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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

A partial season 2 Jeopardy, a Family Feud bikini special and some WCLQ Preview subscription TV recordings - your mother's friend knew how to tape great stuff back in the day and not realize it! I had no idea Combs Feud did a bikini babes special. Many years later Steve Harvey had a week of TNA wrestlers on the show.
I think your T-150 tape was not for sale, rather they recorded over a for-sale/rental movie. Ohhhh I can't wait for tomorrow - time to get my box ready...
 
Scott, it looks like two of those three 1991 Jeopardy! episodes are probably reruns of the 1990 Tournament of Champions, with the July 19th episode best known for a top row Daily Double in addition to being the final episode of the set dating back to Season 2. Sometime in the late '90s or early 2000s, the first tournament they would air during the summer hiatus was a tournament besides the ToC, although this summer was different in that the earlier start made the rerun of it in early July. Speaking of which, even if it's incomplete, its still a nice find since its not in the J! Archive at this time, and probably won't be seen ever again despite the recent trip into the Jeopardy! Vault for this summer due to an early end to this season. That Smash Hits episode seems interesting since the early '90s CHR scene seems to be rather ignored compared to previous eras.

Also, I recently purchased a lot of 13 first and second generation Betas (mostly K-30s and silver/red L-250s, but three L-500s as well) from a seller based out of Cleveland. The labels mostly indicated technical stuff on the side like "Copy of Masters", "Color Bars", and "Betamax Operating Instructions", but one tape read "Devo Mike Douglas" on the side, and that would be neat if it turned out to be that New Wave group performing on his talk show in its waning days. For you old timers, it's hard to believe that his once iconic show ended 40 years ago.
 
pannoni1 said:
Also, I recently purchased a lot of 13 first and second generation Betas (mostly K-30s and silver/red L-250s, but three L-500s as well) from a seller based out of Cleveland. The labels mostly indicated technical stuff on the side like "Copy of Masters", "Color Bars", and "Betamax Operating Instructions", but one tape read "Devo Mike Douglas" on the side, and that would be neat if it turned out to be that New Wave group performing on his talk show in its waning days. For you old timers, it's hard to believe that his once iconic show ended 40 years ago.
Click to expand...

Did you get this Ebay lot from Ray Glasser? He lives up in that area and is well known for being an early adopter (1976) of Beta. Unfortunately he edited commercials out of nearly everything he taped.
 
A few more I've found so far...and I was able to find tape #1 finally + the other 149! They were in a file cabinet which I thought was empty. Nope.


Tape 9 (#476) - All three parts of The Last Don taped off KIMA/CBS on 5/11, 5/13 and 5/14/1997 with commercials. TDK T-120
Tape 10 (#464) - 'Timepiece' (1996) and CBS Sunday Night News open taped off KIMA/CBS on 12/22/1996 with commercials; 'A Holiday to Remember' (1995) taped off KIMA/CBS on Christmas Eve 1996 with commercials; 'Last Stand at Saber River' (1997) taped off TNT 1/19/1997 with commercials (already have this on another tape but with just one break included). TDK T-120
Tape 11 (#1) - 'Dumbo' (1941) taped off KING/NBC 11/18/1985 with commercials (already have this); 'The iWzard of Oz' (1939) taped off KIRO/CBS on 2/15/1986 with commercials. Scotch T-120

Here's two pictures of that place...unbelievable! They even had binders of everything they recorded all meticulously detailed by genre, number of tape, even by actors/actresses.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/zeuw5ia7hnsijm6/P1070682.JPG/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ybh83d5kwkowzkg/P1070683.JPG/file

