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• Having a trade list that is sloppy and just about impossible to read. It's hand printed on graph paper and has been photocopied until it's about white on white. You can email but you can't print up a fucking list?
  
  
• Having a trade list that is mislabelled. When you list what movies you have to Trade you shouldn't list movies that you're unwilling to give up! These are Antonio's so-called "Protected" titles. According to him, he's signed "legal documents" preventing him from giving out copies. Are the documents written on graph paper? Regardless, get them off your list! And, hey, if you know how to go about getting in touch with these nefarious organizations, maybe it'd be nice to share that information?
  
  
• Promising to send titles and then "reconsidering" and sending other titles instead. Antonio likes to tell you that he can send you everything that you'd ever want -- even THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED -- but for some reason he never does. See Promised Films below.
  
  
• Bitching about the movies that he receives. "The quality is poor," "I know there's a longer version," "I found out that that's available at SomethingWeird Video," and blah blah blah. The last one is particularly funny to me. Apparently Antonio is too busy flaunting his "protected" titles that he doesn't have time to do his own research and find out which of the movies he wants are commercially available.
  
  
• Sending movies that I already have. Antonio avidly reads my video list but yet he can't seem to figure out when I have new titles that I don't want piss poor copies from him of the same thing. Yet, he counts these as though he were sending me something exciting and new.
  
  
• Asking if I can find movies and then refusing to trade for them once I've acquired them. I've wasted countless dollars and hundreds of manhours searching out the obscure (and not so obscure) titles that Antonio claimed he sought. Once I had them in hand he either didn't want them anymore or begrudgingly took them. He was always looking at those movies I have yet to get in and bugging me for them. He's often delay trades for months in the hope of getting something that I had yet to get in, forget the dozens of other titles he was once wanting. A typical trade would take 3-6 months.
  
  
• Calling me a liar. Antonio called me a liar point blank when he found movies that he sent me on other peoples' lists, accusing me of sending his movies to other traders. After some investication I found that these tapes were not related at all to Antonio's. In fact, they were better copies. I had to turn around and spend money to upgrade several of the things I got from Antonio when I found that better quality copies were available. Why suffer through his lousy copies of BLACK LOVE, FEMININE CARNIVORES, THE HOTTEST SHOW IN TOWN, NURSES FOR SALE, et cetera, when better copies are available?
  
  
• Not sharing contacts. Tired of the above, I took the old saying about teaching a man to fish to heart. I must have put Antonio in contact with a half dozen other traders, knowing that they could help Antonio out. I apologize to these poor souls -- Sorry Louis, Bill, Shawn, Felix, Jose, Jeff, and everyone else who's had the unforunate luck to encounter this person. Most of them have written me, angry at Antonio's antics. Rather than acting as the middle man and collecting a bunch of movies I didn't want, I let Antonio know who had what he sought. He never returned this favor.
  
  
• Not sending me a want list. Heaven forbid that I know what movies Antonio was seeking! I might actually find them! Antonio kept his "want list" as hidden as a state secret. Apparently, Antonio's tapes and his wanted tapes are to remain hidden from view. Only he can know about and possess these movies.
  
  
• Being a general nuisance. I've never had the problems negotiating with any of the dozens of other traders I've contacted or who have contacted me. We exchange lists, ask some questions, agree on some numbers, maybe discuss tapes/DVDs, and... voila! The ease of trading with other people has facillitated me finding many of the tapes Antonio has "protected" and loves to lord over me.

Update

A name from the past has come back to haunt me this week, Antonio Gragnaniello. I have gotten quite a few emails this week from fellow traders that have gotten burned by Antonio just in recent months. Yes, he continues to lull traders with tales of grandeur told in broken English.

Allegedly, he and a few other guys (Massimo Lavagnini, Mattia Mariotti, David Oakes, Saad Khan, Javier Castellanos, "plus hundreds of collaborators from all over the world") have a book, Fantastic Cinema, in the works. Allegedly? Yes, some feel that maybe the book is as empty as Antonio's promises but, not to worry, Antonio assures the world that "I could take you hundreds of testimonies to prove of the existence of the book, bur for what? You don?t deserve such an effort. Why do you think we have written all those reviews till today, involving thousands of people, for fun? Why do you think we took months, years to find watch and review Albanian, Mongol, Egyptian, Afghan, Cingalese, Nepali, Estonian, Fijian, Armenian, Turkmen, Srilankan, Cambodian, Bolivian, Honduras, Lybian, Lebanese, Pakistani, Icelandic, Syrian?????? films without even understand the languages: because they are masterpieces or because they are pieces of collection wanted by all?" (sic)

Look at how well Antonio uses his charms to get some Cambodian films for his book:
Really bad news. I counted totally on you to fill the gap on Cambodian cinema, but i understand all your engagements that have priority over everything. However I really feel very frustrated about this situation. I know that most of those films are very cheap, amateurish and probably bad and that if they are not be present in the book, won't happen anything. No one will notice that. But we want our book being the most complete ever and why not including at least 4/5 films from Cambodia? How is possible that anyone is interested to promote their cinematography? i don't think this is a thing that happens everyday, that is that someone so far ask this thing. I am grateful for your availability but i'm afraid it can't be useful if you send me some mere synopsis of films. What we need is, apart from a dscrepition of the plot, also a critical judgement. You think you can't really try to do anything else for us? it would be a pity.

No threats, but definitely some cajoling.

I have to laugh about the idea of Antonio writing a book of movie reviews as I'm sure that the majority of them will be of movies he will insist are not available anywhere (his "protected list"). I also weep for poor David Oakes as I'm sure his job is to clean up Antonio's famously funny broken English. There's nothing funnier in the world to be bitched out by Antonio.

Keep your eyes peeled for Fantastic Cinema. Here's hoping it's real, well-written, and that it's not just a book of reviews for movies you'll never be able to see.

• Angels & Cherubs (Rafael Corkidi, 1972)
• Robinson No Niwa / Robinson's Garden (Masashi Yamamoto, 1987)*
• Schmutz / Dirtiness (Paulus Manker, 1985, Germany)*
• Sérail / Surreal Estate (Eduardo De Gregorio, 1976, France)*
• 1000 Roses (Teu Boerman, Netherlands, 1994)*
• Abelard / La Castracion / Die Entmannung (Franz Seitz, 1975, Germany)*
• Amoureuse, L' / Verliefd (Christian Mesnil, 1972)
• Bambina / Le Farò Da Padre (Alberto Lattuada, 1974)*
• Zoo Zero (Alain Fleischer, France, 1979) *
• Whirlpool / She Died With Her Boots On / Perversion Flash (José Ramón Larraz 1970)
• Midi Minuit (Pierre Lestringuez, 1970, France)*
• Das Gespent / The Ghost*
• Jailbreakers, The (Alexander Grasshoff, USA, 1960)*
• Big Grey-Blue Bird, A / Bottom, ein großer graublauer Vogel / Grosso >uccello grigio azzurro, Un (Thomas Schamoni, 1971, West Germany)
• Ovoce Stromu Rajskych Jime / Fruit Of Paradise (Vera Chytilová, 1969)*
• Dorotheas Rache (Dorothea; Dorothea's Revenge, Pomsta Dorothey, Peter Fleischmann, French/German) 1973*
• Amoureuse, L' / Verliefd (Christian Mesnil, 1972)
• Birds In Peru / Birds Come To Die In Peru/ Les Oiseaux Vont Mourir Au Perou (Romain Gary, 1968)