TVK database

Dear visitors,
Here shown is the entire TVK database : some 3500+ original catalogs, magazines and corporate documents all bought and (partly) scanned between late 2002 and 2012. Originals : not .pdf, not .jpg compilations, not whatevers downloaded from wherever : originals.

You have no idea how much cash went into this, of how much time was sunk into the searching, scanning and cross-referencing nor of the astounding amounts I've had to pay for insured shipping from Japan, Germany, Italy, Britain or the US. Even I dare not think of it - in fact I'd rather forget about it completely.

The main push for this gigantic literature hunt happened between june 2009 and january 2011. Scouting continuously since 2004, I quickly realized most interesting items were scarce, rarely popped up for sale twice and that prices were steadily rising, even in Japan.
As I was preparing the new TVK to hold even more content (otherwise what's the point ?), it was then or never and I therefore got all that was beautiful, interesting and rare : during that year and a half I didn't count. Approximately a third of this collection was acquired during that time, vs. the other two-thirds during the six preceding years !

Despite this continuous and very minutious searching, there are many catalogs that I still miss, of course, either because I never could locate a copy or because every time they appear they cost and arm and three legs. However, bar a dozen items which keep eluding me, this TVK hunt is now over.

Approximately 350 of these catalogs were sold through four german eBay massive sales to barely cover the buying and TVK-related expenses.
This happened twice in 2006, once in 2008 and once in 2010. I do regret selling some of these catalogs, mainly because I would scan them infintely better today than I knew how to in 2006. I have nevertheless kept proper scans of these sold catalogs as well as "bigga" (x2 or x4 size) scans of the really nice images ; all the rest is still at home... and it takes a lot of room !

About a hundred and fifty of the catalogs shown here were actually donated by kind people among which are Stephen Lesser, Göran Karlsson, Glen DiCrocco and Maarten Vroomen while a few others were loaned for proper scanning. As fate and chance would have it, these loans and donations always held extra-rare and most wanted items - not all is always bleak ;-)

You'll probably need a few hours to go through all 3500+ covers... and it's only the covers : there are thousands and thousands of pages behind !

cheers
axel

ps.1 september 2013
Apart from one Sony catalog still in Japan and some Luxman and Accuphase corporate documents, everything you can see here is now in Paris,
thanks to Jeffrey Carter and Oscar Spamer.

ps.2 may 2014
With incredible luck, I have finally found two of my most-wanted catalogs, ever : Luxman and Kyocera, both USA, both 1983.
This being now in-house, the few friggin' elusive remaining items just don't matter anymore. Done. Gone. Over.