The Richland lot also came in...a few finds so far

Tapes 1 through 5 - All nine parts of The Civil War taped off KTNW/PBS in March 1991 with pledge break segments. They are separated into episode 1 on tape 1 and the rest on tapes 2 through 5. All are Sony VIVAX T-120s.
Tape 6 - Marathon of The Revolutionary War (six-part documentary with Charles Kuralt) taped off TLC on 12/1/1995 with commercials; part of Star Trek: Voyager and Real Ghosts taped off KBWU-LP 66 (Fox) on 12/3/1995 with commercials. KBWU is now the current KFFX 11.
Tape 7 - 'Annie Hall' (1977) taped off TCM in January 2009 with Robert Osborne's end segment and a couple promos; 'Sophie's Choice' (1982) taped off TCM in January 2009 with Robert Osborne's intro/end segments; The Best of Red Skelton special taped off KTNW/PBS in January 2009 with pledge breaks, along with Visions of Great Britain with promos in between; episode of History Detectives taped off KTNW/PBS in January 2009 with promos; partial broadcast of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (seminar) taped off KCTS/PBS c. December 2008 with a couple promos prior. Fuji T-160
Tape 8 - Trinity and Beyond (1995, nuclear weapons documentary) taped off TLC 7/19/1998 with commercials; partial Seattle Mariners/Kansas City Royals game taped off KIRO-7 on 7/18/1998 with commercials (TCI Tri-Cities put KIRO on cable when they aired Mariners games); end of a Mariners/Texas Rangers game and part of Fox Sports News taped off Fox Sports Net on 7/13/1998 with commercials; partial episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess and Star Trek: Voyager taped off KBWU-LP 66 in July 1998 with commercials; episode of Jeopardy! and The Naked Truth taped off KNDU-25 on 7/7/1998 with commercials (aired after the All-Star Game); partial broadcast of Looney Tunes taped off TNT in June 1998 with commercials. Radio Shack T-120
 
Really! Wow! I love Ray's videos. Especially like all those convention videos he taped from back in the day, the CES and home video conventions. Stuff no one will ever see again.
 
I have an old Scotch T-120 tape (somewhere - I've lost the tape, but was able to find a DVD-R rip of it that I made.) that I got at a garage sale East of Kansas City, MO, over 10 years ago, which had the following on it:
Chico & the Man (WGN-TV, Ch. 9, Chicago, IL),
Batchelor Father (CBN Cable),
Baxter Robertson "Silver Strand" Music Video (Unknown Channel),
Rodney Dangerfield "Rappin' Rodney" Music Video (Partial - Unknown Channel),
The Muppet Show (Last several seconds of the end credits.),
I Love Lucy (Unknown Channel - Probably KSHB-TV, Ch. 41, Kansas City, MO.),
The Rifleman (CBN Cable Network),
National Geographic's Love Those Trains (Unknown Station - Probably KCPT-TV, Ch. 19, Kansas City, MO.),
Van Halen "Jump" Music Video (Unknown Station),
The Best of Groucho (CBN Cable Network),
The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show (CBN Cable Network),
Hall & Oates "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' Music Video (Unknown Station),
Night Ranger "(You Can Still) Rock In America Music Video (Unknown Station),
KAB Sports Big 8 College Basketball Game - Oklahoma (78) vs. Nebraska (67) Live from Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, NE (KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO.),
Video Rock (Opening & first 25 seconds of John Cougar Mellencamp's "Pink Houses" music video - KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO.),
The Untouchables (KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO.),
Mannix (Introduction - KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO.),
The Great Record Album Collection (Last half of episode - KSHB-TV, Ch. 41, Kansas City, MO.),
Gunsmoke "Homecoming" (KSHB-TV, Ch. 41, Kansas City, MO.),
Bette Midler "Beast of Burden" Music Video (Unknown Station),
Asia "Don't Cry" Music Video (Unknown Station),
Hall & Oates "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' Music Video (Unknown Station).
Most of the stuff was recorded in early-to-mid 1984 (One KEKR-TV ID included a salute to the 1984 Winter Olympics - which took place between February 8-19, 1984 - making this, possibly, the earliest known recording of KEKR-TV (Now KSMO-TV.) which came on the air about 5 months earlier.
Here is some of the stuff that I pulled off of the DVD-R rip of that tape.
WGN-TV, Ch. 9, Chicago, IL, Circa Early 1984
WGN TV, Ch 9, Chicago, IL, Illinois Vs NW Big 10 Basketball Promo, Circa Early 1984
CBN Cable, End Credits & In Program Voiceover Promo, Circa Early 1984
CBN Cable, Promo, Circa Early 1984
CBN Cable, Promo, Circa Early 1984, #2
CBN Cable, ID & DTMF Tones, Circa Early 1984
CBN Cable, Promos (Incomplete), Circa Early 1984
CBN Cable, In Program ID, Circa Early 1984
CBN Cable, End Credits & In Program Voiceover Promo, Circa Early 1984, #2
KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO, ID, Circa Early 1984
KCPT-TV, Ch 19, Kansas City, MO, In Program Voiceover & Incomplete Funding, Circa Early 1984
CBN Cable, End Credits & In Program Voiceover Promo, Circa Early 1984, #3
KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO, Tel-Op Error, Circa Early 1984
KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO, Technical Diffuculty, Circa Early 1984
KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO, In Program ID, Circa Early 1984
KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Promo, Circa Early 1984
KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Promo, Circa Early 1984, #2
KSHB TV, Ch 41, Kansas City, MO, Incomplete Promo, Circa 1984
KSHB-TV, Ch. 41, Kansas City, MO, Promo, Circa 1984
KEKR-TV, Ch. 62, Kansas City, MO, End Credits, In Program Voiceover & Winter Olympics ID, Circa 1984
KSHB TV, Ch 41, Kansas City, MO, In Program ID, Circa 1984
WGN-TV, Ch. 9, Chicago, IL, Promo, Circa Early 1984
KSHB-TV, Ch. 41, Kansas City, MO, Promo, Circa 1984 #2
WGN TV, Ch. 9, Chicago, IL, Promo, Circa Early 1984, #2
WGN-TV, Ch. 9, Chicago, IL, Promo, Circa Early 1984, #3
All Night Live With Uncle Ed (KSHB-TV), Circa 1984
1984 Commercials (WGN-TV, CBN Cable, KSHB-TV & KEKR-TV.)
 
