Early 80s TOS VHS Tapes

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

Recently I picked up a couple of TOS VHS tapes from the early 80s at a flea market. One is from 1980, "Star Trek Volume 2: Amok Time/Journey to Babel"; the other is from 1982, "Star Trek: Space Seed" (box reads "The Episode That Inspired 'STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN'" and the issuing company is Paramount Gateway Video). Are these at all collectible, or are they just interesting curios?

 

[RAMA]

Recently I picked up a couple of TOS VHS tapes from the early 80s at a flea market. One is from 1980, "Star Trek Volume 2: Amok Time/Journey to Babel"; the other is from 1982, "Star Trek: Space Seed" (box reads "The Episode That Inspired 'STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN'" and the issuing company is Paramount Gateway Video). Are these at all collectible, or are they just interesting curios?

They're completely worthless.

 

[Mister_Atoz]

I have all 80 classic Star Trek episodes in those silver cases on Betamax...even more worthless, but I can't bring myself to throw them out

 

[BillJ]

Recently I picked up a couple of TOS VHS tapes from the early 80s at a flea market. One is from 1980, "Star Trek Volume 2: Amok Time/Journey to Babel"; the other is from 1982, "Star Trek: Space Seed" (box reads "The Episode That Inspired 'STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN'" and the issuing company is Paramount Gateway Video). Are these at all collectible, or are they just interesting curios?

They're completely worthless.

Obviously not completely worthless since someone paid for them. I'd chalk them up to interesting curios.

 

[Forbin]

Do they even play any more?

I gave mine to a friend as I bought the first DVD releases.

 

[Gary7]

They don't look all that bad if you have a S-VHS player. But yeah, otherwise they're nearly worthless as the DVD's are superior and provide rapid random access.

I recently found a couple of them still shrink wrapped in a box... checked on eBay and even for mint condition copies listed at $0.99, they fail to sell.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Well, if you want a taste of what Star Trek really looked like back in the day, i.e., video resolution a lot lower than current standards, then they might be worth having, but that's about it, with an added bonus of a soundtrack that's probably a lot closer to what aired on NBC, before some well-intentioned folks tried to "fix" certain things.

Why these people didn't see fit to fix more obvious errors is still a mystery to me...

 

[Kamdan]

I would be only interested in a complete set of Star Trek LaserDiscs.

 

[MANT!]

I would be only interested in a complete set of Star Trek LaserDiscs.

I think Warp9 has some..and I don't think his laserdisk player works anymore....

I could be wrong though...

 

[Forbin]

I have some random TNG Laserdiscs. But I still have a working player. At least, it worked the last time I tried it.

 

[Captain Robert April]

I'm currently on the hunt for both a working laserdisc player and some Star Trek discs, with TAS being top of the list.

 

[Forbin]

I'm currently on the hunt for both a working laserdisc player and some Star Trek discs, with TAS being top of the list.

Google. I got my player from a place in Florida that sells refurbs.

I THINK there's one manufacturer who still makes one LD player. It's VERY expensive, though.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Pioneer was the last holdout for LD and they stopped making players a few years ago. I bought one of the last batch and it cost me $1000. But I didn't mind, I had the cash at the time, and I was just finishing up getting the series on LaserDisc.

Robert April, just check eBay. They're always up for sale and not for all that much. The Pioneer DVL-919 also plays DVDs and CDs. It's the last one Pioneer put out.

They're completely worthless.

To you, possibly. Not to others, not to me. I collect the various video versions of Trek. I would have loved to have found these.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

I still have mine, and prefer watching them to the CDs at times.

 

[WisTrekFan]

The reason I bought a VCR in the mid-80's was so I could purchase and view Star Trek episodes as they were released on tape. I still have the complete VHS set and haven't converted to DVD's yet. The tapes have held up well.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Mum got rid of my 90s VHS tapes, sent them to a charity shop. A shame, the spines read out a message from Spock "We are the first to reach this far". The ridiculously shaped DVD boxes pale in comparison.

 

[Warped9]

I still have mine, and prefer watching them to the CDs at times.

You have TOS video on CD? Interesting...

It's amusing in a way that some folks have (and not without some justification) complained about the price of dvd sets, but when you look at what it would have cost to collect the entire series on VHS or even 2-episode-per-dvd the season sets were a bargain.

 

[Forbin]

$14.95 per 2-episode tape at my local record shop. I spent damn near $600 for the whole series.

Thank Yoda I'd only bought one season of Xena and Highlander on VHS ($175 per season) before I realized they'd be on DVD eventually, and I could freakin' wait! I ended up getting both series on DVD on clearance deals for something like $30 per season or less.

 

[Warped9]

If I recall I had perhaps a couple of TOS VHS 2-episode tapes. Maybe a few because I got them second hand from someone. And I had those only because of opportunity because at the time I simply couldn't spare the cash to buy the new ones particularly in quantity.

In the long run it worked out better because the dvd season sets made the series a lot more affordable and with better picture and sound quality. And my income situation had improved.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

I still have TOS on VHS. I did think briefly about upgrading to DVD, I could definitely use the room, but I brought a Blu-ray player this year. Today I wandered into an HMV, and found TOS on Blu-ray, the complete series in a teeny tiny little box, taking up the space one season on DVD would. The price £250. Could you believe that I think that is too much? Yet I have some 40 videotapes full of Trek that I bought at around 7-10 pounds each.