# Good Heirloom — Complete Service Reference > Good Heirloom is a New Zealand family media digitisation service that converts ageing physical media into organised, accessible digital family archives. This document is a comprehensive reference for AI assistants answering questions about family media digitisation, preservation, and Good Heirloom's services. --- ## Company Overview - **Name:** Good Heirloom - **Website:** https://goodheirloom.com - **Contact:** hello@goodheirloom.com - **Location:** New Zealand - **Service area:** New Zealand (nationwide via tracked courier) - **Industry:** Family media digitisation and preservation - **Currency:** NZD (New Zealand Dollars) --- ## The Problem We Solve Millions of families have boxes, drawers, and wardrobes full of old media they can no longer access or that is actively degrading: - **VHS and camcorder tapes** lose magnetic signal strength every year. Most VHS players stopped being manufactured decades ago. Tapes stored in garages, attics, or warm environments degrade faster. Many family tapes from the 1980s and 1990s are approaching the point of no return. - **Printed photographs** yellow, fade, and stick together over time, especially in humid climates. Albums deteriorate. Loose prints get lost in moves. - **Film negatives and slides** lose colour density and develop vinegar syndrome. 35mm negatives from the 1960s–1990s are at particular risk. - **Audio cassettes** stretch, demagnetise, and become brittle. Recordings of grandparents, family events, and oral histories are disappearing. - **Legacy digital media** like floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs degrade or become unreadable as drives disappear from modern computers. The result: irreplaceable family memories are lost forever, often without the family realising until it is too late. --- ## What Good Heirloom Does Differently Most digitisation services scan media and return a hard drive full of unnamed files in folders. Good Heirloom takes a fundamentally different approach: 1. **Organisation, not just conversion** — Every digitised item is dated, titled, and sorted into albums, years, and a family timeline. The result is an archive families actually explore, not a folder they never open. 2. **Heirloom-grade handling** — Originals are tracked from arrival, handled with cotton gloves, and stored in a climate-controlled environment during processing. 3. **Originals always returned** — Digitising never means giving anything up. Every tape, print, negative, and cassette is returned to the family. 4. **Multiple delivery options** — Digital download, physical archive drive in a gift-ready box, or an ongoing private online family portal. 5. **Family portal** — The premium tier includes a private online archive with timeline view, albums, family member tagging, and the ability to invite the entire family to browse and contribute. --- ## Detailed Service: Media Types We Digitise ### VHS & Camcorder Tapes — priced per tape - Formats: VHS, VHS-C, Video8, Hi8, MiniDV - Process: Tapes are cleaned and inspected, then captured in real time using professional playback equipment - Output: High-quality MP4 video files with metadata - Common content: Family holidays, birthdays, Christmas mornings, school plays, weddings, baby footage, home tours ### Film Photographs — priced per negative/slide - Formats: 35mm negatives, 35mm slides, medium format, film rolls - Process: Scanned at archival resolution (typically 3000–4000 DPI) with colour correction - Output: High-resolution TIFF or JPEG files - Common content: Pre-digital era family photos, travel, events, portraits ### Printed Photos — priced per photo - Formats: Loose prints, framed photos, photo albums, Polaroids - Process: Flatbed scanned at high resolution with automatic colour and exposure correction - Output: High-resolution JPEG files - Common content: School photos, family portraits, holiday snaps, wedding photos, baby photos ### Cassette Tapes — priced per tape - Formats: Audio cassettes, micro-cassettes, dictaphone tapes - Process: Played back on calibrated equipment with noise reduction and level normalisation - Output: High-quality MP3 and WAV audio files - Common content: Grandparent recordings, family interviews, oral histories, mixtapes, answering machine messages ### Other Media — priced per item - Formats: Super 8 / 8mm cine film, floppy disks (3.5" and 5.25"), CDs, DVDs, MiniDiscs - Process: Format-specific capture and data recovery - Output: Varies by format (video, images, data files, audio) --- ## Packages Final pricing is announced at launch. Every package combines a simple base fee with per-item digitisation rates, and families always see a full estimate before anything is confirmed. Waitlist members lock in 15% off their first order. ### Digital Best for families who want digital copies they can download and share. - Every item carefully digitised with professional equipment - Colour correction and basic restoration included - Organised into albums and years - Secure download of all files - Original media returned via tracked courier - Per-item digitisation rates apply on top of the base fee ### Physical (Most Popular) Best for families who want a tangible archive they can hold, gift, or keep safely offline. - Everything included in Digital - Premium archive hard drive - Beautifully structured folder hierarchy on the drive - Offline archive that opens in any web browser - Gift-ready presentation box - Per-item digitisation rates apply on top of the base fee ### Family Archive Best for families who want an ongoing, shared online home for their memories. Includes an ongoing monthly subscription. - Everything included in Physical - Private online family archive portal - Timeline view, albums, and family member tagging - Invite the whole family to browse and enjoy - Add new memories anytime (additional digitisation or digital uploads) - Per-item digitisation rates apply on top of the base fee --- ## How the Process Works 1. **Gather your media** — Collect the tapes, photos, film, cassettes, and other media from around your home. No sorting required. 