That $50 VHS cleaner from eBay actually revived my old tape collection
Picked up one of those old motorized head cleaner kits for $50 shipped. My VHS player was eating tapes and the picture looked like a sandstorm. Ran the cleaning tape twice and dug out an old recording of the 1998 Space Ghost Coast to Coast marathon from Cartoon Network. It plays clear now. Anyone else ever had luck fixing their old gear instead of just replacing it?
Heard somewhere that old VHS tapes are actually coming back as a collectible thing now, people even sell them online for way more than fifty bucks. So maybe the real win is flipping them, though I bet the video store smell alone is worth the nostalgia trip.