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Frequently
Asked
Questions
Please View My
Disclaimer
Below are answers to some frequently asked questions. Please look here first for
answers to any questions you may have. If your question isn't answered
sufficiently in this section, feel free to
email me and I'll be
more than happy to help out.
Table of Contents
How do I order?
Are you still taking orders, or is this site ancient?
What types of payment do you accept? Can I use PayPal?
How do I know I can trust you to send my order?
What is a DVD-R?
How do I know if I’ll be able to play a DVD-R?
Can I play a DVD-R on my game system (PS2, Xbox, etc.)?
How do I play a DVD-R on my DVD player?
How do I play a DVD-R on my computer?
Where can I get software for viewing the discs on
my computer?
Do you combine shipping and handling if I order more than one set?
Can you ship to (my country)?
Will the DVD-Rs work in (my country)?
How long before you ship my order?
What is the quality of (that set)?
What's your return policy? Can I get a refund if I’m not satisfied?
Do your discs come with cases and cover art?
I'm worried that your cases will damage the discs; are they high quality?
Do you accept trades?
I really want (that set), but I can’t afford the price. What can I do?
Why shouldn't I buy fan-made cartoon sets from auction sites like
eBay, iOffer, Sell.com, etc.?
Can I resell your cartoon sets on eBay, iOffer, Sell.com, or
upload them onto the internet?
How do I order?
If you decide to place an order, all you have to do is
email me or proceed to my
iOffer store. If you are from outside the US, you must email me directly to
place an order rather than going to iOffer. Just let me
know which set(s) you would like to order and your country of location and I'll get back to you with the
ordering information.
Are you still taking orders, or is this site ancient?
Yes, I'm still alive and taking orders. Although there is no date on this
web site, I promise that I'm still around. If I ever decide to stop taking
orders, I will put up prominent notices rather than just abandon the site. In
the past I have put up notices before going on vacation, etc. to make sure
everyone knows what is going on, and I will continue to do so.
What types of payment do you accept? Can I use PayPal?
I accept money order/cashiers check or well-concealed cash in US dollars if
you order directly from this site by emailing me. If you would like to use
PayPal, you must be a US buyer and you must do so through my
iOffer Store.
Before September of 2008, I did not accept PayPal under and circumstances
because when I used to have a PayPal account years ago just for occasionally
buying things on eBay, PayPal started doing some very questionable things with
my money without my consent, so I closed my account. I've decided to give PayPal
another chance simply because so many of my visitors continue to express their
desire to use it. However, due to some of PayPal's policies I'm still not
entirely comfortable with, I've limited iOffer purchases to US buyers only until
further notice, so international buyers must email me to order with an
international money order or cash in US dollars; I apologize for the
inconvenience.
I do not accept personal checks, Western Union money transfers, or other
payment forms not listed above. I currently don't have the extra time in my
schedule to accommodate the processing of additional payment forms; doing so
would slow down the processing time of all orders. I am only one person and this
web site is my part-time hobby. I want to make sure every individual experiences
a prompt and smooth transaction, and it would take me too long to sort out all
the hassles associated with other payment forms. For example, it often takes me
a few weeks or longer to get to the bank and deposit a personal check due to my
schedule. This causes much delay in the shipment of the order as I have to wait
for the check to clear before shipping, and in addition, I know that most people
don't appreciate having their personal checks cashed at unpredictable times very
long after issuing them. It is also difficult for me when I have to make a
special trip to pick up a payment, as with Western Union money transfers,
because it often takes me a while to make time for it and slows down the
processing time of other orders I could be completing in the meantime. For these
reasons, I only accept PayPal, money order/cashiers check, or cash, and I
apologize for any inconvenience.
How do I know I can trust you to send my order?
I completely understand your concern. It is always a good idea to be
cautious when ordering from someone over the internet, and please feel free to
voice those concerns as I will not be insulted. You can check out my
seller
ratings on iOffer, or email me and request
a link to my eBay feedback. Hopefully it will serve as assurance that I am an
honest person who will follow through with the transaction, as my feedback
proves I have done so with a number of other people. You will also be
provided with a Delivery Confirmation number from the United States Postal
Service once your order has shipped if you are within the US (tracking is
unavailable for international orders) so you can be sure your order is really
coming.
