Should I get rid of my VHS collection

Of course not. The bigger problem is that VHS, like most magnetic analog media, decays. Most of those tapes have likely lost a ton of fidelity compared to when they were new and they'll only get worse.
I wouldn't scrap them but I'd also consider archiving tapes without current digital copies to DVD's or video files.

When was the last time you watched one? For whatever reason tape media is making a comeback, so you could probably get a decent price for them if you wanted. Maybe just keep the rare ones and pirate the rest? I donno. I personally just dont see the reason to keep them with free digital access to movies being so readily available.

Before you do that, I would like to point out I donated the entire TNG collection, and later found out it could have been sold for over a thousand.

VHS is low resolution and degrades over time, no reason to keep it unless you have tapes of things that don't exist on better formats.

No.

Just because VHS goes bad, I'd suggest ripping to dvd or blu-ray (too keep the physical feel) which should get you another 15+ years of storage in a compact fashion, more If kept properly (my ps2 games still work after 23 years, is my source on that).

My uncompressed rips (via OBS) from VHS are around 35 GB, perfect use case for a BD-R.

I know I'll probably get shit for this comment because "optical media bad" but I don't care.

if you have a VHS player buy a cheap digital VHS to USB converter. You can get them for like 15-20$ and they plug one end into composite cable and the other end into the USB port of a laptop, then you can digitize the tape.

You should probally do that sooner rather than later though, those tapes don't last forever and eventually they will degrade.

Allow me to share a personal experience with digital.

I'm well into my 50s and for many years I have been an avid books collector (much into rare editions). In the early 00s, I started reading... ebooks almost exclusively. Because I wanted to make my life much simpler and less focused on materialism. So, save very few books I truly wanted to keep with me I donated my personal library to a charity. And started reading (and purchasing) ebooks.

FF some twenty years later, approx in 2023. I have been reading ebooks almost exclusively.

I kinda like my various Kindles readers, and my iPads too. I'm not 'happy' to own a digital library (I have always loved the book object) but it's so practical there is no discussing it. My entire library used to fill almost all rooms in our home, it can now fit in the palm of my hand. Great. But then, one day I suddenly realize I don't really own the ebooks I purchase on Amazon (Amazon can and is legally allowed to delete them from our devices). WTF? Another day, I realize my ebooks can be remotely updated. So far, I had no issue with books being edited in order to remove typos and stuff like that but that day I realized a book could also be remotely edited to change its content, say to remove a word that would now be considered offensive... Without me having any legal ability to prevent that. So, in order to protect my property, I learn about removing drm. But then I realize all I'm reading habits are also being monitored and tracked by 'my' devices and send back to Amazon or Apple for marketing and data analysis. WTF?

I looked at my digital library and realized it never was mine. Most of those ebooks I had purchased for years on big retail platforms like Amazon and Apple they never were mine. I was merely renting a right to read them (that's not always like that with ebooks purchased on some smaller/independent and DRM-free platforms but the bulk of my purchases were made on Amazon, and then on Apple). Looking at 'my' devices and knowing they were spying on me, I decided this was not the world I wanted to live in. It is something I discuss in more details on my blog, but simply put: upon realizing that I decided to quit reading ebooks almost entirely and move back to print (even for magazines and newspapers). Books I can fully own (no one can remotely delete or edit them from my bookshelves) and that don't spy on me.

And, at last getting back to your point, I did the same with with movies, series and music. I cancelled all my streaming subscriptions, all of them, dusted my old DVDs and CDS, and started purchasing new (or used) discs again to complete it. I'm not a collector anymore, as I strictly limit the size of my personal library, but I have not looked back and do not miss streaming or digital access.

Physical medias are great as they give us full ownership (we can even resell or gave them away), they don't track us, don't spy on us, can't be remotely edited or deleted. They don't require Internet access, nor a monthly subscription.

If you have room to store your tapes somewhere, why not keep them? If you don't, well then it's a question of deciding what is more important to keep in that limited space and tapes can very easily not be that important ;)

edit: clarifications.

So they're slowly rotting (I mean, not rotting but you know what I mean). It'd be wise to back them up digitally if better digital copies are hard to come by.

But a couple additional thoughts:

1. Whenever you actually watch one of them, put it back on the shelf backwards/upside-down. Wait up to six months. Anything on the shelf that isn't backwards/upside-down gets put in the 'don't keep' pile.

2. If you're looking for a hobby, don't want to keep them but don't want to toss them right away, you could play around with ... idk exactly you call it, but video mixing? A couple VCRs, some sketchy looking hobbyist tech from Etsy, and a capture card, and you can play around with multiple analogue video sources and noise introduction to make some cool as fuck visuals. Actually looks hella fun, it's high on my post-divorce distraction list. Use 'em till they're dust for this purpose or you get bored. If you want to squeeze more life out of them afterwards, there's lots of crafts you can do with old VHS bodies and tape.

Caveat: At minimum, if you have old VCR recordings, back that shit up ASAP. Old commercials and TV shows (particularly super local stuff) are of massive interest to a certain type of person, who would appreciate your efforts. This goes double for cam footage/recordings of live events.

Keep only the good or rare ones.

