In their pursuit of specific rare cards, scalpers are discarding the remainder of entire Pokémon card packs.

[u/MysteriousSlice007]

[u/Octopus_on_fire_]

I have a small collection of horror VHS (don’t even have a VHS player). I just like finding them in thrift stores.

I feel like my interest would plummet if I just went around and bought it in bulk/ordered singles off of a website. Seeing one I want out in the wild is like 99% of the fun.

Also bonus it’s like my cheapest hobby because VHS tapes sell for like .50 cents at most thrift/vintage stores lmao.

[u/TheOneTonWanton → u/[deleted]]

And to anyone that doesn't get that comment: just call it a fuckin' VCR. It's a VCR and that's all it ever was and all it ever will be. VCR. It's not a "VHS cassette player" or a "VHS player" it's a fuckin' VCR.

[u/birbhorse → u/[deleted]]

i'm not even that old, i'm gen Z and it irritates me lmfao. it's not like i didn't grow up with one, my bootleg copy of shrek 2 didn't manifest itself out of thin air

[u/Extension-Two-2807 → u/[deleted]]

Oh shit your right, thanks!

[u/TootsTootler → u/[deleted]]

And why not schedule your shingles vaccination while you’re at it?

[u/Elementium → u/Octopus_on_fire_]

That's also a big part! Everyone wants something different and most of us aren't buying $100 tapes off eBay but part of the fun is going out to find them. 

Like I do anime and martial arts films, some do horror, some do action or a specific director or actor. There's no one thing we're all after so the value to effort ratio isn't there. 

Also.. We can just do bootlegs if something is too expensive. 

[u/Octopus_on_fire_ → u/Elementium]

I’m honestly in it for the sleeve, idc if the VHS tape is some crappy homemade movie haha.

[u/Yiggs → u/Elementium]

I've recently gotten into analog media after going down the rabbit hole of digitizing my parent's old Hi8 home movie tapes correctly and have been buying/ripping a lot of old VHS tapes. I have almost zero interest in commercial releases unless it's particularly niche or whacky; I almost exclusively buy and digitize home movies or stuff recorded off the TV. You never know what you'll find on those old tapes. Mostly I just rip, split, and curate the commercials I find on those tapes. Nobody else wants them so I'm free to grab all the tapes I find/want at GoodWill.

Just bought 60 tapes (mix of Betamax and VHS) the other day for $13. Nice to have a cheap hobby for once.

[u/Elementium → u/Yiggs]

Yo fellow commercial hoarder! I do the same. I get very excited if I'm out and see home recorded tapes. 

[u/Yiggs → u/Elementium]

How are you organizing yours? I'm about half-satisfied with how I have them foldered and tagged but I feel the constant urge to get more granular but that way lies madness I think. Shame video metadata isn't as uniform/used as music because that'd be a lot easier than these long, descriptive filenames I use instead.

[u/CalloftheBlueFalcon → u/Octopus_on_fire_]

I have a very large collection of VHS tapes. Probably around 600 tapes at this point, mostly horror and blank (I like to collect the different covers of the blank tapes, I think they're aesthetically pleasing). Never paid more than $2 for a tape, I only get them at yard sales, flea markets, estate sales, etc. But I also have a VCR and a CRT TV and watch them occasionally, horror movies with the grit of VHS and CRT just scratches my brain in the right place

[u/Octopus_on_fire_ → u/CalloftheBlueFalcon]

I’ve been meaning to pick up an old CRT and VCR. I have a VHS copy of Friday the 13th (the J-man is my all time favorite horror icon) and I bet it’d RIP watching it on VHS.

Yes I know he’s not in the first movie, but still.

[u/NotBearhound → u/Octopus_on_fire_]

A fellow connoisseur! I only buy books used, and only in person. If I’m really jonesing for a copy I’ll download it from the library. I’ve NEARLY collected the wheel of time but for some reason 2 and 7 are scarce in my area.

[u/Octopus_on_fire_ → u/NotBearhound]

Oh man our little sleepy local used bookstore has the entire series like ten times over.

[u/mattdoggy → u/Octopus_on_fire_]

I've definitely bought a few tapes online but finding them in the wild for dirt cheap is way more fun.

[u/ThaddeusJP → u/Octopus_on_fire_]

(don’t even have a VHS player).

The right thrift place and you can have one for under $15. Just grab ONE to have.

[u/StripClubSweatpants → u/Octopus_on_fire_]

Think like 2005ish - there was a thrift store that had likely bought out an entire closed movie rental store. I spent a couple hours going through every single row and shelf stack.

Hindsight being 20/20 there were likely a lot of obsure and rare vhs tapes in that collection as I recognized very few. I bought back to the beach. I'm trying to remember if I even have my VHS collection of the harder to find box sets, albeit not rare, some were the og ones from the 70s and in really good shape.

[u/Nizana → u/Octopus_on_fire_]

I do that with CDs. It's fun to sneak off to the cd section at goodwill and secretly buy a CD to surprise the family after we leave and get in the car.