[Blast]

In the late 80's and 90's I looked at a LOT VCRs for a living. And, a LOT of those got repaired. Many paid for by manufacturer's warranty, most paid by the customer.

In most cases manufacturers had the service data for each model into servicer's hands well before customers brought them in for service. And, parts houses would have the parts available locally. This was how consumer electronics repair had been running for decades.

While I still work on a few things privately I left said big commercial repair biz in 2001. In 2000 and 2001 some manufacturers (Philips, for one, but certainly not limited to them) decided to start exchanging VCRs rather than pay a servicer center to repair them. So, if memory serves, there were no more service manuals sent out, hence no reasons for any easily available parts. That was the "beginning of the end" for me and I was already poised to get into another line of work, so I did.

In 1989 one of the cheapest 2 head VCRs on the market was the RCA model VR250 at about $250 retail. In 2000 other brands and models were down to $49.95, maybe $80 for a HI-FI model. As a servicer, hard costs of running a business dictated that I couldn't spend more than about 15 minutes with something like that knowing I could only charge $20 or $30 at the very most.

I'm sure VCR's made after 2000 can be repaired. But, finding service information and replacement parts (not to mention the cost-effectiveness of it) may likely be the limiting factor.

Brian