Everyone wishes they could go back in time and relive their younger days again. That’s why family photos and home videos are so important. They create a link back to our younger selves and our lost loved ones.
But one of the problems for people who had put their home movies onto videotape back in the 80s and 90s is that VCRs are hard to come by nowadays.
They aren’t in stores, and it can be hard to track them down online.
Luckily, they appear on Ebay from time to time. And while they never fetch too much money, the sellers can be happy with the fact that they’re giving people the ability to relive old memories.
Some people may not think that there are many people who would be interested in buying VCRs.
After all, they’re pretty outdated, and videotapes can be converted to digital copies pretty easily.
But many older people don’t know where to begin with this. It can also be pretty expensive to go to a store and convert many home videotapes.
This story shows that this is true. But more importantly, it emphasizes just how great it can be for people to be able to see their younger selves for the first time in forever.
An 86 year old man, named Don, in Phoenix, Arizona had accumulated many home videos over the years. But unfortunately, his VCR broke beyond repair several years ago.
At first, he was aghast to see that there were no new models in Best Buy, Walmart or any other store. What could he do?
But then a friend told him about Ebay. Don was not used to using the internet. But he decided to look this site up for the first time.
After a small amount of searching, Don found a VCR for sale in St. Louis.
Even better, it was on offer for the bargain price of $40.
Don bought it straight away and waited excitedly for it to arrive.
Once the VCR got to his home, Don struggled with setting it up. But after a bit of effort, it was hooked up to his TV. He was finally able to watch all of his home videos. Some of them, he had never seen. Some were even unmarked. Who knew what was on them?
It was just like stepping back into his past.
The first tape that he loaded into the device was one of the unmarked ones. It turned out to be from his retirement party, 25 years ago. He was able to see all of his old work colleagues one last time.
After this, he needed to watch one of the marked tapes. It was a recording of the most important day of his life. His wedding. He saw his family and friends all celebrating his union with the love of his life. He couldn’t believe that he was seeing these people again, many of whom had died years and years ago.
For days, Don was able to see all of the major events of his life.
He saw footage of his children grow older, family vacations and so much that he had long since forgotten about.
A few days later, the Don decided to tell the seller of the VCR how much he appreciated being able to see these memories once again.
Most people would leave a great review on Ebay, but Don wasn’t even aware that this was possible. Instead, he decided to write the seller, Matt Shoukry, a heartfelt letter.
In a few days, Matt received the letter. When he saw what was written upon it, he called his girlfriend over, knowing that she would have to see it.
“We read it together, and we were both just on the edge of tears reading it.” – Matt Shoukry.
The letter went into detail about how important it was for Don to relive his past.
“Thank you so much for your care, your efforts, and your promptness. I watched tapes of my retirement party from 25 years ago which I had never seen before. Jeez, were we young. Then a tape of my wedding with all the family and friends, many of which are no longer around. […] I thought you would appreciate how much someone has enjoyed your offer.” -Don’s letter.
Overcome with emotion, Matt made the decision to frame the letter.
What he had thought was a simple sale was much more important.
But Matt decided that he needed to do more for Don. He wrote Don back, offering to digitize all of his videos so that they would last forever and all his family could see them.
This just goes to show how important memories are and that people need to document the important things in life.
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