VHS Movies: Are They Worth Anything

[i*m-still-here]

I have a box of about 100 VHS movies.

All great movies in their day.

Are they worth anything or should I give them away for free?

[i*m-still-here]

Never Mind:  I just gave them away.

Someone is going to have a great time watching some of the best movies ever made.

[rosscd57]

They make too much black smoke when you throw them in the bon fire.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Were you smoking your fish at the time Ross ?

I take it you're talking from experience.

We donated ours away years ago to the No Kill Shelter Thrift Store.

[i*m-still-here]

Good to know I made the right choice.

I gave them to the man who shovels my snow.

[i*m-still-here]

I'm cleaning house.

What about those old tapes we used to listen to in cars.

I have hundreds of them (all great music) ............ are they worth anything to anyone?

[bb_cool_stuff]

Replace the good ones I*m.

Some titles are worth watching over & over & can usually be found in a pre-owned DVD Store.

So cold here lately we actually watched two last night.

The last time we did that was when the kids were really young.

[bb_cool_stuff]

We still have tapes also but we no longer have a tape player in the cars or in the home.

Still have a Walkman but use it for the AM Radio at the Bomber games.

[pocomocomputing]

VHS movies have little value.

Cassette music tapes have little value.

If old 8 track tapes then a strong maybe that it has value depending on titles and condition. See this completed listings search.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Other-Formats-/618/i.html?_from=R40&LH_Complete=1&_nkw=8+track&_sop=3

[femmefan1946]

A friend, well I don't actually like him so, an acquaintance, has promised to put all my tapes and all 400 of my vinyl albums on CDs so I can play them in the car or on my computer.

I no longer have a turntable or a CDplayer. I told him it was worth a dollar a tape and $2 an album to me. Cash.

Am I being too cheap?

But he has been putting this off for months, even as he complains that his pogey has run out and he has to go on welfare.

I think I know why he isn't finding work.

[westernstargifts]

We still have our old Lloyd's radio/8Track player that we bought for $188 (a deal then) in 1973.  DH has it in the shed out back and refuses to part with it.  He bought a used cassette adapter for it too.  It is the same as this one....

370962253020....but we also have 2 speakers.  It still has a great sound.  We have only a few 8Tracks and I don't think they are worth much.

We still have a VCR too that never gets used and lots of VHS movies.  I guess they will end up at Goodwill too.

As for cassette tapes, I still tape programmes from the radio to play at times when they aren't playing what I like to hear.  About the only place you can buy new ones now is at the dollar stores and even they don't seem to be carrying them anymore.

[mr.elmwood]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

A friend, well I don't actually like him so, an acquaintance, has promised to put all my tapes and all 400 of my vinyl albums on CDs so I can play them in the car or on my computer.

I no longer have a turntable or a CDplayer. I told him it was worth a dollar a tape and $2 an album to me. Cash.

Am I being too cheap?

But he has been putting this off for months, even as he complains that his pogey has run out and he has to go on welfare.

I think I know why he isn't finding work.

---

Femme? Do ya figure?

[recped]

Used VHS tapes are not worth much although some tapes, those that have never been issued on DVD can go for good money.

I actually sell a fair amount of audio cassettes and many of them in the $10 - $15 range. The tapes I sell are almost all unused factory sealed or obscure titles that are not available in any other format or not available except for very high prices.

I have a few titles where I have cd, tape and vinyl editions, there is one where I charge $100 for the cd, $40 for the vinyl and $12 for the tape....I sell a surprising number of the tape edition.

I also sell a lot of tapes to the third world (Asia mostly) where cassettes are still relatively popular and I'm sure a few end up in vintage cars that don't have cd players.

On the other hand an actual used cassette of an album that was a big hit in the 80's is almost impossible to sell at any price, pretty much the same story for video tapes.

[i*m-still-here]

Then next come the CDs.  I'm copying all onto computer then want to get rid of those too.

Hundreds of them.

Do you ever calculate the tens of thousands of dollars we spend on this stuff over the decades?

Hundreds of thousands if you add all the stereo equipment in.

I've got all my brother's turntables and speakers to get rid of too.

It's all garbage so fast.

((Used to buy rights and had a company and duplicated Video Tapes decades ago and sold them back then for around $50 each.

Right at the beginning .......... Made a lot of $$$$.

Now they're trash.)))

[pocomocomputing]

If you have any Beta blank tapes or Beta equipment, it is rare and worth something. Maybe even Beta movies. Beta was popular until VHS lower prices took the market over.

[i*m-still-here]

 I remember at the beginning we personally  preferred Beta but VHS took over fast..

We ran both back then and eventually almost no Beta at all.

I'm surprised to hear  you say that now Beta is collected but all those tapes and machines are long gone now.

[recped]

Easy to buy a beta machine on eBay if you want one

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=beta&_sac=1&_osacat=293&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.T...

[rosscd57]

Well some of the old stuff is still great and worth saving. Yesterday I fired up my 1970's Sansui amplifier with the 300 amp Akai speakers for my granddaughter. We put the Beatles White album on the turn table and listened to both disks.

Needless to say she was somewhat grudgingly  impressed.

[Anonymous]

Many VHS movies with closed-captioning are worth to those who prefer VHS because the quality of closed-captioning on VHS are excellent.

The quality of subtitles in English (seem less and less closed-captioning) on DVDs stink!!  We prefer closed-captioning to be used on all DVDs, at any time than English subtitles.   With closed-captioning, the captioners would include background sounds while with English subtitles, they don't do that!  And too often they put subtitles on white ground making reading the subtitles so hard!!  Why they prefer that format is beyond me as we are the ONES that read the dialogue not those movie studios (none of them are deaf!).

It seems that the movie studios prefer to use the cheapest format of subtitles over closed-captioning which many of Deaf viewers are not happy, yet the movie studios don't care!!  No matter how many time we informed them!!  Sad!!

[bargainbookscanada]

I have been selling VHS tapes since 2003...so I am somewhat of an "expert" by now.

As mentioned, there are still hundreds, maybe even THOUSANDS of VHS tapes that have never been legally released on DVD.  Now most of these films are so obscure that finding buyers for them can be tricky.  VHS also has some unique box art and people will collect some titles just for that.  Finally, VHS often has original content that does not make it into the DVD conversion. The movie "Lost and Delirious" is one such a movie.

 Here's a short list of VHS to watch for:

1) DIsney Channel Movies.  Specifically "Disney Channel" as due to some licensing issues, they have not been released on DVD.  Disney+Demand = profit.

2) WWF wrestling videos, many from the 1980's have not been released on VHS yet.  Sports and "How to" tapes in general.  But wrestling has a major fan base.

3) Horror movies...Horror Horror and more horror will always sell.  Due to the success of lower budget horror films from the late 70's and early 80's, hundreds of horror movies were released and many of these have big demand.  

4) Surprisingly, some hit movies that have foreign dubbing are in demand (but very hard to find in Canada.

5) Sometimes, classics will sell since the elderly tend to avoid upgrading to DVD.

Aside from the Out of print and Niche titles...you can still find demand.  But the key is you must have hundreds or thousands of VHS movies on hand and you have to sell them cheap .50, 1 or 2 dollars each.  I have a Kijiji ad up where I am selling from my huge lot of VHS tapes and I get periodic requests to buy.  I presumed that the customers were only after Out Of Print titles but sometimes when they buy..they figure "ok this is only a buck" and buy some generic titles.  Of course for most people it wouldn't be worth the room to make just a few bucks here and there.