If you are mailing in your payment and are looking for some added security
against loss of mail, I would suggest getting a Certificate of Mailing
(available for $1.10) from the post office at the time of mailing. The COM
serves as proof that your letter was presented for mailing at the post office. If for some reason I never receive your payment, simply send me a copy
of the COM (by email as a jpeg image, or regular mail) and I will ship your order anyway. if
I am unable to give you a Delivery Confirmation number for your order (this
applies to international orders only) and your order fails to arrive,
just let me know and I will send out another one. This is based on the honor
system, and I believe that everyone has been honest with me in these situations.
So far I have only had to do this a couple times over several years as lost mail
is quite rare. I am happy to continue using this policy, but if I find that
people are abusing it to get free stuff, I will have to change it.
What is a DVD-R?
A DVD-R is the same thing as a DVD except that the contents were transferred
onto the disc using a home computer rather than a factory. In other words, they
are not commercial DVDs, and as a result, the compatibility is a little less
than commercial DVDs. They will play on almost all DVD players and computers with
DVD-ROM drives and appropriate DVD-viewing software
How do I know if I’ll be able to play a DVD-R?
Most DVD players support DVD-R playback. To check whether
your particular DVD player supports DVD-Rs, visit
VideoHelp.com's compatibility list and do a search for your DVD player. The
results will tell you whether or not other individuals with the same player have
successfully played DVD-Rs on it.
To play a DVD-R on your computer, you will need a DVD-ROM drive and appropriate
DVD-viewing software like Media Player Classic, WinDVD or PowerDVD.
Can I play a DVD-R on my game system (PS2, Xbox, etc.)?
DVD-Rs may work in your game system if it plays regular DVDs, but may be
glitchy. For example, I tested some discs in my own PS2
and there were problems with the menu that made it almost impossible to select
the desired episode. It is also possible for the laser to get damaged as it
struggles to read the disc. However, some people have told me they've had no
problems playing my DVD-Rs on their PS2. Similar problems may or may not occur
with the Xbox but I have not been able to test this personally. I do not recommend playing DVD-Rs on your game
system if you have an option.
How do I play a DVD-R on my DVD player?
If your DVD player supports DVD-R playback, simply play it the way you would
any DVD. Insert
the disc, wait for the menu to come up, use the arrow keys to highlight your
selection, then select it to view. You can also use the "next/previous chapter"
functions to move between episodes.
How do I play a DVD-R on my computer?
Insert the disc into your DVD-ROM drive and play the DVD-R in your favorite
program (Media Player Classic, WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc.). Wait for the menu to appear, then use your
mouse to highlight and select an option, or use the "next/previous chapter"
functions to move between episodes.
Where can I get software for viewing the discs on
my computer?
If you don't have any software for viewing DVDs, you can download
some for free from the following web sites:
Media Player Classic:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358
WinDVD:
http://www.intervideo.com
PowerDVD:
http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/index.jsp
Do you combine shipping and handling if I order more than one set?
Yes, I will combine shipping and handling if you order more than one set at
a time. I use flat-rate Priority boxes and envelopes to ship all orders, so the
price will be calculated based simply on how many sets will fit in a certain box
or envelope. For example, if you are in the US and all of your order won't fit
into a $5 envelope, I'll ship it in a $10 box. I may also ship your order in two
separate envelopes if needed; they will arrive at the same time and I will give
you a heads up to be watching out for more than one package.
If you plan to order more than one set at once
through iOffer, please add all the items to your cart and buy them together
rather than using the "buy now" option separately for each set. This way I can
enter a combined shipping rate for you and you will be invoiced the correct
total. Otherwise you will overpay for shipping and I will have to manually
refund you the excess costs.
Can you ship to (my country)?
I am located in the United States, but I am more than happy to ship
internationally. I use Priority Mail International, which delivers to a wide variety of
countries and territories in 6-10 days. For example, I frequently ship orders to Australia, Canada, and the
United Kingdom. Just let me know via email what country you are located in and
I'll let you know whether I can ship to you.
