• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

I just had quite an eventful three-day weekend (I'm off from work every other Friday, but since I now need to commute into the office, I may be finding myself with a little less time which means that my posting of videos may slow down slightly, but no worries, I'll still be posting my finds. It kicked off with a pair of two online lots, one from that M-site and another off eBay. I'll start off by posting my finds from that first lot, which came from suburban Dallas. All tapes were Polaroid T-120s unless otherwise indicated.

TAPE 1: Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) taped off HBO circa May 1991 with no promos, followed by about 25 minutes worth of footage from the KAMC 5 PM News on 3/7/1991 with commercials. Maxell HGX-Gold T120.

TAPE 2: National Geographic Explorer: Mysteries of the Deep off TBS on 8/22/1993 with commercials.

TAPE 3: Home recording of a woman's 50th birthday celebration from a local VFW/American Legion-type hall, followed by the end of Gilead's Bodies in Motion and BodyShaping off ESPN in December 1993 with commercials. Sony ESX-HiFi T-120. Interestingly, that episode of BodyShaping was filmed on the grounds of the same resort hotel from my 2023 Arizona/Las Vegas trip when I stayed a few nights in Tucson.

TAPE 4: Most of Oprah Winfrey, the WFAA 5 PM News, and the first several minutes of ABC World News Tonight from 4/28/1994 with commercials.

TAPE 5: Most of Who Makes You Laugh? (partly pre-empted for a WFAA special on local elections) recorded off WFAA/ABC on 5/6/1995 with commercials, along with Girls' Night Out: Elayne Boosler's Live Nude Girls off Lifetime from the same night with commercials.

TAPE 6: The Santa Claus (1994), The Wonderful World of Disney presentation off WFAA/ABC on 11/22/1998 with commercials, followed by most of Friends, The Single Guy, Seinfeld, Caroline In The City, and the first few minutes of ER off KXAS/NBC on 2/22/1996 with commercials, followed by a portion of part one of The Langoliers off WFAA/ABC on 5/14/1995 with commercials.

TAPE 7: The Bourne Identity (1988) taped off an unknown pay TV channel, followed by the last six minutes of the Iowa-Michigan NCAA basketball game and the full Louisville vs. Texas NCAA game off KTVT/CBS on 1/19/1997 with commercials and halftime, then it cuts to the last few minutes of the Chicago Bulls-Houston Rockets NBA on NBC game and about 75 minutes of final round coverage of the PGA's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic off KXAS with ads from the same afternoon, before finishing up with part of the series premiere of Love & War off KDFW/CBS on 9/21/1992 with a few commercials.

TAPE 8: The Late Late Show with Craig Kilbourn off KTVT/CBS on 5/27/1999 with commercials, the rest of the tape being blank

TAPE 9: Starts with the Wonderful World of Disney feature presentation of The New Swiss Family Robinson off WFAA/ABC on 1/10/1999 with commercials, followed by the last few minutes of Grace Under Fire, The Naked Truth, and about of half of Primetime Live off WFAA/ABC on 11/1/1995 with commercials

TAPE 10: Part of the Jesus of Nazareth miniseries off KXAS/NBC circa 1990 with no commercials, then it cuts to part of The People's Court, the KXAS 5 PM News, and most of the NBC Nightly News of KXAS/NBC on 6/29/1989 with commercials

TAPE 11: The full three parts of the Around The World In 80 Days mini-series off KXAS/NBC on 4/16, 4/17, and 4/18/1989 with commercials. I've already got the first two parts of this already.

TAPE 12: Little Darlings (1980), recorded off KDAF in 1988 with some commercials, followed by about eight minutes of promos off HBO circa 1988, followed by the last several minutes of the WFAA 6 PM News as well as about the first ten minutes of an episode of Entertainment Tonight from March 1988 with a few commercials, followed by the last 15 minutes of the Texas State 5A High School football championship game (Plano vs. LaMarque) as well as part of Yes Virginia, There's A Santa Claus off KXAS in December 1986 with a few commercials

TAPE 13: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) copied from a rental, followed by the last 17 minutes of Another World and first 50 minutes of the 1991 Soap Opera Awards off KCBD/NBC on 1/14/1991 with commercials

TAPE 14: A retail copy of Exercise Step Workout With Jodie Cohen from 1992. I don't see this online yet, so I'm keeping it.

Ten other tapes were placed in the sell pile: one contained a few minutes of a cartoon featuring Tigger, followed by four minutes of The Weather Channel on 5/11/1996 including part of a local forecast, with the rest of the tape blank. Another contained the Cheers series finale off WXAS (I've got this off WGAL among other stations), the remainder of the Stephen King's Langolieers miniseries from 1995 that I've already got, Paul Simon's Concert In The Park from 1991 off HBO with no promos, a few more tapes with just a few minutes of promos, and the newest tape being a KTVT aircheck from 10/28/2003 featuring most of Inside Edition, NCIS Navy, The Guardian, Judging Amy, and the KTVT 10 PM News. There were a total duds as well.