I've been finding some tapes at thrift stores here and there (mostly avoiding Ebay lots because I dont have the room for 30-40 tapes at a time):

Tape 1--1994 AFC Championship Kansas City at Buffalo, network airing of My Cousin Vinny
Tape 2--1988 February 7 and 9th, Windmills of the Gods complete miniseries, (CBS) WRAL5
Tape 3--not fully checked but looked like some syndicated airings of The Greatest American Hero on WPTF28 (NBC) around Christmas 1985
Tape 4--not fully checked but a TBS airing of the 1950s movie version of East of Eden from early 1993, plus others
Tape 5--1984 re-airing of the Marco Polo miniseries on NBC, dated from September 13, 1984 based on news update

I'm amazed that 1980s stuff is still out there, but its a given that these thrift stores sadly toss out 95% of these home recorded tapes. 2 of these they gave to me free when they realized they had them on the sales floor, another was in a vintage retail clamshell case of another movie and I grabbed it because the tape stock looked very old.
 
Just two tapes recorded off TV, but I struck some Carter-era WAKR gold here today, in addition to some hard to find instructional videos and a raw boxing match!

Tape 1: Most of 20/20 off WAKR/ABC on 12/13/1979 with commercials, followed by several minutes off home video footage of a various work facility. The third story discusses a then true to its name form of rock, New Wave.

Tape 2: The last 20 minutes of the Mike Douglas Show, You Bet Your Life, the WAKR 6 PM News, ABC World News Tonight, and about the first 15 minutes of a classic episode of Bonanza "Catch As Catch Can" taped off WAKR/ABC on 9/30/1980 with commercials. In addition to seeing the talk show debut of Devo in America, a Buddy Hackett epiosde of YBYL is surely a biggie as only a single episode currently circulates of this one season-only version. That's also two 1980 newscasts found in just a month. I'm sure Scott2013 would swoon over a find like that.

Several other tapes had short portions that I'll likely record soon Unlike the two tapes above which were L-500s in Beta II, the following were L-250s and even a K-30 in BI speed. One was a boxing match between Ron Harris and Stanley Ward presumably from somewhere in the Akron-Canton area from circa 1979. It was filmed in a quality that was good enough for broadcast, but no station graphics or commercials were present. Another consisted of a performance by Tin Huey of the Monkees song "I'm A Believer" at an unknown venue, another had home video that included driving around the McKinley memorial in Canton with a Muzak rendition of "Me and Mrs. Jones" playing in the background, yet another with a Betamax instructional video by Chrysler Corporation's VMC division (looks to be no later than 1980 based on the TV model and machine used), and one more with a demonstrations of Sony's KC-60 system. That last one is intriguing since the KC-60 preceded the Betamax by a couple years, and although undated, it looks very 1974ish in terms of production values and tech used. Not a bad buy for just the price of a movie, and it certainly wasn't Ray Glasser's.

It's a shame that the Marion Stokes feature hasn't gotten more recognition, and considering that its now been well over a decade since VCR use for home taping has been widespread, there's no reason that these home recordings should be tossed. I
 
That YBYL is a great find!

