Found old Betamax VCR, should I get it?

[bobbintb]

I went to a local thrift store today looking for stuff. I came across a Toshiba v-m415 Betamax VCR. Since it's really cheap, I'm considering buying it to sell but I'm not sure if there is a market for Betamax at all, or even if this model is any good. I'm looking at past sales on eBay but I was hoping someone with more professional knowledge might have some input. I have no idea if it even works but the store usually tries to verify things work so it probably at least powers on. It's in good physical condition at least. I think even for parts it might be worth something.

[latreche34]

Don't even bother, Those are basic BII/BIII machines with no Hi-Fi stereo so don't hold that much value and you won't be able to sell it for more than what the store charges for and you have to pay over $70 shipping out of your pocket as those suckers weight a ton.
The ones are worth some money are the latest Sony's Super Betamax machines and the ED Beta's if they are in great working condition.

[bobbintb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by latreche34

Don't even bother, Those are basic BII/BIII machines with no Hi-Fi stereo so don't hold that much value and you won't be able to sell it for more than what the store charges for and you have to pay over $70 shipping out of your pocket as those suckers weight a ton.
The ones are worth some money are the latest Sony's Super Betamax machines and the ED Beta's if they are in great working condition.

Forgot to mention, it's $5 at the thrift store. I was thinking for that, it might be worth trying to sell it for parts but you're probably right. Even if I do make a few bucks, probably not worth the time.

[lordsmurf]

Most video gear that lands in a recycle/thrift shop is hosed, parts only, even if claimed to "work: or as being "tested". The people doing the testing generally see lights, maybe an image of any quality, and then give their wholly uneducated determination on functionality.

Waste of time if you don't need it for parts, or don't know how to fix it.

[Koreth]

While I'll concur with lordsmurf and latreche34 that it's not worth it for the goals of capture or reselling. However, it may be worth it for another reason.

For $5, you can have a thing to take apart for your own edification on how these confangled VCR contaptions work. It probably won't go back together or ever work again, if it even worked to begin with, and parts, tools and documentation needed to restore it to good operational conditional may be difficult or impossible to acquire cheaply. But, if you like to hack on electronics or contraptions in general, it may be a worthy donor to your parts bins for other projects. If nothing else, you waste $5 on disassembling the thing into smaller bits more easily recycled properly instead of it ending up in a landfill and potentially contaminating groundwater with heavy metals.

But, tinkerer is in my blood, so that's just like, my opinion, man.

[cbehr91]

Appears to be a low-end linear mono (no Hi-Fi stereo) BII-BIII only deck from 1984. No BI. No SuperBeta picture enhancement. I'm not saying to not get it. If you want to tinker with it, great. For restoration work/overall value it's about as low as you can get for Beta.

[bobbintb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koreth

While I'll concur with lordsmurf and latreche34 that it's not worth it for the goals of capture or reselling. However, it may be worth it for another reason.

For $5, you can have a thing to take apart for your own edification on how these confangled VCR contaptions work. It probably won't go back together or ever work again, if it even worked to begin with, and parts, tools and documentation needed to restore it to good operational conditional may be difficult or impossible to acquire cheaply. But, if you like to hack on electronics or contraptions in general, it may be a worthy donor to your parts bins for other projects. If nothing else, you waste $5 on disassembling the thing into smaller bits more easily recycled properly instead of it ending up in a landfill and potentially contaminating groundwater with heavy metals.

But, tinkerer is in my blood, so that's just like, my opinion, man.

While that does sound enticing, I think those days are behind me, for the most part. Tinkering is in my blood too. I was always the kid that liked to take broken things apart and see how they worked. It's a large part of why I'm so good at my job. But alas, as I approach my middle years, with my wife and family, they get tired of a basement filled with boxes of random circuit boards and disabled electronics that I "might use for something, someday".