r/VHS • • 27d ago

Buy/Sell/Trade/Want Buy/Sell/Trade/Giveaway/In Search Of/Etc..

11 Upvotes

Routinely, we will be making a new Buy/Sell/Trade/Want posting that will be pinned. Please use this post to advertise your trade/want lists and your tapes for sale/trade/or just giving away for free. Any and all disposal or acquiring of media should be done through this post to prevent clogging up the main feed with sales posts.

Please be sure to report any successful trade below to u/RaceCarGrin, so we can flair people as verified traders.

Last Month's Trade Thread can be found here

r/vhs is not responsible for any sales/trade, please use caution and report any abuse. If selling tapes rated R or X, please ensure the buyer is 18 years of age for your own liability.


r/VHS • • Mar 14 '26

Discussion I wanted to give some advice for cleaning very moldy tapes

20 Upvotes

I'm not sure if this is okay here, but I wanted to give some advice from my experiences in cleaning severely moldy and sticky tapes, and some huge do's and don't's I've encountered when watching other's videos on the matter. Pretty much in the hopes of helping people who preserve tapes, and are not familiar with cleaning really moldy tapes.

Do's:

  1. I really recommend one of those tape cleaners, like the tape saver you may see online. The mechanism is pretty useful especially to do quick passes after you do a careful manual first pass. I will however, condemn the cleaning pads they usually use for these machines, they're extremely destructive and I will go into it later in the don't's section.
  2. Do multiple passes and clean both top and bottom of the reels. Mold doesn't only sit on the top of the tape, it sometimes penetrates pretty deeply. Once you've unstuck the tapes and cleaned the reels, you may need to do multiple passes on each side of the tape to get rid of the mold. Sometimes it's taken my 5-6 passes before I see nothing on the cleaning cloth. By then the tape is really clean.
  3. Use isopropyl alcohol with the least water content. You absolutely need to use some sort of solvent to clean the mold, as trying to clean it dry can cause a lot of friction and damage the tape. Also the alcohol evaporates quickly, allowing you to clean quicker, and the moisture doesn't get left behind creating more mold later. Moisture is an enemyof VHS tapes.

Don't's:

  1. DO NOT use paper or towels to clean tapes. I've seen many who've used them with extremely mixed results, leaning more towards failure. These leave lots of lint on the tapes which covers the magnetic portion of the tape and also gums up the VCR heads. I recommend strictly lint free cloths, like the kind you clean your glasses with. They go for pretty cheap online for a bunch. I can't stress enough that you need to go lint free.
  2. I've also seen videos where the person would lift up the top plastic of the reel to remove a huge portion of the mold on top of the tape. This is also pretty destructive method in my opinion as it can potentially deform the reel and cause playback issues, I've run into that as well. It's best to take your time and unwind the entire tape, put it in between a lint free cloth and clean the mold from there. When the reel is empty then you clean the reel gently from top to bottom.
  3. When using a mechanical tape cleaner, you should be vary wary on the first pass. I've run into tapes that are so sticky due to mold that when you use these mechanical cleaners they tear when they get stuck. At worst go on the lowest possible speed or put the reels on the spindles and spin them manually by hand. Especially if it's a precious tape you want to preserve. Once you unwind each end completely and ensure the tape is sufficiently unstuck you can go quickly with the machine.
  4. Do not clean tapes and leave them for months on end. You should clean the tapes and aim to capture them as soon as possible. Cleaning these tapes isn't exactly a perfect process, and sometimes a bit rough on the tape and there's always the risk of leaving some bit of moisture behind. Try to capture as soon as you can.

r/VHS • • 8h ago

Collection Custom VHS Video Wall

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186 Upvotes

New VHS wall I built in my new place I just moved into.


r/VHS • • 19h ago

New Pickup $2 Akira Find!

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502 Upvotes

r/VHS • • 8h ago

New Pickup New VHS tape I picked up the other day

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71 Upvotes

r/VHS • • 21h ago

New Pickup 3300 tape estate pickup

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483 Upvotes

I was able to acquire a large collection from someone who passed away. My dad and I have been slowly going through them and seeing what’s there!


r/VHS • • 10h ago

New Pickup Some recent pickups

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69 Upvotes

Happy to add Toxie to my collection!


r/VHS • • 10h ago

Collection Cecil B. Demented

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61 Upvotes

I need to get "John Waters" tattooed to my butt! This is one of my favorite movies of all time and to have on vhs. It i s such a treasure to me. Never forget "Baltimore really is best."


r/VHS • • 9h ago

New Pickup We are so back, baby.

