What Do I Do With VHS Tapes?

[Pete Incaviglia]

So, when I was a high school basketball player in the early 1990s, I recorded everything basketball (NBA Showtime, every game of the NCAA Tournament, regular season NBA games, you name it — I have the Webber timeout on tape, still).

Anyway, I cleaning up this pack-ratted mess. I'll keep a couple of my favorite games and shows. But otherwise, it's all getting the heave ho.

My question: Are VHS tapes recyclable? Are they good for anything? What the hell, or how the hell, do I dispose of these things?

On a side note: Have any of you kept anything on tape this long and can't get rid of it?

I've kept a couple of my play-by-play performances from my first year out of college. No way will I use them for a portfolio, but they're some of my first work.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

I still have stuff on VHS that I don't know what I'm going to do with, so I just lug it around with me in a box as I've moved. Some are sporting events that my father taped - 1986 Masters and all three games of the Giants' 1986 playoffs, for example, but I converted those to DVD - others are kind of worthless in the long run. I do, however, still have this tape of televised cartoons, such as Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Christmas, et al. I was 8, because there's commercials on there that say, 'Hurry! Offer expires Dec. 31, 1984."

 

[Dyno]

I have so many tapes that I can't bear to part with, even as I pack for a move.

 

[ArnoldBabar]

I have every episode of Twin Peaks, recorded as they aired. I'm still carrying them around. I even have the gold DVD box set with all of it and then some, but it doesn't matter. There's something about seeing my local news breaks and the Chevy Citation commercials. I just can't bear to part.

 

[GB-Hack]

I used to do the same thing with the World Cup and European Championships when I was growing up.

Goodness knows what my parents did with them when I moved here.

 

[BYH]

I used to do the same thing with the World Cup and European Championships when I was growing up.

Goodness knows what my parents did with them when I moved here.

Oh, you're not going to like my first guess.

 

[GB-Hack]

I used to do the same thing with the World Cup and European Championships when I was growing up.

Goodness knows what my parents did with them when I moved here.

Oh, you're not going to like my first guess.

Seeing as how we never, ever, had a home video camera growing up, I'm ruling that one out.

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

I used to do the same thing with the World Cup and European Championships when I was growing up.

Goodness knows what my parents did with them when I moved here.

Oh, you're not going to like my first guess.

Seeing as how we never, ever, had a home video camera growing up, I'm ruling that one out.

What about the neighbors?



Pete, I'd look into getting them transferred to DVD if you want to save them that much.

 

[BYH]

I used to do the same thing with the World Cup and European Championships when I was growing up.

Goodness knows what my parents did with them when I moved here.

Oh, you're not going to like my first guess.

Seeing as how we never, ever, had a home video camera growing up, I'm ruling that one out.

Ha! That wasn't my guess. It was "chucked into the garbage."

 

[Blitz]

I've got lots of old Super Bowls, NBA playoffs and college games.
Plus some play-by-play and coach's highlight shows I anchored on local TV.
Keep it all, I say. Just box it up.
Except for the Twin Peaks episodes, Seinfeld, South Park and the like.
Chunk that stuff!

 

[EStreetJoe]

So, when I was a high school basketball player in the early 1990s, I recorded everything basketball (NBA Showtime, every game of the NCAA Tournament, regular season NBA games, you name it — I have the Webber timeout on tape, still).

Anyway, I cleaning up this pack-ratted mess. I'll keep a couple of my favorite games and shows. But otherwise, it's all getting the heave ho.

My question: Are VHS tapes recyclable? Are they good for anything? What the hell, or how the hell, do I dispose of these things?

On a side note: Have any of you kept anything on tape this long and can't get rid of it?

I've kept a couple of my play-by-play performances from my first year out of college. No way will I use them for a portfolio, but they're some of my first work.

The VHS tapes can just get chucked in the garbage.
If it's stuff from the 70s, 80s or earlier I was going to suggest trying to find collector's sites as there are sports nuts who collect those things. But I'm pretty sure the 90s are pretty well covered.

 

[Pete Incaviglia]

Well, today is garbage day. A fairly good sized box of VHS tapes is sitting at the curb. I kept what I wanted and will transfer those to DVD.

Otherwise, everything else is off to meet the VCR in the sky.

 

[Starman]

I remember when I got my first VCR in the early or mid-1980s, I was so excited, I was going to tape all these wonderful sporting events and TV shows, and watch them over and over and over again. So I spent the best part of a decade taping **** all the time, and piled up a carton of a couple hundred VHS tapes.

I haven't watched one of 'em in 10 ******* years. I still have a VCR hooked into my TV, but I haven't played anything on it in a couple years. Every so often I think about trying to sort through 'em, but more likely, one of these weeks I'm junt gonna put the whole carton out on the curb on trash day.

 

[BigSleeper]

Old VHS tapes can be recycled if you want to put in the extra tree-hugging effort. Greendisk.com has some information. Also, I've donated old VHS movies to the Goodwill. That may be an option for you, as well.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

A few years ago I transferred some family videos to DVD. The quality is OK, but you're options are limited.

Everything else, movies, sports stuff you should just toss.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

The first time I watched a DVD, VHS was ruined for me.

 

[Small Town Guy]

The first time I watched a DVD, VHS was ruined for me.

The first time a DVD I bought got a scratch and started skipping three days after purchase, I vowed to never toss my tapes, especially the 1987 NBA Finals. VHS forever!

 

[ArnoldBabar]

I just learned that one of my grad courses for next quarter is only available via videocassette. I wish I were kidding. Guess it's a good thing I've held onto that VCR.

 

[TigerVols]

We just tossed out 370 blank VHS tapes here at work last week. My colleague had the best idea: Let's send them to Cuba, this stuff is state of the art there.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Seriously?