Will the DVD-Rs work in (my country)?
My DVD-Rs are region-free, which means they will play anywhere in the world.
As long as you have the appropriate viewing hardware and software to play DVD-Rs, it
does not matter where in the world you reside.
How long before you ship my order?
I almost always ship next day after receiving payments within the US, or at least every Tuesday and Friday
if not. As soon as I receive your payment,
I will get your discs ready to ship and send them out on the soonest shipping
day available. For example, if I receive your payment on a Saturday your discs
will be shipped the following Tuesday at the latest.
What is the quality of (that set)?
The audio/video quality range is provided for each set near the top of the
page. The quality is rated on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst quality
and 10 being the best. Additionally, I provide screen captures from each
set to give you an idea of the video quality. Look for the links near the top of
the set's page labeled "One Two Three Four." These images are direct from the source
and untouched. Make sure to look at all four samples, as I include screen
captures from every quality range (from the highest quality episodes in the set to the
lowest).
Again, please keep in mind that the cartoons on this site are fan-made and thus
they are not official commercial products of flawless quality. I do my very best
to achieve the best quality I can, but in most cases they will not look as good
as DVDs you would buy in a store because I rarely have perfect sources to work
with.
What's your return policy? Can I get a refund if I’m not satisfied?
The quality of each set is clearly and accurately stated and shown on this
web site, so as long as you take the time to look at all the information I have
provided and ask me about anything that is unclear to you, there should be no
unpleasant surprises when you receive your order. The only reason for
dissatisfaction should be if any of the discs are damaged or dysfunctional in
some way.
All discs are checked to be in perfect working condition before they are
shipped, but in the unlikely event that any disc is damaged during shipping or
not functioning properly, you may return the faulty disc(s) and I will replace them for free. Due to the nature of these discs (in
that they can be copied relatively easily) and the fact that the price you pay
is for time and materials, I do not issue refunds, only
replacements. This is why it is important to read all the information I have
provided, and make sure that you understand
what a DVD-R is and
whether your DVD player will be able to play
DVD-R before you order.
If you do have any problems with the discs or need a replacement, I'm always available to help out
and answer any questions you may have.
Do your discs come with cases and cover art?
Most do, but not all sets include cases and cover art. If I do not state on the set's
page that they are included, then you will receive the discs only, which are put
into paper sleeves and carefully packaged for shipping. Usually the reason I
don't include a case/cover art with a certain set is simply because I haven't
had the opportunity to make it (again, I'm only one person and
this web site is my part-time hobby). On the bright side, the lack of a case
does save on combined shipping costs.
However, I do include a case, custom cover art (made by yours truly), and
episode list insert with some
sets. I'll include that information clearly on the set's page, so be sure to check. I
never put labels directly on the discs though, as this has been known to
interfere with playback. I use a sharpie to number each disc for easy
identification.
I'm worried that your cases will damage the
discs; are they high quality?
Some cheap brands of cases have been known to scratch and warp discs out of
shape, but the special cases that I use have eliminated these problems. Rather
than using numerous disc trays, my cases have a "disc-well" in which the discs
are stacked together and secured in place. This prevents movement and virtually
eliminates the possibility of bending and scratching for the safest storage
possible of multi-disc sets. They're ideal for safe shipping and they look very
handsome too.
Do you accept trades?
Absolutely! If you have any episodes from a cartoon series that I'm looking
for, I would love to work out a trade with you, even if you don't have the
equipment to make copies. Check out my
wanted list. If you
have something that is not on the list, feel free to ask anyway as there are
probably some things I forgot.
I really want (that set), but I can’t afford the price. What can I do?
I'll help out in any way I can, but keep in mind that the price is for my
time and materials. It takes more time, effort, and funds to make and distribute these discs
than most people realize. Nevertheless, my goal is to share all of these great series with
fellow fans who can't
get access to them any other way. If the price is an issue, there are a few
possibilities. Do you have any cartoons already in your collection? If you have
something I'm looking for, we may be able to work out a trade, even if you don't
have the equipment to make copies. See my
wanted list for
further information. If a trade doesn't work, I am flexible with my
prices. If you ask me for a discount, I will give you one because I don't want
to deprive anyone of these cartoons.
