c/found-footage-finds

Just found 47 minutes of a local parade from 1994 on a tape labeled 'Taxes'

Honestly, I picked up a box of random VHS from a yard sale in Akron for like five bucks. One tape just said 'Taxes' in marker, but it's almost an hour of a Fourth of July parade down Main Street. You can see all these old storefronts that aren't there anymore. Has anyone else found something totally different than what the label said?

I thought the 'haunted' tape was just a prank until I met the guy who made it

Bought a box of VHS tapes at a yard sale in Olympia for ten bucks, and one was labeled 'The Backyard Show'. It was just weird footage of a guy in a rabbit mask staring at a tree for an hour. I was about to toss it when I ran into an older dude at the flea market who saw the tape in my bag. He got real quiet and said, 'I made that after my dog died. The tree was his favorite spot.' Suddenly it wasn't creepy, just really sad. Anyone else find something that felt totally different once you knew the story?

My uncle said to always check the last five minutes of a thrift store VHS. Found a full wedding from 1992 and a weird 3-minute clip of someone just staring at a wall.

Found a VHS tape of a 1998 parade that shows a storefront that's completely different now

I was digitizing a tape labeled 'July 4th' and it's just a family recording of a parade in my hometown. The clear shot of the old hardware store on Main Street got me, because that building is a coffee shop now. Has anyone else found footage that shows how a place you know has totally changed?

Warning: I think my thrift store hard drive has a dead person's vacation on it

I picked up a cheap external drive at a Goodwill in Eugene last week, just to see what was on it. It's full of home videos from what looks like a family trip to the Oregon coast in the late 90s. The thing is, the guy filming talks to the camera like he's making a video will, giving advice to his grandkids. It feels really personal and heavy. I don't know what to do with it now, do you just delete stuff like that?

Heard a guy at a swap meet in Burbank say he looks for tapes labeled 'Home' from the 80s

He was telling his buddy that people never think those are special, so they just get tossed. I picked up a box of ten labeled that way from a church sale for five bucks. One tape was just a kid's birthday, but another had a full hour of someone testing a camcorder in their backyard, with this weird, quiet focus on a single tree. It's not scary, just oddly peaceful. Makes you wonder what other normal labels are hiding the good stuff, right?

I used to think any old VHS tape was worth a grab, but a box from a garage sale in Phoenix changed my mind.

I bought a sealed box of 20 tapes for 5 bucks, thinking it was a goldmine, but after digitizing them, 18 were just recorded episodes of 'Wheel of Fortune' from 1992. The hunt for the weird stuff made me way more picky about bulk buys. Do you guys still grab every tape you see, or do you look for specific signs first?

Found a VHS tape from a 1994 bowling alley party and the last 5 minutes are just... wrong.

Picked it up at a yard sale in Akron for a quarter. The first hour is normal family stuff, cake and kids bowling. Then the audio gets all staticky and the picture starts to warp. The last bit shows the empty lanes at night, but the pins keep resetting by themselves in a weird order, like 7-10-4-2. Tried cleaning the tape heads on my VCR, but it plays the same on my buddy's deck too. Has anyone else found a tape that seems to glitch in a specific, repeatable way like this?

Spent $60 on a 'haunted' VHS lot from an estate sale... it was just 8 hours of a guy's golf trip.

Found a VHS labeled 'Lake Trip 98' with something that wasn't a lake trip

I picked up a box of old tapes from a garage sale in Portland last month for five bucks. One was just marked in black marker. When I finally got it to play, the first ten minutes were normal family stuff at a lake. Then it cuts to a completely different scene, a shaky shot of a dark, empty warehouse at night with a single light swinging. The audio is just wind and a faint, weird clicking sound. It goes on for like twenty minutes before cutting back to the lake like nothing happened. I've digitized a lot of weird home movies, but this felt intentional, like someone taped over part of a vacation with something else. Has anyone else found a tape where the label totally lies about what's on it?

Just realized my old VCR is way better for finding weird stuff than my new capture card

I've been digitizing a box of tapes from a thrift store in Omaha for about two months now. At first, I used my new USB capture card with a modern VCR, thinking the clean signal would be best. But all I got were the recorded shows, nothing odd. Last week, I dug out my old, beat-up VCR from 1998, the one with the tracking knob that clicks. The picture was a bit snowy, but on a tape labeled 'Family Reunion 1999', right after the main recording, there was about 30 seconds of a local news segment from a different channel, followed by what looks like someone's home video of a weird, silent puppet show in a dark room. The old machine's worn heads or something must have played back a weaker signal that my new gear just corrected away. Has anyone else found that using 'worse' equipment actually reveals more of the hidden stuff on old tapes?

My aunt's old camcorder tape from 1997 is just 20 minutes of a cat staring at a wall

Found it in a box labeled 'Family Reunion' at her house in Phoenix. The cat's name was Muffin, and you can hear my uncle in the background saying 'I think the camera's on' about fifteen times. It's so boring it's actually kind of amazing. Has anyone else found footage that's just weirdly, perfectly pointless?

Unpopular opinion: The weirdest tape I ever bought was a 1992 church bake sale video from a bin in Toledo.

It's just 45 minutes of people arguing over pie prices, but the guy filming keeps zooming in on a cat stealing a muffin. Anyone else find something totally normal that's made hilarious by the camera work?

Found a VHS labeled 'Garage Sale 98' that was actually a weird local commercial for a pet cemetery.

