r/VHS • u/KN1GHTMARES42 • 4h ago
Buy/Sell/Trade/Want Buy/Sell/Trade/Want/Giveaway/In Search Of/Etc..
Routinely, we will be making a new Buy/Sell/Trade/Want posting that will be pinned. Please use this post to advertise your trade/want lists and your tapes for sale/trade/or just giving away for free. Any and all disposal or acquiring of media should be done through this post to prevent clogging up the main feed with sales posts.
Please be sure to report any successful trade below to u/RaceCarGrin, so we can flair people as verified traders.
Last Month's Trade Thread can be found here
r/vhs is not responsible for any sales/trade, please use caution and report any abuse. If selling tapes rated R or X, please ensure the buyer is 18 years of age for your own liability.
r/VHS • u/Puzzleheaded_Hats • Mar 14 '26
Discussion I wanted to give some advice for cleaning very moldy tapes
I'm not sure if this is okay here, but I wanted to give some advice from my experiences in cleaning severely moldy and sticky tapes, and some huge do's and don't's I've encountered when watching other's videos on the matter. Pretty much in the hopes of helping people who preserve tapes, and are not familiar with cleaning really moldy tapes.
Do's:
- I really recommend one of those tape cleaners, like the tape saver you may see online. The mechanism is pretty useful especially to do quick passes after you do a careful manual first pass. I will however, condemn the cleaning pads they usually use for these machines, they're extremely destructive and I will go into it later in the don't's section.
- Do multiple passes and clean both top and bottom of the reels. Mold doesn't only sit on the top of the tape, it sometimes penetrates pretty deeply. Once you've unstuck the tapes and cleaned the reels, you may need to do multiple passes on each side of the tape to get rid of the mold. Sometimes it's taken my 5-6 passes before I see nothing on the cleaning cloth. By then the tape is really clean.
- Use isopropyl alcohol with the least water content. You absolutely need to use some sort of solvent to clean the mold, as trying to clean it dry can cause a lot of friction and damage the tape. Also the alcohol evaporates quickly, allowing you to clean quicker, and the moisture doesn't get left behind creating more mold later. Moisture is an enemyof VHS tapes.
Don't's:
- DO NOT use paper or towels to clean tapes. I've seen many who've used them with extremely mixed results, leaning more towards failure. These leave lots of lint on the tapes which covers the magnetic portion of the tape and also gums up the VCR heads. I recommend strictly lint free cloths, like the kind you clean your glasses with. They go for pretty cheap online for a bunch. I can't stress enough that you need to go lint free.
- I've also seen videos where the person would lift up the top plastic of the reel to remove a huge portion of the mold on top of the tape. This is also pretty destructive method in my opinion as it can potentially deform the reel and cause playback issues, I've run into that as well. It's best to take your time and unwind the entire tape, put it in between a lint free cloth and clean the mold from there. When the reel is empty then you clean the reel gently from top to bottom.
- When using a mechanical tape cleaner, you should be vary wary on the first pass. I've run into tapes that are so sticky due to mold that when you use these mechanical cleaners they tear when they get stuck. At worst go on the lowest possible speed or put the reels on the spindles and spin them manually by hand. Especially if it's a precious tape you want to preserve. Once you unwind each end completely and ensure the tape is sufficiently unstuck you can go quickly with the machine.
- Do not clean tapes and leave them for months on end. You should clean the tapes and aim to capture them as soon as possible. Cleaning these tapes isn't exactly a perfect process, and sometimes a bit rough on the tape and there's always the risk of leaving some bit of moisture behind. Try to capture as soon as you can.
r/VHS • u/smogkiller3000 • 3h ago
Discussion Look what i got for 5$
I dont own any vhs tapes but this was just a really good deal plus now i have an excuse to collect vhs tapes
Edit: Haha i just realized my cat is in the picture
r/VHS • u/bakedlentil • 1h ago
New Pickup Two thrift finds in the wild today
The Cartoon All-Stars tape was missing the label but still took the risk anyway, can confirm it is thankfully. Not a bad haul for a total of 4 bucks.
r/VHS • u/MissEllaPaige • 1h ago
Discussion Who remembers Rap Rat?
Following my last post about rare tapes, I got my mum to have a look through our attic to see if she could find any of my old childhood tapes (I'm still not allowed up there at my big age because it's unstable and one wrong move will send you straight through the floor 🤣)
Unfortunately there's so much stuff up there that it's impossible knowing where to start, all she was able to find at the minute was an empty case for Babe Pig In The City, a video that shall not be named which was apparently a "secret santa" present from my dads old work and this still in it's original slipcase!
