SF Bay area - free VCRs for parts! (Betamax, VHS)
 

A friend of mine recently passed away - she was a VCR aficionado and had many VCRs (including Betamax) that she was keeping for parts. We're testing them and while they all power on, most have something wrong with them (loaders don't load, tracking off etc). We were about to take them to the recycling center but thought we'd see if anyone local was interested in them for parts (free of course). We live in the San Francisco Bay Area/San Jose.

If interested, let me know and I can include a more detailed list. We cannot ship and pickup will be local. There has been no response on Freecyle/Craigslist so we thought to try a video repair forum.

And since I realize that finding someone here in our area who wants 20+ VCRs for parts is a long shot, if anyone knows of someone in the SF Bay Area, please feel free to pass this along. We plan to take them to the recycle center this weekend.

Moving this to the marketplace forum...

There's quite a few members on this site, and several may be very interested in this. Some surely lived in CA near you, and would have interest in this. Quite a few of us non-CA residents also have friends in CA to act as a proxy.

A recycler will entirely trash a VCR. (Or send it to China to be turned into something you'll buy from Walmart in 6 months.) Please don't allow potentially rare equipment, even if broken (good for parts!) to be discarded.

Put up a list. :)

Thanks for directing this to the correct place. I'll type up the list. We also have boxes and boxes of videotapes (most used, so I am not certain if anyone wants/needs tapes.) I burned through a few testing the VCRs so they were good for that.

Yes, tapes are very useful. :2cents:

Sometimes the content is interesting, if from TV. Some of us collect old shows and old commercials -- things not available on DVD.

But more importantly, the tape can be reused for the clamshell. The actual tape is discarded, and the shell used to repair other tapes. Many expert pros and hobbyists will even remove a VHS-C tape from it's shell, and place it into a full shell. This is because of the mechanics of a VHS-C often lead to an "eaten" or feathered tape. Transferring it to a full shell is a way to avoid such problems.

Just last week, I had to buy 6 new tapes to reuse for the shell, as I'm now out of recyclers.

A couple of notes:
*This is all the info we have. I know which ones that will not turn on (and have indicated it below). And lo! There are a few that still work (also indicated). We don't have info on the problems with the rest - just that they do not work in some fashion (usually loaders, tracking, or just won't play).
*Preference will be for those who want to take more than one
*There are some other older equipment and 2 DVD players (see below)

Mitsubishi SVHS
*U59 (two)
*U62
*U82 (two)
*HS-U650
*HS-U770 (two)

Mitsubishi VHS
*Unknown model

Panasonic SVHS
*PV-S7670

JVC SVHS
*HR-8800U (two)
*HR-9900U

RCA VHS - model unknown (two). The mono one still works

Sony VHS
*SLV-N750

Sony Betamax
*Super Beta SL-10C
*Betamax SL-2300
*Betamax SL-2500 (no power)

Sony Odds and Ends
*Sony Record Turntable PSFL7 (no power)
*Sony Stereo Cassette Deck TCU-270 (could not test as it says it can only connect with model AVU-270 (whatever that is)
*Sony CD Player CDP-49

Other Odds and Ends
*Avayon DVD Player DXP-1000
*Apex DVD Player 600-A (works OK)

And we have 4 boxes of used VHS videotapes - many are unlabeled but I did see a few episodes of reruns of Space 1999 if anyone cares.

I am so glad I found this place - we've been trying for a while to keep these out of the recycling, but have to make room for her many other boxes (or family papers and photos) that are arriving this weekend.