Collector drives 600 miles to save 20,000 VHS tapes from landfill

A VHS enthusiast has taken a 600-mile round trip from Liverpool to Dundee in a bid to save 20,000 tapes from landfill.

Andy Johnson runs the UK’s last video shop in Liverpool, boasting a collection of 15,000 tapes and dozens of VCR players, allowing customers a trip down memory lane.

Despite video streaming overtaking DVDs and VHS tapes for the majority of the population, Andy says his store VideOdyssey has been forced to expand due to demand for the nostalgic movie-watching experience.

The 42-year-old now travels across the country to save tapes, some of which were never digitalised, from being lost forever.

Now he has collected 20,000 tapes from Dundee man George McInnes, who amassed his collection from local car boot sales for more than a decade.

Andy collected the tapes from Dundee collector George McInnes STV News

Deciding to donate the huge haul to Andy, the Liverpudlian feels he is giving the tapes a second lease of life.

“You’re saving some tapes from certain death,” Andy told STV News as he searched through the impressive collection in Dundee.

“It’s similar to vinyl, it’s got that really aesthetic appeal that film fans might just want to own.”

Among the treasures found in the storage container was a complete collection of television show MASH and a copy of The Goonies in the original Warner Brothers home video box.

“When we cracked open the wooden doors today, I was just amazed,” Andy said.

“It’s a complete mixed bag of stuff and it’s amazing, I’m quite excited to get stuck in and see what gold is in there really.”

Along with maintaining his huge collection of tapes for his store, Andy also helps collectors track down specific titles.

He hopes that among the thousands of tapes he is transporting back to Liverpool might be some hidden gems.

“I just dont think we’ll get a collection this big again,” Andy added.

“When we combine this with what we’ve got in our archives back in Liverpool, I think we’re going to have the biggest collection that’s available in the UK to the public of video tapes.”