Stock up on VHS VCRs when can
 

...

In the past year I've probably seen several hundred VCRs for less than $5 each. Seems there's ten at every thrift, and two at every garage sale. The only difference is that the garage sale ones usually have a remote. I wonder what happens to all the remotes at the Salvation Army? They must have hundreds of them somewhere in the back.

The older, good units already seem to be harder to find. About all I find around here are the '90's and later Funai built units. I do have a late '90's Sharp, a mid '80's front loading Panasonic, an early '80's top loading Panasonic, a cheapie Magnavox VCR/DVD combo, and a cheap Funai built Sanyo VCR. I've also got an early '80's Hitachi top loader that needs belts.

My friend that sells at the flea market gets $10-$15 each for his working VCR's; and, usually has no problem selling them. There are still plenty of people out there with VHS collections and they have probably figured out that most of what is available new is cheap junk.

The used-audio warehouses here churn through LOTS and LOTS of them, although lately I'm seeing (in relative terms) a higher percentage of DVD (VCD, CD...) players compared to VHS players, which are gradually reducing in numbers. Still, if someone wanted them I could probably pick up several thousand VHS players --enough to fill a 20' shipping container or so-- in anywhere from a few days to a month or so.

I already keep a couple spares on hand for the long-term, since they are so cheap, but am not worried about them becoming un-find-ably rare in the near future. Maybe several years (a decade or so) in the future, they'll be hard to find, but not yet. Better not to wait until it is too late, though, if you definitely want to be able to keep playing those tapes.

The units worth stockpiling are the well-built ones with "hi fi" sound quality. Probably best to pick a good model you like, and then get several extras of that exact same model. That way, you're more likely to have the spare parts to keep units going for as long as possible.

I always wondered the same thing myself. How do you have 15-20 VCRs on the shelf and only one with a remote?

Hey don't blow my secret! I saw it coming last year and I've been doing just that. Getting some good / great machines on the cheap. If some people have hundreds of CDs or LPs someone else must have hundreds of VHS tapes. I hope I'm not getting too market oriented here but with a karma perspective people looking for a good machine can find one much better than the deplorable combos that you can only get.

I've been stockpiling them for a couple of years now. The nice older machines can be had for next to nothing.

I'm sorry to say, but there are 10 times out of one more VCRs to find and buy used on eBay than CRT tube TVs. I am overstocked with vintage VHS VCRs right now that they are missing their matching vintage CRT TVs that I cannot find.

I found my Zenith VCR at Goodwill with remote for $10. Model VRE-205 from the late 80s I believe, totally mint cosmetically and functionally. Very high quality, heavy, well-built machine. I don't use VHS tapes though, just use its Cable tuner. I haven't found any others quite as nice, but there are dozens of newer models around for <$10, probably most of which work fine.

Shelf Life?
 

Can anyone tell me how long pre-recorded tapes are good for? I was wondering if the signal would fade away in storage. I hope not; I've a wonderful old VCC (video compact cassette) machine that still works plus a few brilliantly un-PC cartoon tapes that I doubt will ever be broadcast again. I don't know if this format made much headway outside Europe; tape cartridges were only slightly larger than VHS but played both ways like an audio cassette. Definition was better than either VHS or Betamax but being late to market, VCC never really caught on.

Must be 40 or 50 at the thrift store near me!

000

We took a long, leisurely drive Saturday. Stopped at a yard sale along the way, picked up a late 60s Westinghouse table model stereo for a buck. Not as interesting as the other thing I bought there, same price: a GTE Sylvania "Color Video Recorder", 2-speed VHS built in the spring of '78 by Matsushita. Very ragged, will take hours of cleaning inside, but a good project none the less. Will have to post a pic when I get a chance. Seller thought it was an 8-track player!

I do need to pick up another good quality vcr. I junked our old mid-80s Panasonic, not realizing at the time how good a unit it really was. (had power supply issues) I picked up a high-end Sony from early this decade but it has lots of glitches. Maybe the next old workhorse I see, I'll buy it and try rebuilding it. (like I need another project)

Well considering how many VCRs there are out there, I doubt they'll become very rare anytime soon (but you never know... newer VCRs don't last worth a crap after all).

I bought a nice late '80s Sony for $30.00, and I also have a nice brand new Panasonic higher end VCR (bought new in 2004... also bought the extended warranty, which was a bad idea, because here it is 3 years after it expired, and still working flawlessly).
I doubt it's gonna kick the bucket anytime soon, because I dont use it all that often, and it really is a good VCR.

The Sony is a 2 head base model, and produces that typical 2 head fuzzy grainy picture (even after cleaning the head), but still works great.

Most of the VCRs I've seen are newer BPC though. if I do come across an old top loader though, you better believe I'm snatching that sucker right up! I love those old beasts. We had one when I was a kid, and I remember it had coloured buttons on the front, and our TV stand at the time had a shelf that rolled out so you can access the tape door on the top, but it didn't have stoppers on it, and every once and a while I remember my mom rolling it out too far and the VCR would come crashing down face first on the floor LOL... which might possibly explain why we had to get a new VCR.

Say what you want about BPC VCRs but they do have one advantage over the old stuff, fewer rubber parts and fewer moving parts to gum up.

Most of them have cheap plastic parts that don't have any grease to get gummy, I expect they might survive ten or fifteen years stashed away in a closet better than one from the 70-80s, provided the caps don't all dry up of course.