Why shouldn't I buy fan-made cartoon sets from auction sites like eBay,
iOffer, Sell.com, etc.?
You may have seen sellers on eBay, iOffer, Sell.com, or similar sites offering some of these same
series for sale and
thought about purchasing them (or even done so). Please be warned; I know, both
from personal experience and from people contacting me after being scammed by
auction sellers, that all or close to all of the sets being sold on auction
sites are inferior, misrepresented, or just plain garbage. Many auction sets have been
copied and recopied over and over by greedy sellers looking to make a quick buck
while doing the least amount of work possible. As a result, you may receive
discs with corrupt files, sets burned on shoddy media, cartoons of low quality
or misrepresented quality, and sellers who do not care about their buyers'
satisfaction once they get paid.
These sellers' only purpose in selling cartoon sets is to make an easy profit as
quickly and cheaply as possible. They do no more than buy up previously
available fan-made sets, usually from the same site they afterwards sell them
from, spend a few minutes making exact copies of them on their computer with a
simple program, burn them again onto whatever cheap DVD media they can find,
then resell the same discs they just bought on the same auction sites. Many
times they don't so much as watch the DVDs themselves, or they would notice
obvious problems like corrupt files before they turned around to sell them. More
often though, they simply disregard the obvious flaws in their sets and pass the
problem onto their buyers without warning them, and ignore all attempted contact
after being paid. These sellers have no pride in preserving cartoons. It's not
their own work that they are putting out there. They didn't lovingly craft those
sets from scratch, so they don't care what a far cry their actual product is
from what they claim it to be. To them, all their sets represent is a few easy
bucks. But they are doing more than ripping off the people who buy from them;
they are in fact hurting the continuing efforts of true fans who want to see
these cartoons preserved and treated with respect.
This is where people like me come in. I don't make
these sets with thoughts of final profits in my mind. Otherwise I wouldn't have invested countless hours
and thousands –
yes, thousands –
of dollars from my own pocket in order to
bring these cartoons back to life for fans to enjoy. The only reason my prices
are a little higher than auction sellers is because their only expenses are
media and shipping. I, on the other hand, use only top quality DVD media and
materials, and do every ounce of the work towards putting the cartoons on DVD
myself, from hunting down rare episodes on tape, capturing, editing, digitally
restoring audio/video, encoding, authoring to DVD with my own menus, and making
my own DVD cover art. There are a lot of costs and much time involved because I
don't simply take preexisting DVD sets and copy them, I make them from scratch.
I care deeply about what I do, and for that reason, I do it right. I make quality sets,
because these cartoons are my childhood friends, and their memories deserve to
be treated with love and respect. I also take great pride in making sure every
person who orders from me is thrilled with their experience, because my buyers
are my peers. We were all sitting down cozily in front of our TVs so many years
ago watching the same cartoons and creating the same fond memories. That has
meaning to me, more so than how much I can profit monetarily from innocent
childhood nostalgia. Auction sellers have clearly lost sight of that meaning and
are doing more harm than good.
So don't buy from auction sites, and please, if you see any
of my sets on an auction site other than the
Official Stuff
I Like Site iOffer Store, or anywhere else other than right here, report it to that site to have it removed,
direct the seller to this page, or let me know about it. The money these sellers
make just goes right into their pocket and they don't care what happens to the
cartoons after that. But the people who order from this web site are making it
possible for me to continue this hobby and make even more rare cartoon sets. The profit I make goes right back into the production of new sets,
so if I am not the one being paid for my own work, I can no longer fund my hobby
and these cartoons could be lost forever.
Can I resell your cartoon sets on eBay, iOffer, Sell.com, or
upload them onto the internet?
