifics area, Format is BLANK. I clicked on a few other listings in the VHS category and they were all blank. Sigh.
I think I'm going to add a line in my listings about the format.
Answer
I think it also has to do with the number of "lines" the UK uses in their TVs ,to view the tape on. British TVs have more lines than U.S. Crisper picture.
There used to be places that reformatted "home videos" so families could share them overseas. Cost a bundle!
Answer
Well, I sent the buyer a message last night telling her that this tape was NTSC and that it most likely would not play in her machine. So far, no response.
I think I'm going to change my listing template to read "International buyers must contact me BEFORE bidding" in big red letters at the top. Apparently the big black letters in the middle of the listing aren't easy enough to read. Of the last 20 or so transactions, about 5 have been Int'l customers and none of them contacted me until after EOA. Since 20% of my sales are to Int'l buyers, I don't want to block them... but sometimes I think about it!