Next up was a potential lot of gold, an eBay lot consisting of 25 tapes that all were Scotch T-120s, with ten of them featuring the silvery T-120 on the upper left of the tape before the Scotch was added to them in 1985. Unfortunately, this search had the feeling of visiting a gentrified hipster neighborhood that had lost its soul, with most of the recordings on this lot being CBS/NBC drama/adventure series from the early to mid 2010s, even though the tape stock was pretty much all from the '80s. Among the finds include the 2010s revivals of Hawaii 5-0 and Parenthood, and there was even a Trump campaign ad from 2016 on one tape, even if he was married to Ivana when the same tape was manufactured. One tape did contain two hours of Live Aid off MTV with no commercials (I've got that already), another with Reading Rainbow episodes, and a couple more with Gulf War '91 coverage at the very end of the tapes. I'm in the process of returning this for a refund, and as I dropped the return off to the local post office, I noticed a sign for a yard sale that would provide MUCH better luck. I'll post more about this lot and yard sale a little later.
 
Well done! Good finds especially Lubbock news, the partial 1988 Entertainment Tonight and the classic Must See TV block. Have you ever thought about looking on FB Marketplace? I should get a Facebook account solely for Marketplace buying/selling. Seems like there are a lot of VHS lots and Beta lots that pop up there (and many I'm sure are because of eBay's near-total ban on taped VHS sales).

I've got the "80 Days" miniseries from the enormous Ellensburg lot of July 2020 that I am still going through. KING 5 Seattle w/ commercials.

Apparently, there's an estate sale coming up in Eagle this weekend that looks promising. Full house and a garage full of vintage beer and road signs and some soda signs...these sales could be stocked with vintage goodies too on the video side.
 
crainbebo, I did use Facebook Marketplace last year around this time to pick up a huge lot of tapes near Philadelphia that I've posted already. Speaking of eBay and its AI bots, a possible tip is to try to identify and contact the seller in case its in an auction format and the listing gets taken down, and perhaps suggesting them that M-initialed site. There was a lot of Betas last week that consisted of dozens of mostly Miami Vice episodes, but I backed off since the run times on the tapes suggested that they wouldn't have commercials, except for a few at around the 55-56 minutes, meaning that the closing credits would probably be missing. That was yanked by the AI bots over the weekend.

Well, after I returned those tapes that mostly turned out to be 2010s duds (SD on HD doesn't age well), I decided to pay a visit to this estate sale, held inside a classic two-story plus basement house built circa 1960. It turned out to be MASSIVE, filled with all sorts of items, from the garage, kitchen, sunroom, living room, bedrooms, and the basement. As it turned out, I discovered blank VHS tapes in two places, one inside a closet in the upstairs library that contained LOTS of 78 RPM records (literally hundreds, dating back to 1920s Al Jolson records), reel-to-reel tapes (one was apparently recorded in 1956 and even mentioned "television" on it, potential personal kinescope recorder?!?), books, Christmas ornaments, an antique gramophone with the horn, a 1940s AM radio, a few magazines, and a shelf with about 15 VHS tapes, mostly featuring Bing Crosby recordings. I decided to grab only a couple from that shelf as the going rate was $2/blank tape, which is a bit on the high side for a yard sale, but noticed that if I returned Sunday, which I did, it would be 50% off or just a dollar/tape. The second place was in the hardware room in the basement, where there was about 10 more VHS tapes and near the bottom of one shelf, a box full of Betamax tapes! I only took about eight tapes, hoping that they would still be there the next day. Fortunately, nobody snatched them, and ended up taking about two dozen more. I also grabbed a 1978 issue of Time featuring Cheryl Tiegs on the cover for $4, along with a 1987 Zenith VR 2220 for $10 as a spare. That VCR plays nicely in SP and LP mode, but has some tracking lines on tapes recorded in EP even after a cleaning (this was before auto-tracking, so I'll resort to my 1999 JVC HS-S3600U for those slow-speed recordings. If you look at the second picture below, you can see just one little sample of 1/2" RTRs on offer. It is quite heavy, and the weight of it and the tapes I got caused the seller's table to fall down, causing a mess, but thankfully still assisted me with cleaning it up. The Sunday visit also involved swapping six tapes that were known to be AMPEX stock despite the labels being mixed up. This included a tape with the 8th anniversary special of David Letterman from 1990 and apparently an episode of The Simpsons from its first season in 1990. Even the white/gray "professional broadcast quality" still cause the same squealing problems as the more familiar black/rainbow covers, so avoid the VHS tapes with side labels in this shade of lime in the first image below, as those are the dreaded AMPEX tapes that can squeal away your VCR.

