Old Original VHS Tapes - What to do with them?!

Alien · Jul 17, 2011

I have hundreds of videos stored upstairs in a room at my house, including the entire set of seven years worth of ST: Voyager and all sorts of original VHS tapes, films, disney, all kinds of stuff.

Now, given you can't even give them away to charity shops thesedays, lol, short of recycling them, there surely must be a better way to dispose of them? It seems such a waste to just chuck original tapes out.

Anyone know of any other ideas?

Cheers all!

binny · Jul 17, 2011

Me too must have about 100 movies in their boxes in the garage, been about to chuck them a couple of times but just think it's a helluva waste. Times have moved on though.

retired_member33 · Jul 17, 2011

Perhaps sell them on ebay? There might be some enthusiasts collecting them?

By the way, did a quick domain scan for VHS related domains and vhstodvd.org.uk is still available, gets 4400 exact uk searches

Joeyl · Jul 17, 2011

I have loads too sitting in the garage, don't know what to do with them either as people can't sell them at carboot, charities. Maybe list them on gumtree and someone may have a use for them.

Or if your creative you could do something like this

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iri5/sets/72157611954107572/

killaclown · Jul 17, 2011

some ideas

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/recycle-reuse-vhs-tapes.html

anthony · Jul 17, 2011

Alien said:
I have hundreds of videos stored upstairs in a room at my house, including the entire set of seven years worth of ST: Voyager and all sorts of original VHS tapes, films, disney, all kinds of stuff.

Now, given you can't even give them away to charity shops thesedays, lol, short of recycling them, there surely must be a better way to dispose of them? It seems such a waste to just chuck original tapes out.

Anyone know of any other ideas?

Cheers all!

How many of them are of 80's or 90's era self recording types? I know someone who scans them for old recordings, but to be honest, he buys them in bulk at the moment for £1 per 20 units, so you don't get much even doing that.

Alien · Jul 17, 2011

Thanks all - yeah, such a shame to just ditch them. I'm told E-Bay buyers do sometimes pick up original Disney stuff, but we're talking pennies, not worth the hassle TBH.

anthony said:
How many of them are of 80's or 90's era self recording types? I know someone who scans them for old recordings, but to be honest, he buys them in bulk at the moment for £1 per 20 units, so you don't get much even doing that.

I'd say it's probably about 60-70% original, self-recordings are the remaining %. Some old stuff I'd keep on blank tapes I bought I think (e.g old school wind band recordings!, etc). :grin:

Perhaps we should get them all together and make the world's biggest VHS tape mountain?!!

Alien · Jul 17, 2011

bazkika said:
some ideas

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/recycle-reuse-vhs-tapes.html

Thanks, will take a look!

mat · Jul 17, 2011

Keep them and get a DVD/VHS combi player. We got a nice Toshiba one with hard disk and can use it for copying old VHS movies onto dvd or laptop.

chrisduggan · Jul 18, 2011

I remember some years ago copying a load to DVD and a load of cassette tapes to MP3 for my mum.

BREWSTERS · Jul 18, 2011

I need to get my wedding videos put onto DVD before the vhs tapes rot through non use. Another £2k wasted.

AssetDomains · Jul 18, 2011

Converting them to from VHS could take a lot of time and the quality wouldn't be the best.
I'd just download digital copies of everything if you have decent Internet connection.

Blossom · Jul 18, 2011

mat said:
Keep them and get a DVD/VHS combi player.

We have one of those, still deciding whether to get a blu-ray player or not. If Netflix really does come to the UK next year (they owe us, since we've given them Spotify), or LoveFilm gets its streaming act together, I'm going to ditch discs altogether.

theonemanyuri · Jul 21, 2011

I can't watch films that aren't 720p (atleast) anymore, the quality just really bugs me. With the exception of old or gritty films where it adds a bit of character...

I know what you mean about it being a shame to throw VHS tapes out, I've got hundreds from when I was a kid. But I don't think there is a VHS player in the house anymore...

disruptive · Jul 22, 2011

When I was a kid, other kids used to tie one end of the tape to a lamppost and then get on the bus....tape everywhere.

grantw · Jul 22, 2011

disruptive said:
When I was a kid, other kids used to tie one end of the tape to a lamppost and then get on the bus....tape everywhere.

That sounds like the best option so far

Grant

doodlebug · Jul 22, 2011

Give some to fashion students for use on retro style clothes and some to gardeners as they use the tape to scare away birds and some to a young Manchester gang who I know use it to mark their territory like an old house would be covered in it, stupid I know but they do.

I wonder if the plastic is recyclebe ?

disruptive · Jul 22, 2011

doodlebug said:
Give some to fashion students for use on retro style clothes and some to gardeners as they use the tape to scare away birds and some to a young Manchester gang who I know use it to mark their territory like an old house would be covered in it, stupid I know but they do.

I wonder if the plastic is recyclebe ?

I don't think it would be recycle-able because of the metal oxides in the tape. Bet there is absolutely no use for it. I came across some old vinyl in the cupboard and thats always useful for ashtrays or framing - the album covers put into picture frames make a great present or wall decoration.

Skinner · Jul 26, 2011

I binned 100s, took em to the tip and lined them up on endless racks. Various people was cherry picking them but I just ditched them.

I did the same with DVDs a few months ago, and the same with Music CDs about 2 weeks ago. I now have less than 30 DVD and around 50 CDs.

I seriously put effort into Music Magpie but got bored, and they wouldn't send me an box so I could send them everything for free