What to do with my Twilight Zone VHS tapes?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by James Slattery, Nov 15, 2017.

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  1. James Slattery

    James Slattery Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long Island
    I have all 43 of the Columbia House volumes. I didn't buy them directly from them, which would have run about $1200 or so from what I understand. I picked them up on ebay for around $400. Obviously now with DVD, there's no need for the tapes anymore. I doubt I could get more than a few dollars for them. If I donated them somewhere, could I take a write off on their original value or maybe half?
     
  2. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Only your tax man can say for sure. I gave away all that stuff to Goodwill and just said, "aaaaaa, it's analog standard def. Screw it." Time marches on.
     
  3. Jrr

    Jrr Forum Resident

    I had all the I Love Lucy's too. Luckily I watched them a lot because I ended up giving them away. About all they were worth when the dvds came out. Those were $29.95 per tape and you got one every month.
     
  4. Standoffish

    Standoffish Smarter than a turkey

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Good luck finding a charity or library that would take them.

    If someone does take them, bad news on the tax front: you can only deduct the value of the tapes at the time of donation. If they're only worth a few bucks, it's probably not worth bothering.
     
  5. mj_patrick

    mj_patrick Senior Member

    Location:
    Elkhart, IN, USA
    Solaris, AndrewS, Robert C and 4 others like this.
  6. ky658

    ky658 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ft Myers, Florida
    Hold onto them because you never know...
     
  7. Nice Marmot

    Nice Marmot Nothin’ feels right but doin’ wrong anymore

    Location:
    Tryon NC
    The most you can donate items to charity without having to fill out a special form and specifically spell out your donations in-depth is $500. For me, I've turned in old appliances, furniture, clothes, cds, vhs tapes and other things and never claimed more than the $500 because, if you do, you have to figure the IRS depreciation value on everything. At the below $500 level you get a blank receipt and can fill in what you turned in on an honor method.

    This being said, the standard deduction for an individual is more than $500, so unless you're total deductions are higher than the standard deduction, you're not going to claim the $500 on it's own.
     
  8. xilef regnu

    xilef regnu Senior Member

    Location:
    PNW
    Yes, anything could happen.

    [​IMG]
     
  9. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    There are plenty of obsolete format nerds out there who would enjoy your tapes, but most won’t be willing to pay much for them. The going rate for VHS around here is between 25 cents and a dollar, but someone may be excited to get a complete set and pay a bit more.
     
  10. jazon

    jazon A fight between the blue you once knew

    Location:
    ottawa
    I have a few boxes of vhs but can't bare to throw them away. When we moved I threw about 50 vhs tapes full of every simpsons episode (until they started releasing them on dvd). I had been taping them since the first episode aired, commercials and all but not much point in keeping them when i had all the dvds too...
     
  11. Neil Anderson

    Neil Anderson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    i'd recommend putting them up on craig's list--pick a price based on what you're seeing on ebay for comparable items--. change the price every so often until you get an offer. pick a drop dead date at which you decide you'll give up if they haven't sold. my father and I sold a large collection of his old Rolling Stone magazines after about 6 months of craig's list ads. took persistence, but it was worth it, I don't remember the exact amount, but it was around two hundred dollars.
     
  12. Jrr

    Jrr Forum Resident

    I'm sure someone here would take them as a collection, for free or cheap. Try the classifieds. It is probably appealing since it is the entire collection.
     
  13. Jrr

    Jrr Forum Resident

    I had all the Letterman shows from when he started on CBS on 8mm and after saving them for years and never watching a single one, I finally threw them away recently. That was tough but no one wanted them.
     
    longdist01 likes this.
  14. SonOfAlerik

    SonOfAlerik Forum Resident

    Location:
    Westland, MI USA
    There are a lot of people who would want them. A lot of times it is for the commercials.
     
  15. Matt Richardson

    Matt Richardson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Suburban Chicago
    Now with the series on blu-ray, there's no need for DVD anymore.
     
    Robert C likes this.
  16. telliott

    telliott Senior Member

    I used to record Dr. Demento (radio) on VHS Hi fi when I found out how great the format sounds. I found out later that if the tape doesn't track perfectly, the hifi track will cut out, which is beyond annoying. I haven't listened to the tapes in over a decade. I need to just throw them all out.
     
  17. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    a thrift shop will take them and give you a tax donation receipt...check around for the big ones...Good Will? don't know about their policy...
     
    clhboa likes this.
  18. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I threw out thousands of VHS tapes that I recorded TV Shows, etc...
    I threw out thousands of VHS tapes that I used to record TV Shows, etc...
     
  19. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I agree...so much better! my DVDs are just collecting dust now. Got the complete series on BD for less that the price of one season on DVD & BD! crazy cool...
     
  20. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I am so glad that I didn't give in 20 years ago and sign up for one of those Columbia House subscriptions for any of the series that they put out.
     
    Michael likes this.
  21. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    me too...some of the titles were tempting...
     
  22. Benno123

    Benno123 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    Do you have a retirement of veterans home close by? Many places like that may still have VHS players and I bet would be willing to take donations.
     
  23. Jrr

    Jrr Forum Resident

    Well, thanks for making me feel like a fool! I fell for All In The Family, I Love Lucy and some of Twilight Zone. Bought all of them but I think I cancelled TZ before I got to the last one's. What an expensive way to acquire those shows, but at the time it was pretty neat.
     
    Benno123 and Vidiot like this.
  24. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Doh, I'm such a moe-ron I think I got all the Lucys and T Zones on Betamax! :sigh:

    I eventually dumped all those and bought the DVD boxed sets. I can't remember if we finally got the Blu-rays or not. They're around here somewhere...
     
  25. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    It was and I remember thinking how awesome it would be to have the shows on my shelf to watch again and again, forever. That VHS would someday be obsolete never entered my mind.
     
    Benno123 likes this.
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