Video tape shelf life is based on humidity, and a future article will delve into this too. Just FYI, the shelf life of a tape is more along the lines of 35-60 years. Degradation that happens earlier than 35 years tends to be due to the VCR or improper storage and handling. Tapes do not die just sitting on a shelf in a typical home or office. This whole 10-15 years thing is an online myth from recent years, pure horsefeathers, just like that "DVDs die in 2-5 years" non-sense from a few years ago.
We did random sweeps of companies last March (one year ago), and some of the answers for easy questions was astounding. More than 50% of answers were awful information or completely incorrect. A few even struck me as money-grubbing and dishonest.
Thanks for sharing those videos, deter.