Now I'm a 2004 baby so I have very few memories of having VHS tapes as a kid, however I definitely remember having a few tapes from a charity shop so I assume this must've been one of them because my parents didn't recognize it and were both too old for the game when it was released in 1992.
Still, I thought I'd give it a try as I was curious to see what it's all about. It took me a good while to get it to work as it was just static and wouldn't play at first, I think my VCR is on its last legs to be fair as I've had some issues with it recently.
Think it must've took some damage being up in our attic for so long as the playback wasn't the best and it suddenly completely cut out at one point which about gave me a heart attack. It was only funny afterwards when I discovered a part of the tape had snapped and was cellotaped back together 😅
As for the Rap Rat himself, he is HORRIBLE. I couldn't possibly tell you a character that's more annoying than this odd creature, plus he's quite an eyesore and has some kind of weird stutter which I assume is meant to be his "rapping"? Not sure who approved of this character as I wouldn't consider it to be particularly child friendly, think I'd actually be quite frit if I saw this vile rodent as a kid.
Can't say I'm in a hurry to try and find the rest of the board game so I can play it, however I will be keeping it in my collection as I love unusual stuff and this is by far the most unusual thing I've seen in a long time 🤣
r/VHS • u/dadisfat • 22h ago
New Pickup Finally found the Holy Grail at the thrift
No collection will ever compare to mine now. How could I possibly leave it behind?
r/VHS • u/xxxxDREADNOUGHT • 14h ago
New Pickup Coworker game me this gem yesterday
I had mentioned at work a few days ago that I had never seen the animated Hobbit movie and my coworker brought this in and said I could have it. Apparently his wife goes to estate sales and they have a lot of movies.
r/VHS • u/lastfunds • 1h ago
New Pickup Today's haul.
Got em from a tool thrift shop randomly. Not too happy about the find but had to pick em for the sport.
r/VHS • u/Klutzy_Piglet5106 • 17h ago
Collection What # are you? Army of Darkness VHS 1999 Evil Dead Limited Edition
I Would really love if everyone would unite here and comment their number. A guy can dream can’t he?
r/VHS • u/DR1LLM4N • 15h ago
Collection Got my copy of My Funny Valentine signed by Faye’s VA, Wendee Lee.
I’m typically a subs snob with anime but there’s no doubt Bebop set the standard for dubs and remains the bar to this day. I don’t even mind admitting that I prefer the dub of Bebop to the original Japanese cast.
r/VHS • u/CallCenterBlues • 3h ago
Collection My collection of anime is pretty small but it's also much larger than I ever really expected it to he when I started collecting VHS
Most recent additions are the three "Tekkaman Blade II" tapes, which is a property I only know from "Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom."
r/VHS • u/tigersmhs07 • 1h ago
New Pickup Picking up the VHS shaped blanket at Sam's
r/VHS • u/more2sayy • 4h ago
New Pickup another solid 3 dollar pickup.
some to trade/sell some to keep.
r/VHS • u/WizardPoopi • 20h ago
New Pickup $30 at a garage sale
Let me know your favorites!
r/VHS • u/gfrjerjer • 8h ago
New Pickup Streetside find (JVC HR-S8700EU)
I found this JVC HR-S8700EU dumped next to my house, together with a cassette deck and a cordless drill. Cleaned it, gave it some maintaince and it works flawlessly. Honestly cannot believe it. Shame my television does not accept S-Video.
r/VHS • u/Fuzzy-Combination880 • 21h ago
New Pickup Thrift/video store haul today
Paper Brigade is an absolute grail for me and it was only $1
r/VHS • u/taperot88 • 18h ago
New Pickup Marketplace score!
My wife found some HEAT off marketplace today! I couldn’t believe it until she sent me photos.
r/VHS • u/goldenwingedship • 16h ago
New Pickup $10 Haul
Got these at a local game store today. Didn’t realize Addams Family and Wayne’s World were McDonald’s tapes until I took the pics lol
r/VHS • u/LordIronVader • 1d ago
Discussion Putting up some new shelves so what a better time???
I know this movie is widely divisive, but I enjoy the cornball of it.
r/VHS • u/MajesticStatement153 • 1d ago