This past Christmas, I was looking to do something new and exciting for gifting. Never one for being dull in my love language department, I came across this on Facebook. First, I found “Legacybox” which sounded intriguing. The sale was for $8 a VHS tape, and other forms of media for other prices. BUT after diving down the rabbit hole of comments and reviews, people were waiting long periods of time or not getting their memories back at all. Now, this is terrifying. We ALL have video tapes, 8 mm, or even movie reels of raising our kids before the IPhone was born, and once VCR’s went out of style, we all knew these memories would be shelved until further notice. But can you imagine, the insanity, of trusting any company to only neve see your precious memories again? Kind of like packing all of your stuff up in PODS and then they hold it hostage, but that’s another story already told. So, Legacybox was out.

But now I was interested, could someone locally digitize my tapes? I would really feel so much better taking them in person to someone in my area. So I went down that street, checked out Walgreens. I have had great success with them making calendars, printing photos, and making albums. BUT I found that they were charging $29.99 per tape, and even if I got lucky with a coupon, it was going to get pricey, so that was out.

More research brought me to “IMemories.” They had great comments, great reviews, and were shown and discussed on many top tv shows. How it works? Start with their website where you make an account. Here is where all the magic happens, so it’s important that you bookmark the site to come back to it later. They walk you through the first step, and I found it easy to understand. I paid $15 (sale) for them to ship me a box to load up with as many memories as I desired, with a pre-paid shipping label for Fed-Ex. Packing material is provided, the box they send is actually quite large. I wrapped up several VHS tapes and small camcorder tapes (old Disney trips, Emily’s birth, Kyra playing outside as a toddler, etc) and took the box to the closest Fed-Ex location. Make sure you get a copy of the receipt, I paid nothing since it was a pre-paid label, and I had them check my taping to make sure it was good enough for the journey. All was well, took my receipt and then waited to hear from them. Yes, an exercise in trust, but from what I read, people LOVED them and I guess I just felt confidence in the process. The receipt also has a tracking number, so you can follow it’s path for peace of mind.

A week later, I received an email that my package had arrived and that they would be contacting me when my first memories were available. Of course, I sent mine out after Thanksgiving, and so the guessing game begun, would I get them in time for Christmas? And like any Company, they offered me a “rush job” charge to insure it would be done by then, so $50 later, I paid and waited.

It took about a week from paying that charge before I received an email that my first memory was available! I will never forget the excitement and joy of seeing the email as I was cooling down at the gym, Craig right next to me, I didn’t want to show my excitement because it was a surprise. We drive separately because I go earlier than him, so as soon as I grabbed my coat out of the locker room I sprinted to my car to watch the first memory.

It was my baby Kyra, my little one, now 29, carrying her baby doll in one of our backyards in the past. I watched, I cried, so happy to see my tiny Pookie again. The secret lasted all of the drive home, for I had to share it with someone or I was going to burst! I headed up to Craig’s office and showed him, and he got emotional and we both just ugly cried over old memories. Christmas came, and I was able to show many of the old memories to Kyra and Emily as a surprise. It was great to watch their reactions, and well worth the money.

When your memories are finished being digitized, they save them to your account. You have 30 days to download them, play them off the site, do whatever you want with them. I downloaded mine right away to my computer and then a backed them up on a passport for safe keeping. It’s great to do it this way because they are now files to send to friends and family, plus watch off your phone, computer, or tv. I chose the option to have them as files, but you can also choose to have them copied to DVDs for an extra fee.

All of my pieces of media cost around $15 each, totalling around $135 before tax for my 9. With the $50 extra “Christmas rush” cost, and then an added fee for sending my tapes back to me, it was around $220 and some change. There is NO option to ask them to throw away your tapes, I personally didn’t need them back, but it is a service that is a part of your agreement, and you cannot get past the checkout process without this fee included. It wasn’t outrageous, it’s general shipping fees. It takes 4 weeks from them receiving them to get them returned, and I would say that was on par for me. My box came back early January.

They will email you once a week while your memories are online, reminding you that you are in the 30 day window to download them. After the window is gone, I can still access my account and they offer you a chance to purchase a monthly or yearly subscription to your memories. They are still there, but you will have to spend more to get them after your 30 day window is up.

Now, the digitizing part came out beautifully except for two of our videos. I think the tapes must have been either damaged or just too old LOL. On the brighter side, one of my videos of my birthday at Disney was completely broken and they fixed it; the last VCR we tried to buy to watch them again began to eat the tape. Y’all know that feeling, you just die inside as you hear the crunching and then the pull out of the tape as it comes out like taffy. Ugh, something of the 80s and 90s I am happy to be past.

I HIGHLY recommend “IMemories” if you are looking to digitize your memories. They were efficient, clear on how to do things, steps were easy to follow, and the downloads were accessible. I felt they made the process worry free, and we all need that peace of mind when handing over our precious memories to a company we don’t know. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section or send me off an email. Check them out HERE to find out more.

****Side note, thanks to EVERYONE who have donated to my hard work. This is what I do for a living, and it is a passion for me, so tossing me a couple bucks below helps me SO MUCH with everything needed. If you can’t, please consider subscribing to the blog, LIKING the blog post, and sharing any content you enjoy– it helps me out SOOOO much! I love being able to bring you all these amazing places so that YOU can do them as well. I work mostly on donations so thanks again.

Published by Amy Joy

Inspiring adventure and joy, one day at a time. View all posts by Amy Joy