Now, onto the finds:

VHS:

TAPE 1: The Best of The Hollywood Palace special recorded off WJZ/ABC on 5/11/1993 with commercials, followed by the last two hours of Bob Hope At 90, the WRC 11 PM News, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and about half of Late Night with David Letterman (one of his last NBC episodes) off WRC/NBC on 5/14/1993 with commercials, including a promo for the Cheers finale. I've already got that nearly full Bob Hope special off WLWT. Scotch T-160

TAPE 2: A&E Biography: Bing Crosby on 12/9/1994 with commercials. Maxell P/I PlusT-60

TAPE 3: A rerun of that same Biography episode, along with American Justice: Mob Ladies off A&E on 5/10/1995 with commercials. Universal T-120

TAPE 4: Begins with the full half-hour Ross Perot political ad from October 1992, followed by part of Moneyline, Crossfire, and most of the second Presidential Debate pre-debate special, the 1992 second Presidential debate from Richmond, and part of the post-debate special off CNN on 10/15/1992 with commercials, followed by the last few minutes of the NBC Nightly News, the third Presidential Debate from the University of Michigan, part of Blossom (joined in progress due to being a rerun), and about three-quarters of the NBC Monday Night Movie presentation of Jonathan: The Boy Nobody Wants off WRC/NBC on 10/19/1992 with commercials. Scotch T-160

TAPE 5: About four hours worth of footage from the final day of the 1988 Winter Olympics, including the closing ceremony and full credits off WJLA/ABC on 2/28/1988 with about half of the commercials intact. BASF T-120

TAPE 6: The last several minutes of the WJLA 6 PM News, ABC World News Tonight, and most of Jeopardy! (recording stops after the runners up prize plus after Double Jeopardy!) on 10/25/1988 with commercials. BASF T-120

TAPE 7: 5 hours and 22 minutes worth of coverage of the inauguration of George Bush off WRC/NBC on 1/20/1989 with commercials, followed by the first eight minutes of Inside Edition from the same day, followed by about 40 minutes from the WRC 5 PM newscast also from Inauguration Day 1989 with commercials. That clip of Inside Edition, my oldest find so far (the tenth broadcast of what would be over ten thousand and counting), features David Frost as anchorman, and would resign just a week later. BASF T-120

TAPE 8: Possible nomination for find of the year here? This six-hour overnight aircheck from the night after the 1989 Inauguration begins with the half-hour NBC News Inauguration Ball special immediately following the late local news, before continuing on with The Best of Carson (a rerun of the 2/3/1988 episode), Late Night With David Letterman, Friday Night Videos, the overnight rebroadcast of the WRC 11 PM News, Love Connection, The Gong Show, The Newlywed Game (my second find from the short-lived Paul Rodriguez Era), Wipeout, and the first few minutes of Superior Court. BASF T-120.

TAPE 9: NBC News special report coverage of the Bay Area 'quake along with most of the WRC 11 PM News from 10/17/1989 with commercials, followed by a brief clip of the 10/19/89 WRC 11 PM newscast, followed by the full WRC 11 PM News and part of the monologue from The Tonight Show on 10/20/1989 with commercials, followed by over four hours worth of coverage of the Voyager 2 Neptune flyby off WETA/PBS on 8/25/1989 with occasional promos. BASF Chrome Super HG T-120.


MORE TO COME
 

Attachments

  • 20250330_084213.jpg
    20250330_084213.jpg
    67.2 KB · Views: 11
  • 20250330_102443.jpg
    20250330_102443.jpg
    96.4 KB · Views: 11
Unfortunately, I didn't pick up those reels since I don't have a reel-to-reel player, and find that the flimsy tape would make it too difficult to convert. I've read those reels require pinpoint precision to convert properly.

Now on to the Betas:

TAPE 1: Blaze (1989) taped off presumably WRC/NBC on 7/16/1992 with no commercials, followed by a little over an hour's worth of NBC News Nightside footage off WRC on 4/24/1992 with commercials. TDK Hi-FI L-750

TAPE 2: Begins with a Jimi Hendrix documentary copied from a rental, followed by the last 12 minutes of W*USA Countdown To Kickoff, The NFL Today, and the first quarter of the Washington Redskins-Seattle Seahawks game off W*USA/CBS on 12/23/1989 with commercials. TDK L-750

TAPE 3: President Reagan's eighth and final State of the Union address, On The Edge (an aired pilot that never went to series), the WRC 11 PM News, and the first 15 minutes of The Best Of Carson off WRC/NBC on 1/25/1988 with commercials. Sony L-750

