Thank you letter for VHS player goes viral after moving readers to tears

When an eBay seller shared a heartfelt thank you letter he received it led to an outpouring of stories about little acts of kindness.

Matt Shoukry from St Louis, Missouri took to Reddit to share the tear-jerking letter that he received after selling an old VHS player on eBay.

‘It caught my eye because most mail I get is either an advertisement or a bill, but this was handwritten,’ he told the BBC.

‘I was blown away by how much emotion and feeling this gentleman had put into a note, and how I felt so connected to him,’ he continued.

‘It was so unexpected but so sweet, so I decided to share it with the world on Reddit,’ added Matt. ‘There is so much negative in the world today, it's refreshing to have something wholesome and positive to share with everyone.’

‘I found many old VHS tapes recently and wanted to see what is on them and realized I had no player,’ started the letter. ‘So I went to EBay for the first time and discovered your offer.

‘I bought your VHS and you shipped it within a few days. The VHS looks new and unused. Amazing. I had some issued getting it going which were mine and not the player. I am 86 and perhaps not up to my game but I do get there eventually. And I did, and discovered the VHS works perfectly.

‘Thank you so much for your care, your efforts, and your promptness.’

The kind stranger then brought readers to tears with what he wrote next.

‘I watched tapes of my retirement party from 25 years ago which I had never seen before. Jeez, were we young. Then a tape of my wedding with all the family and friends, many of which are no longer around. Then skiing trips, kids growing up, travels, and most importantly the gentle maturing of my family. Each one more fun than the last. All thanks to your generous selling of the VHS player.

He finished: ‘I thought you would appreciate how much someone has enjoyed your offer’.

Read more: Mum shares random act of kindness that melts hearts

After Matt shared the letter to Reddit, it was upvoted more than 160,000 times and gained nearly 2000 comments.

It was even shared to Twitter, where it received over 347,000 likes and was shared nearly 70,000 times, which led to a stream of heartfelt stories being shared across the social media platform.

‘I put some action figures on eBay,’ wrote one Twitter user, ‘a mom bought 2 but not the other 28 I had. She mssged to say her autistic son was excited to get them. She wished she could have bought more. I sent her all 30 of them, got a phone call, she thanked me and cried. We’re all friends to this day.’

‘I was selling my sons old wrestling stuff on eBay’ added another. ‘Bloke messaged asking how much I would take for 1 of the belts as his son wanted one for Christmas but he didn’t have much. I sent him 2 belts and some wrestlers FOC, he sent me a photo of his estatic son Xmas morning’.

‘I once gave my trainset to a chap I worked with who had muscular dystrophy, for him and his son,’ shared another Internet user. ‘He was moved beyond words. For years, whenever he saw me, he hurtled over in his chair, all tears and smiles, to thank me for the special times it enabled him to have with his son.’

We’re off to grab a box of tissues!

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