Is there a meaningful afterlife for VCR movie tapes?

November 27, 2019 4:23 PM

I'm emptying the house of a very elderly aunt who has 100+ VCR tapes - boxes and bookcases full - and I'm looking for a solution that is not a landfill. They are all commercially produced movies, like Gene Kelly, Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, and with a special selection of sentimental Christmas movies. All tapes are mainstream, though dated, productions. But no matter the stellar quality of the performances, if the technology is defunct, I'm not sure what to do with them. Any ideas?
posted by citygirl to Home & Garden (14 answers total)

Nursing homes (especially the lower-end ones) quite often still have VCRs in some areas.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:42 PM on November 27, 2019 [14 favorites]

...and if they don't, your aunt also likely has one. It's not clear why you're cleaning her house, but if your aunt hasn't passed away, then wherever she is, they may benefit from the donation, and you'll have all your aunt's favorite movies!

Goodwill is always an option; shoppers there include fixed-income elderly who may be in the market.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:52 PM on November 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

It looks like there might be a market for them on eBay if you have the time to list and ship them, and if you haven't seen these search results, there are some more ideas there.
posted by davcoo at 4:54 PM on November 27, 2019

Seconding Thorzdad. Call up local assisted living or skilled nursing facilities and see if they're interested. See if you can be put in touch with their activity director. Here are some in Philadelphia that seem to be a bit more 'affordable.' And here are some more.

Also check with local senior centers (these are like drop in activity centers). They may very well do a 'movie night.'
posted by hydra77 at 5:02 PM on November 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

In my area, Goodwill takes them. Other charities may as well, but you may have to call around. I also got rid of some by posting them as free on Nextdoor. Depending on your area, Freecycle and Craigslist may also work.
posted by FencingGal at 5:11 PM on November 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

The only tapes I see for sale at Goodwill are the Disney movies in the plastic cases. Be prepared for a thrift store to reject them, so you may have to try several.
posted by soelo at 5:51 PM on November 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

For $12 you can send up to 25 lbs of technotrash to Green Disk and they will recycle it.
posted by brookeb at 6:03 PM on November 27, 2019 [4 favorites]

A lot of public libraries take donated books and media and sell them.

I think some of the less well-known movies have still never made it to DVD, and collectors are happy to buy them.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 6:28 PM on November 27, 2019 [5 favorites]

The technology is not defunct. I have a VCR. Why would I have trashed it? Anyone interested in collecting movies has the technology to watch their movies, including the older ones.

Anyway, seconding davcoo, eBay is a good place to sell them, as is Amazon.

Also, what StillWearsAHat said above.
posted by JimN2TAW at 6:36 PM on November 27, 2019 [6 favorites]

In my area, Goodwill takes them

I wouldn't count on it, the ones in my area don't and neither do any of the other thrift stores. They have walls and walls of DVDs they can't give away (2 for $1 around here).
posted by bradbane at 7:49 PM on November 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

Is there still a functioning video store in your area or reasonably close? If there's stuff in that collection they don't have, consider donating/giving them to a video store, which is rapidly becoming the only place in a lot of cities to preserve things that you'll never find on streaming services.
posted by pdb at 8:04 PM on November 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

Post on freecycle.net and craigslist.org\free. That's how I recycled tons of stuff when I moved.
posted by theora55 at 4:52 AM on November 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

Seconding Freecycle. On the ones I've belonged to, there was a fairly regular request by someone for VHS movies and the like.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:21 AM on November 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

An unfortunate truth is that VHS tapes degrade with time , even if they’ve just been in storage. In general, their lifespan is 15-20 years, per that linked article. So your aunt’s tapes may or may not still be reasonably watchable at all. If she has a working VCR, you could check, and dispose of the ones that are no longer watchable.

I had some luck putting my old VHS tapes on Freecycle, but that was about 10 years ago. Maybe try putting the watchable ones up for free on Nextdoor or Facebook Marketplace and see if you get any interest.
posted by snowmentality at 7:44 AM on November 28, 2019 [2 favorites]