TAPE 4: John Lennon: A Journey In Life (1985 BBC documentary) recorded off WMPT on 11/26/1986 with a few promos, then it cuts ahead for a partial presentation of the Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust concert off WJLA/ABC in 1988 with no commercials, followed by most of a rerun of Late Night With David Letterman (a 1984 episode) along with the first 20 minutes of the overnight rebroadcast of the WRC 11 PM News on 6/22/1988 with commercials. Sony ES-HG L-750

TAPE 5: Starts off with a little over an hour's worth of afternoon coverage of ABC's Statue of Liberty Centennial coverage off WJLA on 7/4/1986 with commercials, followed by most of another Late Night with David Letterman rerun (another 1984 episode), followed by Friday Night Videos, the WRC 11 PM News overnight rebroadcast, and sign-off from 6/24/1988 with commercials. I found that same episode of FNV off KHQ in 2017. Kodak L-750

TAPE 6: The Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary Special off WJLA/ABC on 6/26/1988 with about 40% of the commercials intract. TDK L-750

TAPE 7: The "Radio Days" documentary copied off rental, followed by the Playboy Playmate Workout (1983) also copied off rental, followed by about 20 minutes of footage from the middle of a Days of our Lives episode from 1988 off WRC/NBC with a couple commercial breaks. TDK L-750

TAPE 8: The Concert For Kampuchea (1980) copied off a rental, followed by FX (1986), a syndicated rerun of Simon and Simon, and the first few minutes of A Current Affair recorded several hundred miles up I-95, off WFXT on 11/8/1988 with commercials. Kodak XHG L-750

TAPE 9: Seeing that the label only said "Disney Classics" could mean anything from being one of those "Cartoon Classics" retails copied off a rental, The Disney Channel, or Wonderful World of Disney specials, but this turned out to be a nearly complete evening of NBC primetime programming from 3/25/1987: Donald Duck: Down and Out (missing the first several minutes), Night Court, The Tortellis (my first complete episode of this Cheers spin-off), The Bronx Zoo (billed as the premiere, but actually the second episode after the "sneak peek" the previous week), and the first segment of the WRC 11 PM News. TDK L-750

TAPE 10: Under Fire (1983) and and about the first 35 minutes of a rerun of Star Search recorded off WTTG on 7/18/1987 with commercials. I've already found most of that Star Search episode in 2019 from that huge Craigslist lot (Yardley, PA with mostly Pittsburgh-area recordings). Kodak L-750

TAPE 11: Challenger disaster news footage from 1/28/1986 starting off with nearly two hours of afternoon footage off CBS, followed by most of the WJLA 6 PM News and ABC World News Tonight (sadly, the dun-dun-dun-dun opening theme wouldn't be played), then rounding things out with about an hour NBC late night coverage. Commercial-free except for the WJLA and WNT portions. I've already got the NBC portion, but plan on posting the WJLA portion for the disaster's 40th anniversary next January. Kodak L-750.

TAPE 12: I've surely been finding lots of classic DC news in these lots (especially from channel 4), and this one is no exception, starting off with about an eight minute clip of the 1/30/1986 11 PM broadcast off WRC with a few commercials, followed by about the first ten minutes from the following night, then it moves on with the complete WRC 11 PM News and the first 13 minutes of The Tonight Show from 2/3/1986 with commercials, followed by the full WRC 11 O'Clock News and the first 35 minutes of The Tonight Show from 2/4/1986 with commercials. Kodak L-750

TAPE 13: Live And Let Die (1973), The ABC Sunday Night Movie and the first 17 minutes of the WJZ 11 PM News from 3/9/1986 with commercials. Kodak L-750

TAPE 14: Lucy & Ricky's Blessed Event (a collection of three classic I Love Lucy episodes from 1952) off WTTG on 4/9/1986 with commercials, followed by the premiere presentation of Return To Mayberry and the first few minutes of the WRC 11 PM News, taped off WRC/NBC on 4/13/1986 with commercials. Kodak L-750

TAPE 15: Kicks off with the last 10 minutes of the music special Bring On The Summer, followed by Cannonball: 1 Lap of America (appropriately airing on the same day as Hands Across America), and most of NBC SportsWorld's presentation of the Big League Baseball Decathlon Challenge, recorded off WRC/NBC on 5/25/1986 with commercials (the Proud N is still being used at this time on SportsWorld). Sonly L-750

TAPE 16: The last 40 minutes of Good Morning America along with the first 2 hours and 20 minutes of ABC News Liberty Weekend coverage off WJLA/ABC on Independence Day 1986 with commercials. I've already got the non-GMA coverage off of KGTV. TDK L-750