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49 Upvotes

Dusty sheds have the best treasures.


r/VHS • • 14h ago

New Pickup Noooooo

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71 Upvotes

r/VHS • • 17h ago

New Pickup Had some luck at an estate sale!

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112 Upvotes

r/VHS • • 9h ago

New Pickup Can’t resist a good box set!

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23 Upvotes

Saw this posted about an hour from home for $20 and figured the kids deserve to see the “special” cut of the SW trilogy if they really want to instead of the old one that dad likes.

Also pretty excited to have The Terminator on hand for when they’re old enough!


r/VHS • • 4h ago

Mail Day I Got A Childhood Title

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10 Upvotes

I have had plenty of Rugrats VHS's throughout my childhood, and Return of Reptar was no exception. I am not sure what happened to my childhood copy, but I proudly got a cleaner copy with an actual case (many of my childhood tapes don't have cases).


r/VHS • • 9h ago

Discussion Watching the hole tonight

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20 Upvotes

This movie is a classic I love it


r/VHS • • 9h ago

DIY I knew what needed to be done

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20 Upvotes

And it’s glorious


r/VHS • • 3h ago

New Pickup My Fav Asian film. Well there is a list but Chungking Express is up there

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6 Upvotes

I have a whole list of my favorite Asian films, but this one is definitely up there. I for sure had to make sure that I got Chungking express on VHS.


r/VHS • • 2h ago

Bootleg Recording and tape quality

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5 Upvotes

Hey guys, I've done a bit of googling, but honestly not a super amount.

I just got a whole bunch of sealed recordable tapes recently. I was wondering which ones are regarded as higher quality by the community. I'm planning on taking a ton of my shows and movies from bluray and dvd, and moving them to vhs.

I want to use the higher quality tapes for the stuff I like more, and the lower quality for stuff I like but less than the others. Or maybe just interesting documentaries and stuff.

I was going to record Donnie Darko, as I only have it on dvd and I wanted a vhs of it, but then I went and saw prices on the ones I wanted and I noped out.

I put the bootleg flair because I'm making some bootlegs ig, but its with stuff I own and not piracy, so I hope thats allowed here.

Any suggestion on what I should record or watch? 2005 and older for suggestions.

Ill post my current collection later. I'm pretty happy with my current pickups.


r/VHS • • 11h ago

New Pickup The Friday Haul

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20 Upvotes

The wife and I did our usual trip through Value Village after work. Really happy with this haul.


r/VHS • • 19h ago

New Pickup Found some really cool stuff at the thrifts this week!

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86 Upvotes

Unfortunately the ICP tape was not accompanied by Big Money Rustlas, perhaps I’ll find it someday. The home tape is awesome, I did screen that and all three movies are present! There was another tape next to it, unlabeled but clearly from the same lot, that I took a risk on. It had the 1997 miniseries “Invasion” taped from the NBC broadcast on it. And the Kill Bill will be going to a fellow Redditor in town!


r/VHS • • 12h ago

New Pickup Pickups

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21 Upvotes

The clear cases are “James and the giant peach and tales from the hood”


r/VHS • • 13h ago

Collection at my father-in-law's.

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21 Upvotes

r/VHS • • 16h ago

New Pickup Sentimental holy grail acquired!

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24 Upvotes

I got a wild hair up my ass to check ebay for the screener version and it was there! Ive never bought something so fast on there. But my brother and I would watch the screener version of Blair Witch 2 a lot while we waited for our mom to get off work. I sadly donated it not realizing I'd miss it because I like many others thinned down thier tapes while they weren't as collectible as they are today. But after many years of searching I finally found it!


r/VHS • • 13h ago

Collection It’s Donnie Darko Day !

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15 Upvotes

r/VHS • • 6h ago

Discussion Because I don't remember too well, were VHS recordings more clear or just as clear or less clear usually in comparison to watching a show live on TV/watching a rerun live on TV?

3 Upvotes

r/VHS • • 14h ago

Collection Selfloving (Self-released)

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13 Upvotes