Lack of videos in charity shops all of a sudden?

td1983td1983 Posts: 2,679
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I have noticed in recent weeks up here where I live in Newcastle that all the major charity shops seem to be not stocking second hand videos anymore. Granted, I know VHS is, as a format, pretty much a dead duck these days, and I don't buy pre-recorded videos as a rule anyomore, but you'd think that a charity shop would be its last bastion of sale in a DVD-dominated era? They seem to taking over the shelves these days in the likes of St Oswald's and The British Heart Foundation charity shops, and this has only happened in the last couple of weeks round here, too! A bizarre coincidence? Anyone else noticed this tend where they live?:confused:

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  • SoundboxSoundbox Posts: 6,240
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    Yes, in Hertfordshire too in the last week or so. I was in Watford yesterday and there were no videos except some childrens ones in the PDSA. Aylesbury in Bucks still has them, so I will patronise Oxfam (nice steam train videos there), Heart Foundation and Cancer Research stores there. Hemel Hempstead has a Keich (sp) store that has a nice range of movies and childrens (like Old Bear).

    I hope that they don't stop doing them everywhere as they charge £3.99 for DVD's and that is more than new price sometimes.
  • Anika HansonAnika Hanson Posts: 15,629
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    A lot of the charity shops are no longer accepting Video donations. My mum recently tried to give some to several shops in town and they all said they were mo longer accepting them because people won't buy them.
  • SoundboxSoundbox Posts: 6,240
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    To me, this lack of 'demand' that charity shops speak of is a wasted opportunity. I can tell you from experience that the shops that do sell VHS are subjeted to 'surgical strikes' by re-sellers. You can tell these people as they have the tape flap opened and the tape evaluated in a matter of seconds.

    So, they should capitalise on this. Instead of having dog-chewed copies of Bridget Jones Diary clogging up the place, have some shelves devoted to the 'unavailables'. Stuff not yet on DVD. Childrens videos, rare films, shows that are not correct on DVD like Only Fools And Horses. Make it so that every video on display is worth having.

    For me, buying and returning videos to the charity shops is how I make my donations. Why not make it work both ways? They get the cash and I get a video. If they stop doing videos then I can't see me going in the shops at all. I don't want old shirts or dust-harbouring china ornaments. I don't want overpriced cards either.
  • pocatellopocatello Posts: 8,813
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    People still on vhs are so out of circulation they probably buy next to nothing.
    Dvd is now the old format, and there are so many cheap players and discs you might as well worry about there being a lack of phonographs are the shops.
  • AcerBenAcerBen Posts: 21,273
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    The shops that do have them sell them at 10p each - hardly worth giving them the shelf space is it?
  • cnbcwatchercnbcwatcher Posts: 56,681
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    I donated some old VHS tapes (nearly a whole bag full of them!) to my local charity shop in the summer and they accepted them with no problems.
  • SoundboxSoundbox Posts: 6,240
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    AcerBen wrote: »
    The shops that do have them sell them at 10p each - hardly worth giving them the shelf space is it?


    They charge 10 for all videos, yet those in the know (eBay-ers, Amazon re-sellers and market traders) pounce on many at this price and go away and list them at £10-40 or even more. There are many tapes that are rare and desirable. The charity shops would do themselves a favour to brush up on the VHS market like they currently do with LP's (they used to be in boxes for 20p each too, but now they are labeled and graded with much higher prices).
  • wildmovieguywildmovieguy Posts: 8,342
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    Oxfam have an online store with literally thousands of items. I've found many rare items on there so if your not sure what they might sell something for you can check on there.
  • NostalgicNostalgic Posts: 7,156
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    I worked in a charity shop earlier this year and they got tons of videos in to the point we were short for space in the back! A couple of months back they decided to stop selling them as they weren't really selling. Though i did sell a few in it's final days, when i layed about 10 in a row showing the covers, if they're presented properly, people will still buy them :D
  • Pepperoni ManPepperoni Man Posts: 7,798
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    A lot of the charity shops are no longer accepting Video donations. My mum recently tried to give some to several shops in town and they all said they were mo longer accepting them because people won't buy them.

    My brother had exactly the same problem and ended up taking them to the tip
  • KodazKodaz Posts: 1,018
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    Soundbox wrote: »
    I can tell you from experience that the shops that do sell VHS are subjeted to 'surgical strikes' by re-sellers [so instead] have some shelves devoted to the 'unavailables'. Stuff not yet on DVD. Childrens videos, rare films, shows that are not correct on DVD like Only Fools And Horses. Make it so that every video on display is worth having.

    That's good in theory, but it likely requires a lot of work and expertise in practise, and charity shop volunteers likely aren't experts or obsessives in rare videos.

    And if they did have the skill and inclination identify them, there's no point then in pandering to the middle men- since they'd already effectively done the hard part of their job, i.e. spotting the valuable stuff- and it'd make more sense for them to target and sell direct to willing buyers over the Internet.

    (It wouldn't make sense to sell direct to buyers themselves via the shop shelves at "collector" prices since I assume that this is a targeted niche business- while those willing to pay may exist, relying on them happening to visit your shop doesn't make sense. Given the Internet has made searching easier, they're even *less* likely to waste time trawling charity shops now, I'd guess!).

    This is assuming that the buyers actually want the original videos and they couldn't- or wouldn't be willing to- obtain a VHS-quality digitised transfer from.... er, *unofficial* download sources. :D

    But it does remind me of a question I asked here before... is there a market for "rare" or "collectable" videos in general? (i.e. the physical tapes themselves, rather than the content which can be copied anyway)

    Though the vast majority of mass-market videos will likely never be worth anything notable, there must surely be *some* rare early tapes (late 70s, early 80s) that would have some value?
  • pocatellopocatello Posts: 8,813
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    Yup the folks that can spot a 40 million quid chinese vase aren't going to be working in a charity shop;)

    And the market for rare videos is so obscure, it is no way to fund a charity business.
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