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Ferguson videostar VHS cassette recorder
emmataff
09-05-2011
Hi. my parents have just had a clear out and i now have in my possession a VHS Ferguson Videostar video cassette recoder, model 3V29.
its a toploader machine seems in pretty good condition so i am wondering what to do with it. is it worth anything these days? i believe it is quite an early model
knackyknickknoc
09-05-2011
Worthless apart from its nostalgia factor.
The toploaders were the first so if its in full working order then you're lucky.

Don't bin it but I would store it away and hang onto it until its a real historical oddity in 10 -20 years.
mooghead
09-05-2011
Yep, I wouldn't have it if you gave it to me.
chrisjr
09-05-2011
Maybe this bloke will take it off your hands?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4iw...e_gdata_player
pocatello
09-05-2011
Something like an early higher end walkman might have some value, or something like an Apple I. Not some "ferguson" brand electronics lol
AlanO
09-05-2011
Originally Posted by pocatello:
“Something like an early higher end walkman might have some value, or something like an Apple I. Not some "ferguson" brand electronics lol”

A bit unfair. The Ferguson VHS machines of this period (along with the ITT ones) were re-badged JVCs and were very good machines. The only reasonable alternative came from Panasonic.

Check out e-bay and see what other similar machines are going for - there may be a collector who's after one.
pocatello
10-05-2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_Electronics
They are barely worth an article on wikipedia .....that says a lot.
Searching ebay history... 1978 vhs vcr...10 pounds.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ferguson-VHS-V...item4cf6c0ab84

Even a full camcorder
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Fergus...item336727f4cf
10 pound..no bid


Yes, 30+ years of aging and it has not gained collectors value at all. Old electronics need to be obscure/oddity, or a pivotal piece of technological history.
neo_wales
10-05-2011
They were good, solid machines. Put it away with a couple of blank and pre recorded tapes for the grand children.
Fred Smith
10-05-2011
They were prone to loading belts slipping, first sign failed timer recording then eventually failure to load and play. All the belts will all probably need replacing, but it not really worth spending much time on a old and very basic machine.
Peter the Great
10-05-2011
Originally Posted by pocatello:
“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_Electronics
They are barely worth an article on wikipedia .....that says a lot.
Searching ebay history... 1978 vhs vcr...10 pounds.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ferguson-VHS-V...item4cf6c0ab84

Even a full camcorder
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Fergus...item336727f4cf
10 pound..no bid


Yes, 30+ years of aging and it has not gained collectors value at all. Old electronics need to be obscure/oddity, or a pivotal piece of technological history.”

I suppose that's the problem. There are so many of them still around that they aren't worth much. I recently dug out an old Ferguson videostar toploader and sadly mine had stopped working. It just clicked and refused to play. It was in working when i tried about 5 years ago. I do know someone who has an ex rental Baird toploader that is still working. Infact not surprisingly the Baird is completely identical to my Ferguson. Both were made in Japan so they must be rebadged JVC's.
Rowdy
10-05-2011
I knew someone once who used a VCR as a tape backup drive for his computer. Just a thought.
Fred Smith
10-05-2011
Originally Posted by Peter the Great:
“I suppose that's the problem. There are so many of them still around that they aren't worth much. I recently dug out an old Ferguson videostar toploader and sadly mine had stopped working. It just clicked and refused to play. It was in working when i tried about 5 years ago. I do know someone who has an ex rental Baird toploader that is still working. Infact not surprisingly the Baird is completely identical to my Ferguson. Both were made in Japan so they must be rebadged JVC's.”

Thorn EMI owned three rental companies, Radio Rentals, DER and Multibroadcast. Baird was Radio Rentals brand name. Thorn bought VCR's from JVC as did Granada TV Rental for their first VCR. Because of the domination of the rental companies VHS became the standard over the supposedly superior Betamax from Sony.
knackyknickknoc
10-05-2011
Originally Posted by Fred Smith:
“Thorn EMI owned three rental companies, Radio Rentals, DER and Multibroadcast. Baird was Radio Rentals brand name. Thorn bought VCR's from JVC as did Granada TV Rental for their first VCR. Because of the domination of the rental companies VHS became the standard over the supposedly superior Betamax from Sony.”

You forgot Visionhire.
Thorns 4 rental outlets were the only reason that VHS took hold in the UK .

Yet some still cling to the nonsense that it was some fictitious decision by porn film companies to choose VHS that gave the format the edge.

It may have helped in the US but it had no bearing in the UK at all , mainly because anything but the very softest porn was still illegal.
emmataff
10-05-2011
thanks for all your help. may see if my parents want to put it back in their attic!
John Currie
11-05-2011
Originally Posted by knackyknickknoc:
“You forgot Visionhire.
Thorns 4 rental outlets were the only reason that VHS took hold in the UK”

Don't think Visionhire were part of Thorn? they were part of the Electronic Rental Group.
You're maybe getting the name mixed up with "Vista" which were taken over by Thorn.
Fred Smith
11-05-2011
Think Visonhire were merging into Granada TV Rental. Similarly Rumbelows rental side was merging into Radio Rentals.
knackyknickknoc
11-05-2011
Originally Posted by John Currie:
“Don't think Visionhire were part of Thorn? they were part of the Electronic Rental Group.
You're maybe getting the name mixed up with "Vista" which were taken over by Thorn.”