Contrary to to what you think, not everything is available digitally.

As a player of Project Zomboid, I say keep them. You never know when the zombie apocalypse might happen and you'll want those tapes to stave off boredom and also learn new skills.

When I got rid of mine, I made a list of all the media I still wanted a copy of and then, over time, found second-hand or new old stock DVD versions online. That was ten years ago and I've still not broken the cling wrap on some of the replacements I bought. Just goes to show how much I really needed them!

That said, my collection was far less than 100, so your collection might be an expensive endeavour to replace.

Tapes with crud recorded from TV and computers went to landfill. All the commercial ones went in a consignment I had a charity organisation collect along with a lot of other things I was clearing out at the same time. In 2025, I'm not sure charities will accept them any more.

I did manage to digitise some of the stuff from the TV / computer ones with an old VCR and a TV card in the computer, but that must be coming up on 20 years ago now. That's all on a DVD around here somewhere. In one of those multi-disc wallets. Remember those?

They can still be had online if you feel like paring down the space your DVDs take up. People used to use them for burned DVDs, of course, but there's nothing stopping you from putting legit DVDs in one. Make a separate binder for the DVD covers if you really want to, and send the cases to landfill or recycling.

If you want to go really nuts, do the same with Blu-rays.

I do regret getting rid of a few things during that clear-out, but maybe only one tape had some sentimental value. And yet, if I'd kept it, I'm think I'd be equally disturbed that I didn't get rid of it with the rest of them.

My response is likely to be unpopular but it's how I feel. I had ungodly gobs of physical media years ago - VHS, DVDs, BlueRay, CDs, etc. It got to where it was more of a hassle to dig through and find the item then slub it over to the equipment just to enjoy my media.

I digitized everything and stuck it on a home media server. Now it's as simple as grabbing the remote and pick what I want and it's done. I'm much happier now.

We donated ours to a local nonprofit org that rents them out. Such a cool group of film nerds running this operation. https://www.weluvvideo.org/

I'd say keep them, but if space is an issue you could sell or give them away. Please don't discard them!

I think you should keep physical media. I once bought a digital copy of a pretty obscure record from Google Play Music when you could still buy records from them, and eventually it changed to YouTube Music, and the record just vanished from my collection despite me having bought and paid for it. I've heard of other stories like this too. The companies just decide not to offer it anymore and it's gone.

Of course. VHS is unwatchable on a modern TV. It wasn’t great back in the day on old CRT televisions to begin with. VHS is half the resolution of SDTV. Add to that the quality loss due to age and you basically have a pile of worthless plastic.

There’s a lot of movies that are only on VHS (they never made it to DVD or streaming) and they can be worth some money. Might want to check them on eBay and see the values.

I have a small collection, would love to have a mini video rental store setup with VHS and DVDs to pick movies to watch and have a popcorn machine and neon lights.

Pete Davidson bought a whole collection of VHS tapes on ebay, maybe you can find a buyer.

Donate if possible.

I think in a while they will turn into collector's items

I get all the sides of this dilemma and I think it comes down to personal choice. I got rid of most of mine and kept a handful. Then we had kids and I herited an old TV/vid combo so they were able to watch my wife's old Disney movies she'd kept. For a few years there they enjoyed a brief renaissance, but as they got older and less keen the tapes just take up space.

We can access every thing we want online, and, while the VHS does have that nostalgia, my children aren't that into the novelty of it anymore and would prefer to stream stuff instead.

In terms of ownership, I struggle with which physical formats to retain. Musically I've kept my vinyl, but we've got 100s of CDs that I can't bring myself to toss out. I've got a load of Blu-ray which is cool, but never gets played.

Even all the media files in my NAS are rarely used. It seems like IPTV is king or us at the moment, and physical media is somewhat redundant. But hey, we've got a basement, so there's always the option to store them out of site, which is a workable compromise for now.

:::

Maybe the internet archive would be interested (but shippibg may be expensive)

We had those, too, until the last tape recorder in the family died. We tried to get rid of them, but not even the thrift store took them anymore. And that was many years ago.

Are those poen tapes? Sticky VHS are messy....

As long as you have the player and place to store them (that isn't the garage or attic) , I don't see why not.

If you like retro shit and are nostalgic then keep it. There would be no other reason too.

Do you even have a working VHS player? The rubber pinch rollers degrade after a few years.

Use them for online #WatchParty events.

E.g. VCR Party and Susan's Cinema Stash show movies on VHS online using Owncast. I've seen interesting (and crappy) movies there.

https://vcr.party/
@vcr@watch.vcr.party

https://live.literalgrill.com/
@literalgrill@sakurajima.moe

https://owncast.online/
https://joinfediverse.wiki/Owncast

Don't. Physical media is 1000 times better than streaming.

No. If they are meaningful to you, keep them. If you're worried about the data failure of them, just watch them once every 10 years and it should renew the magnetic stuff on them.

I work in a place with a lot of old technology and the general consensus is that magnetic media needs to go through the motions every 10 years to stay healthy.

but we have had success accessing 25+ year old media. so there's no scientific line about how long that stuff should survive.

I do subscribe to the 10 year access rule because not all media was created equal.