What do you do with your old VHS tapes?

Since DVDs have all but taken over now -- and DVDs are both digital, and will not deteriorate over time, unlike magnetic media such as VHS tapes -- what have you done with all your old VHS tapes?

I believe in "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" myself. I gave almost my entire VHS collection to an orphanage that had recently had a VCR donated, but had very little to watch on it, when I cleaned out my apartment one day and noticed that I had almost everything I originally bought on VHS now on DVD. (as well as a bunch of old VHS tapes I never watched anyway)

Are there any community programs that do such things nationwide? I'd hate to think that billions of VHS tapes will one day be clogging up landfills, when they could be used just as easily by others...

What's your opinions on recycling like this? What other types of items can be reused by others like this?

i take my old tapes to a book and music store that sells and exchanges books magazines movies and CD's along with games and game consoles.

i take my tapes up there for cash or CDs or DVD's. beats simply throwing them out.

just about anything in relatively good condition can be reused by someone else, clothes furniture appliances toys. if it still works its still usable by someone. goodwill has stores that sells nothing but donated goods of all kinds. i guess the only things you cant or should recycle are things like used toothbrushes...lol however some dentists will give you a toothbrush during every visit...you can donate those toothbrushes somewhere like a homeless shelter.

I have been transferring the Analogue data from the VHS tapes into digital .AVI form and stashing the resultant Video file onto Compact Disc. Afterward, the tape is re-recorded over with other items in a rotation pattern. For the tapes that are not 'blanks at one point'.. I keep them as is, since I haven't made the move to DVD yet. (also the reason why I make my own VCD's too...)

We build VHS houses, and castles.

i like to unravel the black tape stuff inside, and then see how many times it can wrap around my house! (usually3-5 times)

I had the entire series/collection (20 in all) of the original late 80's early 90's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons on VHS. Apparently, they are hard to come by nowadays and I ended up selling them all on Ebay for $375.

WOW! $375!?!

if the vhs tapes are worth that much, i wonder how much i could get for my complete set of action figures?

I still have all mine, In a big box lol

ThunderCloud i like your idea! I tink i might find out about doing the same thing as you or maybe a childrens Hospice as we have one very near,

Yeah it only took 20 years but we finally have storage, playback and video still options that rival Beta.

I loved Beta. Still have my "Suburbia" rental, who's late fees would probably be my net worth a thousand times over by now.

What do you mean do with them? Play them! Do you know how cheap they have gotten? I just picked up Seven and Blazing Saddles for about $2 each at Target last month.

I still have all of mine. I figure why pay 14 bucks for Animal House when I have it on VHS? I still have a VCR, and I buy some for the car TV for long trips.

For 8 bucks I got, Dances With Wolves,Stargate,Apollo 13, The Last of the Mohicans, and The Siege. Would've been over 50 for DVDs. I have over 50 DVDs right now and only 15 VHS tapes.

I sell all my old vhs on ebay, it soo beats throwin them our

I don't believe I own a DVD yet even though I've had a DVD player in my pc for years now. I still use the VHS tapes. I was hoping something better and cheaper than the DVD's would have come out by now so that I could skip a generation of discs or skip the DVD's and go straight to a newer digital device. That would be nice if I could easily convert what's on VHS to digital and quickly scan images on my pc to edit or delete and then to copy the info to a digital disc.


I don't know if anyone will read this post for awhile but I've read what will replace our regular DVD's now. It's a high definition format for DVD perhaps it'll be called a highdef DVD. There is currently a format dispute going on among corporations. (sorta of like Beta versus VHS in videotape) I believe one format is Blu ray and can hold more data per DVD while the other format is cheaper and can use existing manufacturing plants to make the new DVD's.

[edit on 10-8-2004 by orionthehunter]

Dominoes... umm, i have to write more otherwise they won't post my reply...