TAPE 17: ABC's Primetime coverage of day two of Liberty Weekend coverage, the WJLA 11 PM News, and Nightline also from 7/4/1986 with commercials. TDK L-750

TAPE 18: Anything Goes (1956), the WJLA Great Late Movies from 9/7/1986 with commercials. TDK L-750

TAPE 19: Christmas At Pops, Christmas With Pavarotti, and part of Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Shirley Verett off WMPT on 12/17/1986 with four pledge breaks. Maryland Public Television wasn't yet using their purple galaxy/blue globe with yellow MPT logo yet at this point, but would introduce it shortly after Christmas. Kodak XHG L-750

TAPE 20: About 20 minutes from The Tonight Show from New Year's Eve 1986 off WRC/NBC with a few commercials, then it flips over to WJLA/ABC for the remainder of Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve '87 a few minutes before the ball drop with commercials, with an episode of Nightlife and the WJLA sign-off following the welcome into 1987. Kodak L-750. WJLA was using split-screen graphics for its final countdown into the new year by this point, with Times Square on the upper left and a various DC destination on the upper right of the screen.

Well, I'll be listing some more tapes online for sale in the coming weeks, especially on that M-initaled site. One final question though for all tape hunters: if there is a two-day estate sale and find that everything would be half off on the final day and would be available for both days, would you select some tapes on the first day if the labels suggested something good could be on them, or would you wait for the 50% discount, knowing the possibility about the tapes being snatched up? Especially if its $2/more a tape on the first day (I paid $2 for about half of my tapes, and $1 for the Sunday round)
 
Wow! Dick Clark Rockin' Eve!! I have gone through 1,500+ tapes and have never found Rockin' Eve except for a 10-15 minute segment from the end of the '93 broadcast. It doesn't help that I lived in PT tape-delay land, either. I have the Liberty Weekend from KXLY (and also KGO, but that tape is back in WA right now).
The Jimi Hendrix rental copy was probably the 1973 documentary, which my late father had for many years. Warner Home Video, 1989 release. He was a huge Jimi Hendrix fan.

My problem isn't whether I'd go on Sunday to pick up the discounted tapes. My problem is that professional estate sales in Boise aren't netting tapes at all. This wasn't the case in Yakima, where all TV-recorded tapes were for grabs. In Boise, the few VHS are retail/Disney. The few handfuls I've found since moving to Cascade came from family-run, private sales.
What doesn't help is Boise is full of recent move-ins. For every person in the Treasure Valley who lived there 60+ years...there are 10 more moving from just about every blue state in the country, especially CA. I see license plates in Boise as far away as Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Wisconsin regularly. Most are families and middle-aged, so age 30-45...NOT a generation that constantly programmed their VCRs!! And 90% of the geriatric move-ins are chucking their tapes in their former state before moving, unless it's their wedding video.
I sure hope that someone in that 75+ age range kept their Selectavision VCR, VK250s and oodles of classic KBCI, KIVI, and KTVB recordings, and they are just waiting for me to pick them up...someday :)
 
To be honest I would be hard pressed to pay $2 for a recorded tape when the most I pay these days is .75 at the Goodwill bins in Greensboro, and even then it has to be a really promising label for me to bite. I would wait for the $1 sale day if I had the time to go back. Also, I'd make an offer for the whole lot of tapes on the discount day, many estate sale companies will cut you a good deal if you offer to buy them all, but that depends on space constraints.
 
Chandler and crainbebo, I am surprised the Goodwill’s near you still carry home recorded VHS tapes.

crainbebo I just want you to know that I am 38 and I programmed a VCR at 13 in 1999! Also, I like NBC’s proud N the best. I wish they did not switch to the six feather peacock.
 
pannoni1 said:
Unfortunately, I didn't pick up those reels since I don't have a reel-to-reel player, and find that the flimsy tape would make it too difficult to convert. I've read those reels require pinpoint precision to convert properly.
Click to expand...

radiofan2023 said:
@pannoni1 Transferring reels isn’t that difficult, but you have to know how to clean the tape machine heads and splice tape if one breaks.
Click to expand...
Obsolete Video Services could have transferred those tapes.

I don't know what it would cost to have gotten them transferred though.
 
Last edited:
Jman8606 said:
Chandler and crainbebo, I am surprised the Goodwill’s near you still carry home recorded VHS tapes.

crainbebo I just want you to know that I am 38 and I programmed a VCR at 13 in 1999! Also, I like NBC’s proud N the best. I wish they did not switch to the six feather peacock.
Click to expand...
Its just at Goodwill Outlet stores, where basically they dump anything they consider not suitable (or don't feel like pricing) at the main stores. Even then its not a common thing, sometimes its a whole rolling bin of VHS tapes with half being home recorded half commercial releases. Other times its just a rolling bin full of books or just books and DVDs. I've tried inquiring with local thrift stores to get all the home recorded stuff they get in but none would respond.
 
