The age of the video store is gone, and Ann Arbor residents don't get their evening's entertainment any more by picking through the foreign films collection on VHS at Liberty Street Video which closed in 2009.

Once a media format is suitably dead - dead enough to not be available for sale new in the stores, dead enough that children don't know how to use it better than their parents - it enters some range of nostalgia where its irritations and failings are forgotten and where so many people have given up on it that experimentation with the format doesn't require a lot of cash.

VHS tapes are not completely dead, and it's possible to buy both VCR players and quite viewable videos for a song. Here's a guide to doing that around Ann Arbor.

Vintage electronics at the Ann Arbor Kiwanis Thrift Sale, open 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

Courtesy Ann Arbor Kiwanis Thrift Store

VHS at the Ann Arbor District Library

The newest VHS tapes added at the Ann Arbor District Library are from 2005, according to a search of the AADL catalog. The catalog shows 306 VHS titles still available, with all but a handful stored in the downtown branch. Most of the VHS tapes in the collection date from the 1990s, and they include some locally produced documentary video like Architectural Styles In Michigan from the City of Ann Arbor.

The AADL's video blog gives you the scoop on the latest in library acquisitions, with reviews, recommendations and suggestions. If your VHS player isn't playing, you can look for new releases on DVD or Blu-Ray. The collection is cataloged so that you can quickly identify foreign films, and so tracking new French films on DVD on the colllection is straightforward once you learn to search by call number (DVD-FRE).

Buying a VHS player

The best local source for vintage electronics that I have found is the Kiwanis Thrift Sale electronics department. Our VCR at home is from there, and if memory serves right it cost less than $20 for a piece of equipment that was originally a $350 investment.

The Kiwanis sale, located at the corner of Washington and First in downtown Ann Arbor, is open Saturdays 9 a.m. to noon. Get there early for the best selection. The electronics department is located on the mezzanine.

Used VHS tapes

Area resale stores often have a selection of VHS tapes gathering dust on a shelf. Expect to pay from $0.50 to $2.00 for each tape.

My April 2010 column on area resale shops gives a reasonably comprehensive list of suggestions for places to go. Selections will vary, and be prepared to weed through 1993 era aerobics workout tapes on your way to scoring that choice Muppet video.

There's a certain element of risk in buying used tapes, since they may have dropouts, glitches, and other failures that aren't typical if you are used to digital video. Don't expect the picture to be crisp and clear, especially if the original was a well-worn rental tape.

The argument for video tape in an all-digital world

VHS is a dead format, but I'm old enough to still like it and appreciate its charms.

The best argument that I can make for it is that there is still a surplus of 15 year old equipment, both VCRs and video tapes, that can be purchased for very little money and that work just about as well as they did 15 years ago. We haven't entered the age where exotic skills are needed for preservation and conservation, and the equipment is standardized enough that you don't have to worry about compatibility.

The biggest reason to appreciate VHS for me has been just how sturdy and robust it is in the hands of the very young. We have scratched more DVDs than I care to admit, and DVD players will all too often stop in mid-scene, frozen with a "disk unreadable" message that is hard to work around. Video tapes, for all of their failings, rarely give up entirely in the face of small glitches, even in the hands of a four year old who can't read but who can find the "play" button.

I also like the children's video production qualities from the VHS era better than current crop of hyperactive kid-vid. Fifteen years ago, the pace of video was slower, with editing that had a longer time between cuts to a different scene.

I'm willing to concede that digital video is superior in most respects, and even willing to concede that the best way to watch VHS tapes is after they have been digitized. I'm not totally ready to give up on the format, though. You just wait, there will be a VHS revival some day, once nostalgia for the 1990s gets fully up to speed.

Edward Vielmetti watches the Bill Murray video "Groundhog Day" (1993) on VHS every year. He asks you to be kind and rewind. Contact Ed at edwardvielmetti@annarbor.com.