Ive got a box of VHS tapes i want to get rid of but i cant find anywhere that actually takes them. Ive tried a variety of charity shops and all say they dont take them. I know they arent worth much but i thought even if they got £1-£2 for each one it would still be a couple of hundred or so toward their charities.

Ive tried offering them on ebay and gumtree at no cost but no takers. Id rather not bin them, especially as they are just a huge amount of plastics, but it looks like thats going to be the only choice.

Anyone have any ideas where i can get rid of them? They are all in really good condition, mostly star wars, star trek, x files and comedies.

Most charity shops gave up on them some time ago, I expect so very few people have a working VHS machine. The last time I some they were in a massive box outside a charity shop at some ridiculous price. I just dumped all mine in the hard plastics at the recycling centre.

Council dump, I'm afraid.

They're worthless today.

If you can't find anyone willing to take them off your hands, what makes you think the shops can sell them? They know that they won't shift them.

Unfortunately landfill is the only likely option.

Also, this has come up a few times before here, and given that similar answers were being given over six years ago, I can't see that the market will have improved any!

10-15 yrs ago people were struggling to get rid of their vinyl records, now they are very collectable. There might be people interested, you never know. It was worth asking them if they wanted them as a donation at least before binning them in my opinion.

Thanks for your reply.

It was certainly worth trying. When I had a few to dispose of I went round all of the charity shops, but there was only one that had any - and they were in a bin marked "help yourself". I guess that there are potentially so many tapes that don't work, and that so few people have a video player anymore, that video tapes just took up space in the charity shops without selling.

The only chance is if they are rare/collectable will anyone be interested, the problem with VHS now is that while there will be a few who will buy them to finish off their collections etc the hassle of postage etc out weighs the value.

Perhaps in another decade the hipsters will move onto VHS as the latest fashion and suddenly you'll be able to rip them off for hundreds of quid for some grainy copy of some program.

I've hung on to my VHS recorder and some blank tapes Just In Case. I have found it is a way to record red-button digital TV when there was nothing on the EPG. OK< that was very early this decade (might have been for the 2010 winter olympics) - can't really see another use unless some rare footage turns up in a charity shop/ebay...,which in any case can be converted to digital easily enough!

Bought vhs tapes are nearly always worthless. Somewhat bizarrely it is home taped VHS that can be valuable now as they can contain footage that is otherwise lost. Some very rare missing episodes would be very desirable to collectors, but even stuff like continuity announcements is wanted.

Of course you are right that in the future they may become valuable as they become rarer, but there are so many of the damn things stuffed in lofts that this is not going to be anywhen soon.

But how many of them will be unplayable as they have not been stored in conditions that stop them become brittle and / or shedding their coating - not to mention print-through?

It's already started.

OP, slap some photos of them onto Instagram with a few relevant hashtags like #vhs #vhsgram #igvhsclub #retro etc and let it be known that you want rid of them and the hipsters will be crawling all over them.

You are kidding I wouldn't even get 5p for them in my charity shop, and contrary to public perception I don't get my rubbish collected for free by the council, I am only allowed 4 bags a week free and then I get charged, I can easily fill those bags with the chipped china., broken toys and everything else that's unsellable so I refuse to accept them

This is important. Even series from the 1980s have been lost - and at that point most homes had VCRs. One of the most memorable series of that era which has a significant number of missing episodes is "Fraggle Rock".

I have the same problem. I have a whole load of VHS tapes that I can't get rid of. None of my local charity or second hand shops will take them. I still have a VHS player but it hasn't been used in years. I probably still remember how to use it I managed to replace some of the movie tapes with DVD versions but there's loads of blank tapes with old TV shows on them lying around.

Video tapes all went straight in the skip when I helped out at Salvation Army, which was 3 years ago.

I've still got a stash of Sky Movies/ satellite 'adult entertainment' from the 90's but I throw a few out every once in a while, have not used my VHS machine for probably 10 years. Just think the PQ would be worse than the SD DTB channels, which I barely ever watch.

There are no landfill sites here in Hampshire now. I believe it all goes to energy recovery ( incineration) so it's not going totally to waste.

I've also got a big bin liner full of Betamax tapes!

I remember when VHS became started pre-recorded films sold at £39.99 and blank 3-hour tapes £5-£7 that is when you could actually buy them, for a period they were in short supply.

Wow the last time anyone posted on that thread was 26-03-2010, 11:41 ....2010. But saying that my daughter still uses her VHS and her kids watch videos lol.She gets them cheap from the charity shops.

Probably why I ended up buying so many blank tapes. I remember a local shop started selling E180's a 30p each and I went mad

They're great in the garden. Crisscross the tape across a seed bed with quite narrow strips. Stops the birds from eating the seed and stops the blasted cats from using the seed bed as a toilet

Not really the same thing though, is it? Many audiophiles have always preferred vinyl, and (some) vinyl has long been collectable. I can't remember anyone saying they prefer the look of analogue video, nobody is marketing precision-made high-end VHS players, or coveting the sleeve notes on VHS tapes versus DVD discs.

If you've got plenty of storage space going spare then it wouldn't hurt to just leave them there on the small chance that they will one day be worth money. However if it involves any cost to you whatsoever (even if just inconvenience) then throw them away.

In case of what for Heaven's sake? The collapse of civilisation?

The VCR won't even be able to pick up TV signals now that the analogue broadcasts have turned off. You probably won't even be able to connect it to a TV. It's a useless lump of electronics.

Wasnt the point i was making. I never said VHS was actually worth anything. I was responding to someone criticising me for at least bothering to offer them as a donation to charity shops.

And if you want to compare then yes, 15 yrs ago you would sell vinyl albums for 50p, now a lot of them are going for considerably more and its not just because of any perceived better sound quality. Some of it will be people from that era buying and collecting nostalgia.

Anyway, this wasnt meant to be a huge discussion around their worth. It was mainly to ask if anyone knows where i can take them rather than chuck a load of plastic into landfill. It seems that is the only answer so thread has done its course.

Thanks for those that answered.

Oh I don't know, they burn quite well. You could unravel all the tape, join them together into one mega-tape, string it out all around your neighbourhood and set fire to one end.

Throw them over the back fence.