The nearest Goodwill Outlet is Spokane (200 miles). I haven't been there since last June and I got completely skunked out.

Most VHS collectors are getting their gems from the "bins". Sometimes they are finding horror films in the bins. One guy on the reddit r/VHS account found Saw, Saw II, Jeepers Creepers 1 and 2, The Howling and more all from those bins. And Saw II was a very, very late VHS release.
I have a copy of Lord of War with Nicolas Cage, and I believe it was one of the last VHS movies released. But I also have a screener VHS from Sony Pictures of 'Nine Lives,' a drama vignette film with an ensemble cast ranging from Sissy Spacek, to Aidan Quinn, to Glenn Close. I am very sure it was NOT released on VHS to the general public!!
 
crainbebo said:
I sure hope that someone in that 75+ age range kept their Selectavision VCR, VK250s and oodles of classic KBCI, KIVI, and KTVB recordings, and they are just waiting for me to pick them up...someday :)
Click to expand...
Hit the vintage tape stock jackpot today at local thrift that used to NEVER sell home recorded tapes. All vintage TDK/JVC/Toshiba/Hitachi/RCA and a few of the dreaded Ampex. The first tape I popped in was the 1982 Final 4 UNC vs Houston on local WRAL with commercials (on 2025 Final 4 Saturday no less). A cursory check on what exists of that game seems to only be copies without commercials or heavily edited (1h11m or 1h29m) so I'm hoping for a full 2h version. I ended up picking up 39 tapes in total, most had labels with Motown concerts, Cosby Show episodes, and some movies and SNL mixed in. Hopefully most aren't just HBO recordings but who knows. Whoever recorded these must have been rich as this was an era where blank tapes were $10 (or more) each. As I walked out I was just thinking they probably dropped $400 in 1980s dollars on these blanks and I spent less than $15 in 2025 money.
 
pannoni1 said:
crainbebo, I did use Facebook Marketplace last year around this time to pick up a huge lot of tapes near Philadelphia that I've posted already. Speaking of eBay and its AI bots, a possible tip is to try to identify and contact the seller in case its in an auction format and the listing gets taken down, and perhaps suggesting them that M-initialed site. There was a lot of Betas last week that consisted of dozens of mostly Miami Vice episodes, but I backed off since the run times on the tapes suggested that they wouldn't have commercials, except for a few at around the 55-56 minutes, meaning that the closing credits would probably be missing. That was yanked by the AI bots over the weekend.

Well, after I returned those tapes that mostly turned out to be 2010s duds (SD on HD doesn't age well), I decided to pay a visit to this estate sale, held inside a classic two-story plus basement house built circa 1960. It turned out to be MASSIVE, filled with all sorts of items, from the garage, kitchen, sunroom, living room, bedrooms, and the basement. As it turned out, I discovered blank VHS tapes in two places, one inside a closet in the upstairs library that contained LOTS of 78 RPM records (literally hundreds, dating back to 1920s Al Jolson records), reel-to-reel tapes (one was apparently recorded in 1956 and even mentioned "television" on it, potential personal kinescope recorder?!?), books, Christmas ornaments, an antique gramophone with the horn, a 1940s AM radio, a few magazines, and a shelf with about 15 VHS tapes, mostly featuring Bing Crosby recordings. I decided to grab only a couple from that shelf as the going rate was $2/blank tape, which is a bit on the high side for a yard sale, but noticed that if I returned Sunday, which I did, it would be 50% off or just a dollar/tape. The second place was in the hardware room in the basement, where there was about 10 more VHS tapes and near the bottom of one shelf, a box full of Betamax tapes! I only took about eight tapes, hoping that they would still be there the next day. Fortunately, nobody snatched them, and ended up taking about two dozen more. I also grabbed a 1978 issue of Time featuring Cheryl Tiegs on the cover for $4, along with a 1987 Zenith VR 2220 for $10 as a spare. That VCR plays nicely in SP and LP mode, but has some tracking lines on tapes recorded in EP even after a cleaning (this was before auto-tracking, so I'll resort to my 1999 JVC HS-S3600U for those slow-speed recordings. If you look at the second picture below, you can see just one little sample of 1/2" RTRs on offer. It is quite heavy, and the weight of it and the tapes I got caused the seller's table to fall down, causing a mess, but thankfully still assisted me with cleaning it up. The Sunday visit also involved swapping six tapes that were known to be AMPEX stock despite the labels being mixed up. This included a tape with the 8th anniversary special of David Letterman from 1990 and apparently an episode of The Simpsons from its first season in 1990. Even the white/gray "professional broadcast quality" still cause the same squealing problems as the more familiar black/rainbow covers, so avoid the VHS tapes with side labels in this shade of lime in the first image below, as those are the dreaded AMPEX tapes that can squeal away your VCR.

