Book & DVD Review - Home Haunter's Prop Building Complete How to Package by Steve Hickman

So I got this set about 3 months ago. I think I started wanting this one in 2008 but my wife held off on getting it for me. (My A.D.D. tends to make me go all out on an interest to the point that I get burnt out quickly and soon move on. My wife wanted to see if my "obsession" with Halloween and Home Haunting would last... It did and has....)
So this set is 5 "handbooks" and 5 DVD's. You purchase them from Terror Syndicate . The Author is Steve Hickman. My wife had originally told me she would only allow me the books, but due to an error she made when ordering I lucked out and ended up getting the books and the DVD's. (So be careful when you order. It's real easy to order the DVD's instead of the books. And understandably, there's no refunds) The customer service was great. And we received the books and the DVD's in a very timely manner.Steve also included a one of his CD's (Terror Syndicate's Dark Soundscapes 5) with the order as a "little something extra" which eased the pain of the error we made. This also sealed the decision that I would be willing to order from him again.
So I'm going to start off with the books and the negative things. I guess my biggest gripe is a trend I have seen. The handbooks appear to be produced either from a home printer or at a Kinko's or store like that. Also the formatting could be better. My assumption is that these are word documents that have been printed and comb bound (like you would use one of these for http://www.binding.com/catalog.aspx?catid=plasticcombpunching) In several places it looks like the formatting is off as pictures cover up some of the text. For $30 a volume or $140 for the series I would have liked to have seen them be an actual book. Some of the techniques described have been frowned upon (i.e. using pvc piping for pneumatic cylinders, etc). Now for the good stuff... There's a lot of great ideas in the books and a lot of information that someone just starting out can benefit from.
The DVD's are produced from what looks like Steve's Garage or workshop and are low budget. They are burnt from a home computer. again for the price of $30 a disk or $140 for the series I would have liked to have seen them be of better quality. The pluses...I like Steve... he has some ideas on the DVD's that are not in the handbooks.
So bottom line... most of the info covered in this series you can find already on the internet for free... in fact before I got the series I had found a lot of it. (I just didn't realize it because I didn't know what was really in the books and on the DVD's) Would I buy them again?
Probably not. Am I glad I did buy them? Yes, because I helped a home haunter...
'Til next time....
Bill