Here's some more finds I made from the Richland eBay lot:


Tape 9 - 1st and 2nd Inning of Ken Burns' Baseball, taped off KTNW/PBS on 9/18 and 9/19/1994 with some promos. Radio Shack Supertape T-120
Tape 10 - Parts 1 and 2 of Frontline: Bush's War taped off KTNW/PBS on 3/24 and 3/25/2008; partial March Madness game with UCLA and Texas A&M, Time Life Grand Ole Opry infomercial and partial Reclaim infomercial taped off KEPR/CBS on 3/22/2008 with commercials. TDK T-120
Tape 11 - Episodes 1-5 of The Great War taped off KCTS/PBS on 11/10-12/1996, one promo intershow on the 11/10 broadcast; partial Sesame Street, episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (rerun from 1988 #1595) and a few minutes of Theodore Tugboat taped off KCTS/PBS in November 1996 with promos. Fuji T-120
Tape 12 - 5th Inning of Ken Burns' Baseball and The Making of Baseball taped off KTNW/PBS on 9/22/1994 with promos. Radio Shack Supertape T-120 (I found the rest of the Innings on three other Supertape 120s but they didn't have any promos.)
Tape 13 - Statler Bros. Show clip taped off TNN in early 1997 with one commercial break; cuts to another Statler Bros. Show taped off TNN in November 1997 with commercials; partial KVEW Local News at 11 and KNDU Live at 11 segments taped 12/30/1999, commercials on the KVEW broadcast; partial KNDU Live at 11 taped 1/4/2000 with commercials; multiple KVEW and KNDU sports segments from Jan-Feb 2000, highlighting Hanford Falcons boys basketball; 'Saving Private Ryan' (1998), a short 11:20pm newscast, Ebert & Roeper and a partial Fabulous '50s infomercial taped off KVEW/ABC on Veterans Day-11/12/2001 with commercials. Memorex T-120
Tape 14 - Multiple episodes of Ultimate Autos taped off The History Channel on 12/28-29/2000 with commercials. Radio Shack T-120
Tape 15 - Battlefield episode (Normandy) taped off KCTS/PBS in August 1995; Battlefield episode (Battle of Berlin) and multiple airings of Bloomberg Business News taped off KCTS/PBS (PBS-X overnight feed) in August 1995 with promos. Sony T-160 (LP)
Tape 16 - Seattle Mariners vs. Boston Red Sox, Mariners Live, The Final Score taped off FSN Northwest on Memorial Day 2008 with commercials - recording has tons of tracking issues however and flips from Hi-Fi to mono repeatedly; partial episode of Dream Car Garage taped off Speed Channel in May 2008 with commercials (with few tracking issues); partial Portland Timbers vs. Vancouver Grizzles NWL soccer game taped off FSN Northwest on 5/24/2008 with commercials (no tracking issue). Polaroid T-120 c. late 1980s

and more from the massive Ellensburg estate sale.


Tape 12 - (#455) - Biography episode (Jack Benny) taped off A&E 9/3/1996 with commercials; both parts of 'Steve Martini's Undue Influence' (1996) taped off KIMA/CBS on 9/15 and 9/17/1996 with commercials; Biography episode (Carol Burnett) taped off A&E in September 1996 with commercials. PDMagnetics T-120
Tape 13 - (#8) The Cricket in Times Square taped off Nickelodeon on 12/26/1989 with commercials; partial episode of Miami Vice taped off KING/NBC on 3/21/1986 with commercials; partial Alias Smith and Jones taped off CBN Cable in early 1986 with commercials. Zenith T-30, a rarity to find, with 90 minutes on SLP.Tape 14 - (#412) Both parts of Children of the Dust taped off KIMA/CBS on 2/26, 2/28/1995 with commercials; part 2 of Gulliver's Travels and start of News 23 Late Edition taped off KNDO/NBC on 2/5/1996 with commercials. TDK T-120
Tape 15 - (#69) - 'Izzy & Moe' (1969) taped off KIRO/CBS on 12/16/1986 with commercials; 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (1963) taped off WTBS on 12/18/1986 with commercials. Scotch T-120
Tape 16 - (#50) - 'Murder By Natural Causes' (1979) and first few minutes of KOMO 4 News Nightcast taped off KOMO-4 on 7/15/1986 with commercials (after All-Star Game); 'Topper Returns' (1941) taped off Nick at Nite on 7/16/1986 with commercials (oldest Nick find ever!); 'Having Wonderful Time' (1938) taped off Lifetime in July 1986 with commercials (my 2nd oldest Lifetime find). PDMagnetics T-120
 