Absolutely not. Redistributing my work in any way, including copying,
reselling, or even uploading the files to places like Youtube or sharing
torrents is extremely harmful to my cartoon preservation efforts. Although you may think copying my sets and reselling them is
an easy way to make a few bucks or that freely distributing them is harmless, I would URGE anyone thinking of doing this to
think again. In the case of reselling my sets, not only is it blatantly immoral to take someone else's years
of painstaking work and try to profit from it yourself, but it badly hurts the
community trying to preserve these cartoons. Here is what happens when people
sell my work:
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People copy my sets and resell them for a profit.
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Customers are far less inclined to buy from me because I can't
afford to lower my own prices to the extremes like auction sellers (since their only
expenses are cheap media and shipping costs).
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I am unable to make enough money back to continue funding my hobby,
am forced to quit, and thus am unable
to make new cartoon sets that were previously unavailable.
-
Eventually, due to sellers' laziness, auction sets
become riddled with corrupt files and are virtually unwatchable, yet those sets continue to be
recopied and
resold by new sellers out of callous greed. (I have actually witnessed this happening several separate
times, most notably with David the Gnome and Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics.)
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Auction sellers only care about profits, so they won't
put any time and money into making new sets themselves. They will only continue
recycling increasingly corrupted sets until the originals are lost completely.
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The fan community is left with nothing but unwatchable
garbage, and the cartoons I could have brought back to life are now lost to
the sands of time unless more people like me show up to do what they can manage.
Unfortunately, true cartoon preservationists are a rarity.
If any of you have had experience buying cartoons
from auction sellers, you know that I'm not making any of this up. I receive
emails all the time from people who bought different sets from auction sites
before finding me, and they described appallingly misrepresented products with
no seller communication after the fact.
To further discourage auction selling, I should also note that selling fan-made sets is
considered bootlegging on most auction sites and is against their policies, even if
no commercial version exists. Therefore, most people get kicked off of those
sites when they are caught doing it. And if I happen to see anyone selling my
sets, I will report them. I have had to do this a few times in the past, so yes,
if you redistribute my work, I will find out and I will do
everything in my power to put an end to it.
It's especially violating on a personal level when I
find a seller who pretends to be me, using my images and text in their listings.
I put my self into not only my sets, but also into my web site. I created and
composed 100% of the images and text on my site myself, and I take pride in
their quality. Likewise, I have very specific quality standards that I want
people to be able to trust from my sets. So when I get emails from people
confused about whether some seller on an auction site is me or not, it feels
like my identity has been stolen and that I've let down the people who
unknowingly bought the inferior copied set thinking it was an authentic Stuff I
Like set. Auction sellers who mislead buyers in such a way damage my reputation
as an honest individual, and further hurt my cause as a result. So if you really
do care about the fate of these cartoons, which you probably do if you're
browsing this cartoon preservation site, you will understand and not
try to resell my sets in the first place.
In the case of ripping my files and uploading them
to free video sites like Youtube or sharing them via peer-to-peer programs like
BitTorrent, this is harmful in basically the same way as reselling them. It may
seem like you're doing a selfless deed by providing a free method for anyone to
watch these cartoons, but keep in mind: you are still not the one who put
all the time, money, and work into those files you're sharing, so they are
still not your files to share. Maybe you don't feel bad sharing more widely
known movies owned by multimillion dollar companies, because you figure they can
easily afford whatever small loss comes from a few friends sharing their
products over the internet rather than each of them buying their own DVDs. But
for me, who runs this site as a small-scale hobby with relatively few orders,
other people giving away my work for free instead of allowing me to be
compensated for it is the difference between me continuing or having to quit.
The only reason I can continue to make more sets is because this hobby funds
itself. If I'm not paid for my work, I literally cannot do this anymore. The
reason I charge money for my sets and refuse to let anyone else distribute them
isn't because I'm greedy. As I state here in my FAQ and as many of you know
first hand, I am even happy to give discounts so no one is deprived of their
childhood nostalgia simply because they can't afford very much. I'd even love to
be able to give away my sets for free, but the bottom line is, I can't afford
to. So I would appreciate everyone's support so I can continue doing what I
love, and what many cartoon fans are grateful to me for.
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