While searching for 16 mm films on eBay,I've noticed many odd reels for sale.Usually I see reel one or the last reel for sale.Is this a common thing in this area of collecting? Do people collect odd reels maybe to collect just favorite scenes? Really curious about this.

If t.v. stations literally threw out films at any given point, maybe the dumpster divers only recovered certain reels? Or maybe someone might have 'borrowed' a reel from a film library or something.

I haven't intentionally bought Odd Reels, but sometimes seller didn't know there should be more reels. And in collections I often get some odd reels too. I never throw away a film. Hopefully it can be a complete feature sometime

Good points Tim,as that didn't occur to me.I guess it may also depend upon how many copies exist of prints of movies and TV shows.

I have never seen this film Odd Reels. What is it about ?

True Vidar and with time maybe the other reels can be found.If nothing else they may be worth trading to another collector for something of value.

Odd Reels...the long lost Peter Sellers movie David ... ;)

I've read somewhere about a t.v. station that just carelessly tossed films into a dumpster. I'm sure there were many that did this. Being a former dumpster diver myself (it's not uncommon), someone would have snagged some films up in a heartbeat, in hopes of reselling them perhaps. But, I would only reach in a dumpster so deep to recover stuff. You wouldn't want to stick your hand in there and get bitten by a rat. Of course, those day are long gone as t.v. stations haven't broadcast actual film in decades. I used to trash training videos for a store I managed when they became obsolete without giving it a second thought.

I've got a feature with a missing middle reel; fortunately the story still makes sense. The tragedy is that this print has one of the best images and sound I have seen. How do you lose a complete reel, especially in 16mm. I couldn't imagine that it got so badly damaged that someone threw it away.

I have a couple of odd reels on 16mm, purchased in the hope that perhaps one day, the other might turn up.

Which titles might that be? When I get through my boxes, I know there's about 15 odd reels or more