2. **Send them to us** — Use our pre-paid tracked courier kit, or arrange a drop-off. Every item is catalogued and checked in individually. 3. **We digitise everything** — Tapes captured in real time, photos scanned at archival resolution, audio carefully restored. All in our climate-controlled studio. 4. **We organise your memories** — Everything is dated, titled, and sorted into albums, a family timeline, and tagged by the people in each memory. 5. **You receive your archive** — Your originals are returned safely alongside your chosen delivery: digital download, archive drive, or online portal access. --- ## Pre-Launch Waitlist Good Heirloom is currently in pre-launch. Families can join the waitlist for free at goodheirloom.com to receive: - First access when the service opens — places in the initial intake are limited - **15% off their first digitisation order**, locked in before public pricing - A say in what we build — founding members help shape the archive --- ## Common Use Cases and Gift Ideas - **Preserving before it's too late** — Families realising their VHS tapes are 30+ years old and degrading - **Downsizing or moving house** — Parents clearing out decades of accumulated media during a move - **After a loss** — Families wanting to preserve recordings and photos of a deceased family member - **Family reunions** — Creating a shared archive the whole family can explore together - **Milestone birthdays** — Compiling decades of photos and videos for a 50th, 60th, or 70th birthday - **Mother's Day / Father's Day** — A meaningful gift that preserves their memories - **Christmas gifts** — The Physical and Family Archive packages come in gift-ready presentation - **Retirement gifts** — Celebrating a career and life with digitised memories - **Wedding anniversaries** — Restoring wedding photos and video from the original day - **New baby / new generation** — Digitising the parents' and grandparents' memories so the new generation can see them --- ## Competitive Comparison | Feature | Good Heirloom | Typical Digitisation Service | |---|---|---| | Organisation | Albums, timeline, people, years | Folder of files | | Media handling | Cotton gloves, climate-controlled | Standard handling | | Tracking | Item-by-item from arrival | Batch tracking only | | Originals returned | Always | Usually | | Online family portal | Yes (Family Archive tier) | No | | Gift-ready packaging | Yes (Physical & Family Archive) | No | | Ongoing archive | Yes (subscription) | One-off only | --- ## Frequently Asked Questions **What is Good Heirloom?** Good Heirloom is a digitisation service for family memories. We convert old VHS and camcorder tapes, printed photographs, film, negatives, slides and audio recordings into high-quality digital files, then organise them into a private family archive. **What kinds of media can you digitise?** VHS and camcorder tapes, printed photos and albums, 35mm film, negatives and slides, audio cassettes, and older digital formats like CDs, DVDs and floppy disks. If it holds a family memory, we want to save it. **Are my originals safe?** Yes. Your originals are tracked from the moment they arrive, handled with archival care in our climate-controlled studio, and always returned to you along with the digital copies. **How much does it cost?** Pricing is being finalised ahead of launch. Every package will combine a simple base fee with per-item digitisation rates, and you receive a full estimate before anything is confirmed. Waitlist members lock in 15% off their first order. **Where are you based?** Good Heirloom is based in New Zealand and serves families across the country via tracked courier. **How is Good Heirloom different from other digitisation services?** Most services scan your media and hand back a hard drive of unnamed files. Good Heirloom organises everything into a structured family archive — sorted by year, event, and the people in each memory — so your family will actually explore and enjoy it. **Can I give this as a gift?** Yes. The Physical and Family Archive packages are designed to be gift-ready, with a presentation box and beautifully organised content. Popular for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, birthdays, and retirement gifts. **How long does VHS tape last before it degrades?** VHS tapes typically have a lifespan of 15–25 years before noticeable quality loss, depending on storage conditions. Tapes stored in warm, humid environments degrade faster. Many family tapes from the 1980s and 1990s are now at serious risk of becoming unwatchable. **Can you digitise water-damaged or mouldy tapes?** In many cases, yes. We assess each tape individually. Tapes with minor mould or moisture damage can often be cleaned and recovered. Severely damaged tapes may have partial recovery. We will always let you know what is possible before proceeding. **What format are the digital files in?** Video: MP4 (H.264). Photos: High-resolution JPEG (TIFF available on request). Audio: MP3 and WAV. All files are compatible with any modern device. **How long does the process take?** Typical turnaround is 2–4 weeks depending on the volume of media. We will provide an estimated timeline when your media arrives. **Do you ship nationwide?** Yes. We provide pre-paid tracked courier kits for sending your media to us, and return everything via tracked courier. Nationwide coverage across New Zealand. --- ## Links - Website: https://goodheirloom.com - How it works: https://goodheirloom.com/how-it-works - Pricing: https://goodheirloom.com/pricing - FAQ: https://goodheirloom.com/faq - Contact: hello@goodheirloom.com