I realized I was doing it wrong the whole time when I finally cleaned the tape heads on my VCR after months of fuzzy playback, and the first clear frame showed a guy in a giant squirrel costume waving a shovel (which, honestly, explained a lot about the weird audio I'd been hearing).

Pro tip: I switched from just watching old tapes to actually logging what's on them

For years, I'd just pop a VHS from a thrift store into my player and watch it straight through. Last month, I found a box of 12 tapes labeled 'Family 1998-1999' at a garage sale in Spokane. I started a simple spreadsheet to note timestamps and content. Now, when I find a 30-second clip of a weird local commercial at the 47-minute mark, I can actually find it again! It saves so much time when I want to show someone a specific part. Has anyone else set up a system like this for their finds?

Vent: My cousin said 'old tapes are just junk' and it really got to me

We were cleaning out his garage in Fresno and I pulled a sealed box of VHS tapes from the 90s out of a corner. He just waved his hand and said 'that's just junk, toss it.' I took them home anyway, and on the third tape, after some home movie stuff, there's this incredible, clear shot of a meteor breaking up over the city skyline. It's not online anywhere. It made me so mad he was ready to just throw it all in a dumpster without a second look. That attitude is how cool history gets lost forever. It's not junk until you know what's on it. How do you even start to explain that to people who don't get it? What's the best thing you've saved from being tossed out?

Spent $80 on a 'haunted' hard drive at a flea market that was just full of cat videos

I saw this old external drive at a stall in Springfield with 'DO NOT PLAY' written on it in marker. The seller said it came from a closed video store and had 'strange stuff' on it. I paid eighty bucks, which felt like a steal for some real found footage. Got it home, hooked it up, and it's just hours of someone's pet cats from like 2006. There's one clip of a cat knocking over a lamp that's kind of funny, but that's it. Has anyone else bought a mystery drive or tape that was a total letdown? I want my money back.

My uncle told me to never buy a VHS tape with a blank label

He said it was always just a recorded over mess, but I grabbed one from a bin in Toledo for 50 cents anyway. It had a perfect, unedited 1987 local news segment about a pie eating contest that got rained out. What's the best totally random thing you've found on a tape someone else gave up on?

Found a weird tape labeled 'July 4th 1998' at a yard sale in Akron

I was digitizing it last week and the screen just filled with static about 15 minutes in... like, thick black and white snow with a low hum. I let it run and after 3 minutes of that, it cut to a shot of an empty backyard at night with a single lit sparkler on the ground. The date on the tape was for daytime, so that felt off. Has anyone else had a tape switch content like that halfway through?

Found a box of 8mm film reels at a yard sale in Spokane, had to pick one to digitize first

The box had about 20 reels, all unlabeled. One was a plain white canister, the other was in a rusty metal tin. I chose the metal tin because it looked older and more interesting. Big mistake. The film inside was just a blurry, shaky home movie of someone's dog from what looked like the 90s. The white canister, which I did next, had a perfect, clear shot of a 1960s county fair with a working Ferris wheel. I wasted three hours and $40 on a transfer for a shaky dog. Anyone else ever pick the wrong tape or reel to start with and regret it?

My old way of finding footage was a lot more fun than clicking through thumbnails

I used to love the hunt. I'd go to estate sales in Spokane every weekend, buy a box of random VHS tapes for five bucks, and spend the evening going through them on my old Panasonic deck. You never knew what you'd get, a kid's birthday from 1992, a weird local commercial, maybe something truly strange. Now, it feels like I just scroll through online marketplaces looking at pictures of tape labels. I bought a lot labeled 'family trip' last month, and it was just a single, unopened copy of a Jane Fonda workout video. The surprise is gone. The physical act of finding and playing the tape was half the point. Has anyone else felt like the actual finding part has gotten less interesting?

Found a weird tape in a box of old home movies from a yard sale in Akron

It was labeled 'Family Reunion 1998' but the first ten minutes is just a fixed shot of a backyard at night. Nothing happens for ages, then a shape moves fast across the grass. I tried cleaning the tape with a cheap head cleaner first, but the picture got worse. Borrowed a pro-grade cleaning kit from a friend who runs a transfer service, and the image cleared right up. Has anyone else had a tape that looked blank turn out to have something on it after a proper clean?

Vent: I spent $60 on a 'mystery' hard drive lot that was just full of old tax files

I saw an online auction for a box of ten old hard drives from a closed office, listed as 'unchecked digital media treasure.' It cost me sixty bucks plus shipping. Every single one was wiped or just had years of someone's QuickBooks backups and spreadsheets from 2005. Total bust for anything interesting. Has anyone had better luck with those bulk electronics buys from storage units?

Found a box of old VHS tapes from a closed video store in Omaha, had to pick between digitizing them or just watching

I got about 30 tapes from a thrift store that used to be a rental place. The choice was to spend the time and money to digitize them all, or just hook up an old VCR and watch them as-is. I picked watching them first, which was the right call. Out of the 30, maybe 5 had anything cool on them, like local commercials and a weird home movie of a 1998 parade. If I'd digitized them all first, I would have wasted hours on blank tapes and recorded TV. Has anyone else found it's better to screen stuff before you commit to saving it?

Found a VHS labeled 'Vacation 1993' that's just 45 minutes of a motel parking lot

I used to get excited for any tape with a date, now I just assume it's someone's boring home movie. Anyone else get burned by a misleading label?