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Tapes just keep coming. Yesterday I went into the Habitat for Humanity Thrift Store here in town for another video/audio cable. Found a lot more than that. Someone donated their SuperBeta VCR and two boxes filled with Betamax tapes. One of the boxes was a VCR-tapes offer only, the other box you could take for $20. I took the second box. 38 home-recorded tapes inside with about 9 or 10 retail (including Tightrope, an early Care Bears tape, two Video 45's, and Blood Beach, a 1981 horror film released by Media Home Entertainment.) Several blank tapes so far are rental copy duds, but there are some diamonds in the rough...including a RARE KCPQ find! One of the retail tapes had a label for SRO Video in Alderwood Mall...these were all Seattle-Tacoma tapings.

Tape 1 - 'Ghostbusters' (1985) syndicated airing taped off unknown channel minus commercials; 'Legend' (1985) taped off KCPQ-13 circa 1989 minus commercials; part of 'Ruthless People' (1986) taped off KOMO/ABC on 2/5/1989 with commercials (ghosty signal); part of 'Blazing Saddles' (1974) taped off KSTW-11 on 2/19/1989 with commercials. Sony L-750
Tape 2 - Copy of 1983 video on basic knitting (about 2 hours long); 'The Mummy' (1999) copied from rental tape, and after the VHS runs out, the Beta records part of Zorro and the original Mickey Mouse Club taped off Disney Channel early in the morning on 12/14/1999 with the promos left behind. My first episode of the original MMC, with Annette Funicello and the rest of the Mouseketeers doing their thing. Sweet! Sony L-750
Tape 3 - 'Iron Eagle' (1986) taped off unknown channel minus commercials; 'Starman' (1983) taped off KIRO/CBS on 1/10/1989 minus commercials; part of 'Superman III' (1983) and a few minutes of KOMO News 4 taped off KOMO/ABC on New Year's Eve 1988 with commercials. Memorex L-750
Tape 4 - 'Kindergarten Cop' (1990) and 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' (1989) copied from rentals; last few minutes of a Charles Bronson western and a few commercials taped off KSTW-11 circa early 1989. Fuji L-750
Tape 5 - 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' (1991) copied from rental; part of 'Mad Max' (1980) taped off unknown station minus commercials; partial episode of Quantum Leap and KING 5 News at 11 taped off KING/NBC on 8/21/1991 with commercials. Memorex L-750
Tape 6 - 'Captain Ron' (1992) taped off Showtime in mid-1993 with a couple promos; 'The Hand that Rocks the Cradle' (1991) taped off unknown pay-TV channel; partial episode of In-Fisherman taped off unknown Seattle OTA station in 1988 with commercials (likely KSTW). Sony L-750
Tape 7 - 'Outland' (1981) taped off KSTW in the late '80s minus commercials; 'The Last Starfighter' (1984) taped off KSTW-11 in the early '90s minus commercials; partial episode of Saturday Night Live taped off KING/NBC early morning 6/24/1990 with commercials (they always preempted SNL to 12:05AM to air Almost Live at 11:35). Memorex L-750
Tape 8 - 'Jerky Boys: The Movie' (1995) copied from rental tape; after it ends the 2nd VCR records the end of LAPD: Life on the Beat, an infomercial for an '80s rock CD compilation, The Extraordinary, A Current Affair: Extra, a half hour of Headline News (with Gordon Graham) and 3:30AM sign off (the EXACT same one from 1984 posted by robatsea2009!) taped off KCPQ-13 early on 1/15/1996 with commercials. Memorex T-120

More to come, I think there's 19 left.
 
pannoni1 said:
One was a boxing match between Ron Harris and Stanley Ward presumably from somewhere in the Akron-Canton area from circa 1979. It was filmed in a quality that was good enough for broadcast, but no station graphics or commercials were present.
Click to expand...

