Shoutout to the old guy at the Goodwill who told me to stop stacking tapes vertically

I used to just stack my VHS tapes like books on a shelf, all piled up on top of each other. Last year some retired guy at the Goodwill in Des Moines saw me tossing tapes into a bin and said, "You're gonna wreck the reels doing that, store 'em on end like records." Switched to storing them all upright in milk crates after that, and I haven't had a tape jam or get stuck since. Has anyone else gotten random advice from a stranger that actually worked out better than what you were doing?

2 comments

2 Comments

james9219d ago

Thirty years ago a farmer told me to lay my records flat to stop them warping.

emery96519d agoOG Member

@james92 got it right. I store all my vinyl flat and it makes a real difference. Had a stack of old Beatles LPs that were leaning for years and they ended up with that annoying wobble during playback. Laid them flat on a shelf with some weight on top for a few weeks and it actually helped flatten them back out. If you keep them vertical but too tight, you get edge warps. Too loose and they slump. Flat is the way to go.