1st VCR, a 1982 RCA VFT-650 4 video head(of course no Hi-Fi) purchased for ~$1200. I believe it was the first VCR with wireless IR remote
A little more than a year later I wanted to do some copying so I purchased a new Sanyo Betacord VCR(at Labelles for the great price of $399, VHS machines were still well over $500). I never really cared for Beta so purchased a floor model Magnavox VR8345(clone to my RCA) from Sound Of Music(later to become Best Buy) for $450(damaged front but worked just fine).
A couple years later I spotted my first dream machine(originally I was going to go Beta but a friend convinced me to go VHS, for one reason he had HBO and a nice collection of movies he'd recorded). It was a '81 Sony SL-5800 with the AG-300 beta stacker which allowed 4(I believe) tapes to be stacked giving me over 20 hrs of unattended recording. The Sony had many state of the art features but HiFi wasn't one of them, that came several years later. I think I paid ~$250 from the now defunct Sony Sound Center.
Next came my VHS dream machine, a '80 JVC HR-6700U second hand from Stereoland. The reason I wanted this machine was because it had the very rare feature of being able to speed up the picture(2x?) and
also play the sound and it even corrected the pitch so it was mostly understandable, at least for news type programming.
In the following years I added a couple more JVC 6700u's(one for parts the other one usable) another SL-5800 because it was such a good deal
and a similar Sony SL-5600 Beta and finally another RCA VFT-650.
By the 90s I wanted to get into this new fangled HiFi
so in '92 I purchased a Mitsubishi HS-57U(from Abes in NY $449). This machine was a workhorse and it was my main machine until I got into DVDRs. In the mid to late 90s I got into cheaper Samsung VCRs which IMO were more than decent and a great price.
My first Sammy was a VR8705 in '95 followed by another in '96 both from Best Buy for ~$250, the Sammys were great players but I didn't record with them too much because of their narrower SP video heads. I only used SP and preferred machines with the full 80 micron heads, anything less just wasted tape space.
By the early to mid 00s some of my older VCRs had been repaired multiple times(by me, I never took them in) and were beginning to show their age, so time to stock up. I purchased a POS Sylvania combo for $89 at Sears and shortly after (3) more Sammys(they would prove to be my last as I would soon switch to DVDs). The Sammys were Model VR-5460 from Sears for $49.99
$1200 for my first VCR in 1982 dollars and $49.99 for my last purchased in 2004, amazing
What's left:
(3) RCA VFT-650's including my first VCR, 4 head, wireless IR.
(2) Sony SL-5800 Beta w/1 AG-300 stacker
(1) Sony SL-5600 Beta cheaper version of above, picked up some where
(1) Magnavox VR8345 clone of RCA VFT-650
(1) Mitsubishi HS-57u 4 head HiFi
(1) Samsung VR-8705 (sold other one at garage sale for $15 late 00s)
(3) Samsung VR-5460 (one NIB)
(1) Sylvania POS combo SRD3900 DVD side inop
(1) Sony VHS, SLV-R5UC Super VHS, HiFi, 1990 model. Forgot about this until now. I think it's a Top Of The Line model and looks gorgeous with it's wood sides, flip down front, jog shuttle remote w/flip down front. This VCR does things I never knew were possible with VHS including lots of digital special effects. I hardly used it as by the time I got it I was fully into DVDRs. I saved it from the recycle bin
at my old place of employment in '06. As beautiful as this machine is, IMO my Panasonic DVDRs still make a nicer recording
Total VCRs(if I remember them all) 14
Most haven't been plugged in for the last 15?? years
I've got (4) Panasonic ES-30v VHS/DVDR combos if you want to count those