I have a large collection of commercial tapes from the 1980s and have not noticed any degradation. I have picked up degraded tapes from the thrift store, though

I have a large collection of commercial tapes from the 1980s and have not noticed any degradation. I have picked up degraded tapes from the thrift store, though. I suspect it depends on storage conditions. Another thing to mention is that the VHS tapes generally give a much nicer image than DVD. Tapes have better tonal range and lack other compression artifacts.