Now, onto the finds:

VHS:

TAPE 1: The Best of The Hollywood Palace special recorded off WJZ/ABC on 5/11/1993 with commercials, followed by the last two hours of Bob Hope At 90, the WRC 11 PM News, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and about half of Late Night with David Letterman (one of his last NBC episodes) off WRC/NBC on 5/14/1993 with commercials, including a promo for the Cheers finale. I've already got that nearly full Bob Hope special off WLWT. Scotch T-160

TAPE 2: A&E Biography: Bing Crosby on 12/9/1994 with commercials. Maxell P/I PlusT-60

TAPE 3: A rerun of that same Biography episode, along with American Justice: Mob Ladies off A&E on 5/10/1995 with commercials. Universal T-120

TAPE 4: Begins with the full half-hour Ross Perot political ad from October 1992, followed by part of Moneyline, Crossfire, and most of the second Presidential Debate pre-debate special, the 1992 second Presidential debate from Richmond, and part of the post-debate special off CNN on 10/15/1992 with commercials, followed by the last few minutes of the NBC Nightly News, the third Presidential Debate from the University of Michigan, part of Blossom (joined in progress due to being a rerun), and about three-quarters of the NBC Monday Night Movie presentation of Jonathan: The Boy Nobody Wants off WRC/NBC on 10/19/1992 with commercials. Scotch T-160

TAPE 5: About four hours worth of footage from the final day of the 1988 Winter Olympics, including the closing ceremony and full credits off WJLA/ABC on 2/28/1988 with about half of the commercials intact. BASF T-120

TAPE 6: The last several minutes of the WJLA 6 PM News, ABC World News Tonight, and most of Jeopardy! (recording stops after the runners up prize plus after Double Jeopardy!) on 10/25/1988 with commercials. BASF T-120

TAPE 7: 5 hours and 22 minutes worth of coverage of the inauguration of George Bush off WRC/NBC on 1/20/1989 with commercials, followed by the first eight minutes of Inside Edition from the same day, followed by about 40 minutes from the WRC 5 PM newscast also from Inauguration Day 1989 with commercials. That clip of Inside Edition, my oldest find so far (the tenth broadcast of what would be over ten thousand and counting), features David Frost as anchorman, and would resign just a week later. BASF T-120

TAPE 8: Possible nomination for find of the year here? This six-hour overnight aircheck from the night after the 1989 Inauguration begins with the half-hour NBC News Inauguration Ball special immediately following the late local news, before continuing on with The Best of Carson (a rerun of the 2/3/1988 episode), Late Night With David Letterman, Friday Night Videos, the overnight rebroadcast of the WRC 11 PM News, Love Connection, The Gong Show, The Newlywed Game (my second find from the short-lived Paul Rodriguez Era), Wipeout, and the first few minutes of Superior Court. BASF T-120.

TAPE 9: NBC News special report coverage of the Bay Area 'quake along with most of the WRC 11 PM News from 10/17/1989 with commercials, followed by a brief clip of the 10/19/89 WRC 11 PM newscast, followed by the full WRC 11 PM News and part of the monologue from The Tonight Show on 10/20/1989 with commercials, followed by over four hours worth of coverage of the Voyager 2 Neptune flyby off WETA/PBS on 8/25/1989 with occasional promos. BASF Chrome Super HG T-120.


MORE TO COME
Click to expand...
Looks like this recorder was interested in space, as aside from the Voyager 2 video, one of the audio reels has coverage of the Viking landing on Mars. Those (there were two) happened in 1976.
 
Apparently, the same estate sale had a bonus day today, with prices even further reduced (6 for $3 on all tapes/books). I managed to snag six more Betas and six more VHS tapes; the Betas unfortunately was a total bust, all being rental copies this time, but on the VHS front, I did manage one tape with three original broadcast episodes of The Simpsons from 1992 with commercials, another with over two hours worth of footage from the Blizzard of '93, mostly off WRC (including the Friday night before and the Saturday of the "Storm of the Century" itself, along with part of the NBC Nightly News and about the first 15 minutes of Saturday Night Live. A third tape had a couple original TCM shows on it: Becoming Attractions: Judy Garland (1996) and Inside The Dream Factory (1995), with promos before and after each of those, with the tape beginning with That's Entertainment III (1994), perhaps the most recent movie in the library at the time by far. A fourth tape consisted of a video instruction manual of the Zenith VR 2220 that I purchased, I also purchased a set of 30 78s from 1915-1929 along with a circa 1930 carrying case with protective dividers for $50, and that included five Edison Diamond Discs and about a dozen Al Jolson 78s, mostly in the V to E- range in terms of condition. I also got a 1992 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar for a buck (nearly sealed except for a couple small holes) as well as the 1971 Milton Bradley game Staying Alive for $2. I needs a few marbles, but otherwise looks like a fun classic game with the levers.