Boxrec.com shows no Ron Harris in Stanley Ward's record, but since you said there were no graphics, it's possible you misheard his opponent's name. Ward TKOed one Don Halpin on May 21, 1982, in the Richfield Coliseum, his only fight in the state of Ohio. Ward boxed out of Sacramento, Calif., and Halpin was from Lowell, Mass., so it's a mystery why their match was made as the main event of a card in Cleveland. This was Halpin's only Ohio fight as well. He'd been served up to then-undefeated Tony Tubbs in Pittsburgh two fights earlier, and during the nine-bout losing streak that ended his career, became the third victim of Mike Tyson in Albany, N.Y.

An interesting note on Ward: He fought Mike Weaver three times, winning the first and dropping the two rematches. His record also shows losses to Greg Page, Ron Lyle and Gerrie Coetzee, so he was a useful heavyweight and finished with a winning overall record.
 
All tapes have been checked - here's the rest minus rental duds or no-commercial tapings. Only about 1/3rd had any kind of commercials or promos on them...


Tape 9 - 'Possession' (2002) copied from rental VHS; cuts to end of 'Footloose' (1984) and open to The Ten O'Clock News taped off KSTW-11 in February 1991 with commercials. Memorex L-750
Tape 10 - 'The Neverending Story' (1984) taped off unknown channel minus commercials; 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939) taped off KIRO/CBS minus commercials (likely the 3/19/89 telecast); part of 'Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn' (1983) and partial I Spy episode taped off KSTW-11 in February 1988 with commercials. Memorex L-750
Tape 11 - Long aircheck of KCTS/PBS taped 9/17/1988 with promos: part of Bill Moyers' The Secret Government, We Shall Overcome, Wild America, French in Action, Tony Brown's Journal, Newton's Apple, Science Journal, Innovation, The Joy of Painting, Victory Garden and part of Rod & Reel Streamside. Scotch L-750
Tape 12 - 'The Prophecy' (1995) and 'Waterworld' (1995) copied from rental tapes; after the 2nd tape runs out there's about 10 minutes of KIRO's 7 Live with Joyce Taylor taped on 3/18/1996 with commercials. This was their 7-9am morning program after the switch from CBS to UPN. Hard to find! Sony L-750
Tape 13 - Episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation taped off KCPQ-13 in 1991 minus commercials; partial episode of In Fisherman taped off KCPQ-13 on 3/25/1990 with commercials; partial broadcast of 'Gremlins' (1984) taped off KING/NBC on New Year's Day 1989 with commercials; Big Bird in Japan taped off KCTS/PBS on 1/16/1989; last 15-20 minutes of 'The Karate Kid Part II' (1986) and opening minutes of KING 5 News at 11 taped off KING/NBC on 11/15/1988 with commercials. Fuji L-750
 
I've been to our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore quite a few times and I've never found any tapes there. At the Medina store's original location, I've spotted plenty of store-bought movies, but never any home-recorded used blanks. That store recently relocated a few blocks away and I haven't found any kind of media items whatsoever at the new location. I can't say I'm surprised though since they obviously specialize in hardware, appliances and home improvement items.
No new finds this past weekend even after hitting multiple estate sales as well as the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds flea market in Berea. Many prerecorded movie tapes and other media items spotted, but no blanks.
 
Scott, have you or anyone else ever asked the managers of these stores what they do with the home recorded tapes that get donated there? I did get a box of free ones from one store, and another agreed to sell me boxes of them at $20 a piece, so it worked out to be about .25-.50 a tape. Granted it was sight unseen which is how I don't prefer to get home recorded stuff but its so rare these days it was worth it.

That being said, I bet a few people would sell you a box of them on the cheap as a "donation" to the charity. Others may even give them to you for free if you say they are going to a good archival home.


Scott2013 said:
I've been to our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore quite a few times and I've never found any tapes there. At the Medina store's original location, I've spotted plenty of store-bought movies, but never any home-recorded used blanks. That store recently relocated a few blocks away and I haven't found any kind of media items whatsoever at the new location. I can't say I'm surprised though since they obviously specialize in hardware, appliances and home improvement items.
No new finds this past weekend even after hitting multiple estate sales as well as the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds flea market in Berea. Many prerecorded movie tapes and other media items spotted, but no blanks.
Click to expand...
 
The Habitat store does not carry recorded VHS tapes, but made an exception on these Betas probably because they are so hard to find in the 'wild'. Much easier but more expensive on eBay. Too bad a bunch of them had to be rental duds.
 


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