Sold as blank tapes

Thoughts on this?

www.ebay.com/itm/1987-Ducktales-Cartoon-ORIGINAL-BROADCAST-PREMIERE-Commercials-SOLD-AS-BLANK-VHS/193075043654?hash=item2cf42b5d46:g:1aEAAOSwxZVdaFrR

Blank tapes are easily the best tapes you can find.

You never know what will be on them, and the vastly different characteristics of the people who recorded onto them are very evident judging by the content you find.

I have a lot of blanks and some have things not online such as poorly dubbed sermons, episodes from small religious channels, and a bunch of old local commercials from a movie network. Best tapes are without a doubt home recorded tapes, where the footage is genuinely one of a kind.

That being said, I'd be cautious of buying blank tapes if they don't provide viable evidence of the footage being on the tapes if you're looking for something specific. Labels aren't always true on these things, and it's incredibly easy to sell something that isn't what you say it is on eBay.

what did you find

This is legit the only thread on the internet that brings up this phenomena known as "sold as blanks". I love it!

I thought I would share my experience. The last decade I have scoured the internet and continue to do so, for tapes that are being thrown away so that I can save them from the landfill. I visit garage sales, storage auctions, and online internet sales on eBay. I just want to say, there is such a treasure trove out there of lost media when it comes to pre-recorded material. Although I wouldn't call it lost, but I specifically search for home recorded videos from camcorders. Otherwise known as amateur recorded videos.

I look for exciting moments of history from the 60's through the 90's, on VHS tape, on Hi8 and Video8, and 8mm film. I have found clips from Time Square in the 80's, someone holding a camcorder as they watched the fall of the Berlin Wall. Political elections and campaign events from the 1980's. I found an old square dancing special from a television show, but VHS tapes of amateur recorded footage from the actors on the show on set behind the scenes at NBC Studios. Clips from Australia and Russia, and sight seeing throughout America in the 80's. A Vietnam solider from the 60's sending video and audio back to their family members in America. There is so much to be found. The internet is literally a treasure trove for this stuff and it's never ending.

So yes these are private tapes and not really "lost" clips that were televised or commercially released per se, but the way I see it is we're going to look at these tapes 100 years from now like we look at tapes from the beginning of the 19th century. These are relics of history that are saved from the landfill, and if we didn't archive them they would be lost forever and that makes them special. They are truly one of a kind. At a few garage sales many families even gave me their tapes they don't want anymore. I can't believe that.

What I find so interesting about these kind of tapes is that this is an era before the advent of social media, so many of the people that you see recorded on these amateur footage from the last century don't care that they are being recorded because they did not believe anyone would ever view the footage again. Everyone acts like the camera is not even there, instead of reacting to the camera knowing that it will go on social media. You get this raw emotion and raw action. This authenticity like a time capsule and its so cool. It's almost haunting and bizarre.

Of course I plan on uploading the footage that was filmed in a public setting on the internet. Anything that's too too private out of respect for the families I don't share because these people obviously may still be alive. That is part of the code of conduct archivists like myself follow. What you can find out there although private is significant parts of history. It slowly started to become an addiction. I've now collected hundreds and hundreds of tapes and there are thousands more that I could obtain if I had more money. I built a studio in my basement just for this purpose. I stay up into late hours of the night observing them. Am I creepy? Lol! It's literally a never ending hobby and I never stop finding new material. You feel good about it too, because the museum wouldn't care about this stuff but hobby archivists like you and me can make a huge impact.

However time is running out to save these tapes as they do age and they will eventually all degrade, so I try to pick up as much as possible knowing that if we wait another decade or two decades they may not be here anymore so we have a short window of opportunity with eBay and the internet to find tapes that would have otherwise been lost. I just want to say thank you to all the annoying family members out there who carried a camcorder around with them everywhere you went. Your persistence has not gone unnoticed.

Three of many boxes I have. By the way the baby tapes are my childhood. I am Ben, and obviously don't collect those lol!

Cool find I just uncovered that was "sold as blank" at a garage sale.

I found a Betacam SP tape 40 mins length titled "Toyota 1992 B-Roll"

It contains every single unedited Toyota commercial that was broadcast in that year. I also have one for Honda that came with it. Professionally dubbed for broadcast that a station would choose to run, not a consumer recorded tape. I noticed a few in here had mentioned commercials so I thought I would share another interesting find. I have a TBC on my way and hoping to capture it soon and upload it to archives website. I promise I will not put a dumb watermark across it. Hate when people do that.

Well in my case, I haven’t come across anything big but I have stumbled upon ads I can’t seem to find anywhere else though and some idents