I also decided to pick up three audio magnetic tape reels in nice condition. One consists mostly of political-related audiorecordings from the late '50s according to the notes (Vice President Nixon's 1959 Poland visit, Khrushkov's 1959 U.S. visit, about 20 minutes of news from the 1956 Presidential election, and a soundtrack of a TV recording of Nixon and Khrushkov's 1958 visit in Russia. Ironically, it's by AMPEX, but I'd imagine it was nothing like those VCR squealers decades later. I also picked up a Scotch A-12 whose notes indicates The Chipmunk Song along with a conversation with someone named Floyd around Christmas 1958. A third, another Scotch, says "Lisa" on the side and mentions on the label "Lisa, etc, in Long Island on 12/22/1962" along with "Lisa in NJ on 1/4/1963, talking with Ingrid & Sonny, then monologue while talking", and mentions that those recordings were roughly edited with about 45 minutes of the reel still blank. I'm not sure if there's anything here that hasn't been posted online, but its still nice to appreciate a long forgotten format. I also checked about a dozen other audioreels, but mostly just consisted of apparently pop songs from the '50s (no rock 'n roll) by various cover artists and aren't sure if those were radio or TV sourced. Too bad there wasn't anything like soap operas, local live shows, "Bandstand", quiz shows, sporting events, or local news on those labels.

But the strangest find came in one of the six books that I purchased. One of them was a 1969 reprint of the 1902 Sears catalog (I've already got a reprint of the 1900 one), another a 1989 Lehigh University yearbook, the 1960 edition of TV Guide's annual Roundup book that consists of a compilation of articles from the Feature section of the magazine, 1940's The Complete Book of Games, the 7th Edition (1910) of A Practical Illustrated Treatise On Automobiles, and Heart Songs: Melodies Of Days Gone By from 1909, my oldest find at the estate sale. And in that book as I got home I discovered the back of a one dollar bill that had an unusually deep green hue on the back side of it. As I flipped it over, I discovered that I had found a Series 1935A $1 Silver Certificate, in a nice VF+ to perhaps even EF condition with virtually no creases and few signs of handling on a bill that's still mostly crisp after 80 years (the Series 1935A lasted until 1945 when FDR died and was replaced with a new Treasury secretary for the Series 1935B, and it had a HUGE print run, with the "C5960" indicating how many print runs had occurred.

Hopefully you found some good stuff there chandler, especially from the game that helped to give birth to one of basketball's greatest players of all time!
 
They had two VCRs. One for the rental and one for the blank tape to copy. There were even devices you could buy that could bypass copy-protection. They are all duds to me UNLESS the tape ran out and the other VCR reverted back to some random TV station. I've seen everything from CBS This Morning to a late-night broadcast of A Current Affair Extra. One of my favorite 'after-rental' finds was the 1990 Winston, Wild Kingdom, ABC World News Sunday and part of Jacques Cousteau all from KAPP w/ commercials. There was no intention to tape the Winston race, the taper just didn't turn off the VCRs. Another one netted a full loop of Anderson Cooper-era World News Now and two reruns of In the House from KXLY in 2000.

The last tape I digitized comes from the amazing 2023 Ellensburg lot that netted late '70s tapes. This tape has "Of Pure Blood" (1986) taped off KIRO/CBS on 7/9/1989 with commercials; "That Certain Woman" (1937) from KCTS, and a late-night airing of "Harlow" (1965) taped off USA on 7/19/1989 with commercials. A typical tape from either one of those big Ellensburg lots. 3 movies, usually a classic or a TV-movie, or both, mostly with commercials. The tapers took advantage of the Seattle network affiliates before SyndEx turned them off, otherwise, the first movie would have been taped from KIMA.
 
chandler0201 said:
Hit the vintage tape stock jackpot today at local thrift that used to NEVER sell home recorded tapes. All vintage TDK/JVC/Toshiba/Hitachi/RCA and a few of the dreaded Ampex. The first tape I popped in was the 1982 Final 4 UNC vs Houston on local WRAL with commercials (on 2025 Final 4 Saturday no less).
Click to expand...
And tomorrow Houston, back in the Final Four again, plays for the national championship!
 


Back
Top Bottom