Visionhire were also part of the Thorn chain , at least they were in the early 80's when I was switching from one to the other to try and get different VCR's.

Radio Rentals was also part of Thorn .

As all 4 offered the same service they gradually closed them down as the market changed from rental to sales.

I tried a find a link for Visionhire but couldn't , but then I couldn't find one for Multi-broadcast either.
John Currie
11-05-2011
Originally Posted by knackyknickknoc:
“Visionhire were also part of the Thorn chain”

No, got to disagree with you on this.
I worked for the Thorn group as a technician in the early 80s first with Multibroadcast which later became Focus and then that name also disappeared leaving the Flagship of the group Radio Rentals alone in the Tv rental market.
Kodaz
12-05-2011
Originally Posted by Rowdy:
“I knew someone once who used a VCR as a tape backup drive for his computer. Just a thought.”

They sold cards that allowed a video recorder to be used as a backup device like this with a standard PC- I remember them being sold in the late-90s for around £100. Swithered about getting one for my first PC, but didn't.

I even remember that the storage capacity was around 4GB, which was a typical hard drive of the time.

Obviously that's not really useful today (a 15p DVD can store a similar amount in less time, and hard drives are much larger anyway!) Interesting idea though. Wouldn't want to rely on a 30-year old top-loading VCR for my backups though
Nigel Goodwin
12-05-2011
Originally Posted by John Currie:
“No, got to disagree with you on this.
I worked for the Thorn group as a technician in the early 80s first with Multibroadcast which later became Focus and then that name also disappeared leaving the Flagship of the group Radio Rentals alone in the Tv rental market.”

I would agree, Visionhire wasn't part of Thorn.
AidanLunn
13-05-2011
Originally Posted by pocatello:
“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_Electronics
They are barely worth an article on wikipedia .....that says a lot.”

That's probably because most of Ferguson's history is more to do with Thorn-EMI and then Thomson, seeing as they owned Ferguson for most of Ferguson's life.

Originally Posted by pocatello:
“Yes, 30+ years of aging and it has not gained collectors value at all. Old electronics need to be obscure/oddity, or a pivotal piece of technological history.”

There's a huge yawning chasm of a difference between collectable and valuable. Postage stamps for instance - you can pay pennies for something that is collectible. But because it's just pennies, it;s evidently not valuable.
captainkremmen
14-05-2011
Originally Posted by knackyknickknoc:
“You forgot Visionhire.
Thorns 4 rental outlets were the only reason that VHS took hold in the UK .

Yet some still cling to the nonsense that it was some fictitious decision by porn film companies to choose VHS that gave the format the edge.

It may have helped in the US but it had no bearing in the UK at all , mainly because anything but the very softest porn was still illegal.”

Not in the very early days prior to the Video Recordings Act. 1984. Prior to then it was a free for all and porn, uncut horror films etc. were available from pretty much every video shop.
Mike_1101
14-05-2011
Originally Posted by John Currie:
“Don't think Visionhire were part of Thorn? they were part of the Electronic Rental Group.
You're maybe getting the name mixed up with "Vista" which were taken over by Thorn.”

I thought Visionhire were owned by Philips at one time. Rediffusion also had a lot of shops.

It still surprises me how all those rental companies melted away and vanished in the space of a few years. People now seem to be happy with "Technika" tat from Tesco.

Radio Rentals used to hire a local school hall on Saturdays twice a year and sell off ex-rental tv sets and video recorders.
mllfap
14-05-2011
Originally Posted by captainkremmen:
“Not in the very early days prior to the Video Recordings Act. 1984. Prior to then it was a free for all and porn, uncut horror films etc. were available from pretty much every video shop.”

It was not a free for all at all with regards to porn.
Hardcore was still illegal .
Hardcore porn was never openly sold because it was immediately available for seizure under the Obscene Publications Act whereas nobody knew whether things like I Spit On Your Grave could be prosecuted.

My local video shop had hardcore US movies copied onto tapes but they were strictly under the counter.

Apart from a few magazine ads nobody tried to pass off hardcore porn as legal because it was no more legal on video than it was legal in print.

Any hardcore would have been seized by the police without warning.
The reason the nasties got away with it is because nobody knew whether they were illegal or not which is why it took OPA prosecutions to make it official.
There was never any doubt about hardcore porn.

Some of the legitimate soft porn releases before the VRA did have some content that the VRA banned but no legit releases tried to get away with any genuine hardcore content.

Magazine ads were selling super 8mm films copied to tape and the Taboo label also sold some shorts copied to tape for a while but not for long as they knew they were illegal.

Once the video nasties prosecutions began the porn that was available was swiftly removed
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