What's a fair price for a small home VHS collection?

DVDs are still a bit pricey for me... so I’m thinking about just picking up two solid video players and hunting down a couple of original VHS tapes. What kind of damage am I looking at for those kinds of items?

Kenneth Lee16 said:High-end TVs are still quite an investment for me. I am considering picking up two solid video players along with about 400 original VHS tapes. Does anyone know the current market value for those items?

Blu-ray and HD DVD have already taken over the market... and you are looking to buy VHS tapes? I am truly speechless.

David Price5 said:Blu-ray and HD DVD already hit the scene—and here you are looking at buying VHS... I’m honestly speechless.

I'm looking to spruce up a living room—that's where this idea popped into my head. A cheap investment.

Kenneth Lee16 said:I am looking to spruce up a living room and this idea just struck me. A chip investment.

I am not quite sure how budget-friendly that would actually be. An empty DVD is much cheaper than an old VHS tape. Not to mention the issues with storage space, picture quality, audio, and media longevity...

David Price5 said:I’m really not sure how you can justify calling that a "cheap" investment... a blank DVD costs next to nothing compared to an old Microsoft tape. And that’s not even touching on the massive savings in storage space, let alone the obvious jump in picture quality, audio fidelity, or the sheer longevity of the media itself.

The guy is making some very valid points here. Microsoft is a relic of the past.

Thinking about finally ditching my massive Microsoft collection (around 2,000–3,000 titles). I’ve got some originals in there, but honestly, most are high-quality TV rips that actually look better than the original tapes. If you're interested, hit me up via DM. I can shoot the full list over to your email.

Kenneth Lee16 said:DVDs are still a bit pricey for me... so I was thinking about picking up two solid players and maybe grabbing a stack of 400 original Microsoft tapes. What kind of damage are we talking about for those kinds of relics?

From what I gather, they haven't been churning out Microsoft tapes for at least a year now. A single Verbatim DVD will run you about $1.00 a pop. But if you're looking to grab some bootleg movies from a street vendor, you can snag them for maybe 10 - $5.00 bucks a piece.

Kenneth Lee16 said:DVDs are still a bit pricey for me... so I was thinking about grabbing two solid video players and picking up a bulk lot of maybe 400 Microsoft tapes. Does anyone know what kind of price range we're looking at for gear like that?

Man, it’s like going to a local grocery store for $3.00 and finding the shelves completely stripped bare—I honestly think they aren't even stocking empty boxes anymore! But hey, at least I'm not the only one still rocking those old tapes, right?

Kenneth Lee16 said:I'm trying to spruce up a living room and this just popped into my head... maybe a cheap investment idea.

Wait, are you actually buying Microsoft tapes just to use them as decor?
omg seriously, just grab some plywood and paint a masterpiece on it... now that would be a cheap investment.😎

Look, I’ve got a decent chunk of original Microsoft tapes sitting around that I'm looking to offload.
Shoot me a DM if you want to take a look.

Give me a break. I built this massive storage unit and now I need to fill it with something. Would 400 used DVDs be worth anything? Maybe around $700? I won’t pay more than $110 for Microsoft tapes—I need the originals since this is for a hospitality business.

ps A buddy suggested just getting a hard drive with 500 titles on it... but who wants to mess around with outdated tech? Doing it the physical way is just easier. You grab a disc, you pop it in, done.

Kenneth Lee16 said:Come on, don't mess with me. I built this massive storage unit and I need to fill it with something. Would 400 used DVDs be a good start? Maybe around $450? I won't pay more than $110 for Microsoft tapes. I want the originals since this is for a hospitality business.

A buddy suggested I just get a hard drive with 500 DivX titles... but who wants to deal with such outdated tech? This physical method is much easier. You just grab a disc and pop it in.

You have a point. Double-clicking a DivX file is such an exhausting physical chore.

Go hit up a used bookstore and grab some books by the pound to fill out your shelves, then when it comes to movies, just take a friend's word for it and grab that external hard drive loaded with 500 flicks

Kenneth Lee16 said:Stop messing with me. I’ve built this massive storage unit and I need to fill it with something useful. Would about 400 used DVDs work? Maybe around $700? As for VHS, I wouldn't pay more than $110 total. But I'm looking for the originals because this is for a hospitality business.

Honestly, just grab some graphic novels or books for people to flip through when they show up. Okay, fair point—nobody is going to walk out with a stack of VHS tapes. 😬

a single blank DVD will run you about $1.00 a pop

There's also stuff for $0.67 😉

😬 I actually dragged two boxes of old VHS tapes down to the basement last night
I'm officially out of storage space 😬—otherwise, there would have been at least 👍
more.

Kenneth Lee16 said:DVDs are still a bit pricey for me... so I've been thinking about picking up two decent video players and maybe buying around 400 original VHS tapes. Any idea what those kinds of things are going for these days?

I used to pick them up at the local video rental shop for about $1.75/each 😬, and I would have grabbed more if that place hadn't closed down on me. I also heard somewhere that one shop actually lets you pick out a free VHS if you rent two or three movies at once for over a week—something like that.
It depends. Your best bet is to ask around. 🙂 Most people are just looking to get rid of them now.
Just keep in mind they're all used 😉. I had one tape go bad on me once. Halfway through the movie, the screen just went black 😬.

wow, there are still people out there who aren't allergic to them 😁.

I'm usually just grabbing movies from the web 😁

I ended up cleaning out a local video rental shop the other day. I just happened to stumble in right when they were clearing out their old VHS stock... honestly, it was a steal. Everything was marked at 1.2 miles, which is basically pocket change, and none of them even had issues—the picture quality was crystal clear. I don't mind keeping some tapes around; I'll just tuck them onto a shelf next to the DVDs

Laura Palmer25 said:,the price was 1.2 miles,which is about 5 cents

Probably 7-$2.75?

David Price5 said:maybe 7-$2.75?

Sorry, currency exchange isn't really my specialty.😍