Yeah she thought she was handing down BVDs instead of DVDs.
I’m in the What’s The Big Deal? camp.
My VCR broke. It plays tapes and rewinds them, so I don’t know what broke. Still, I bought a new one. A friend’s VCR had broken a few months ago and he tried to fix it. He ended up giving it, its guts hanging out, to a friend of his who asked for it. (He thought he could fix it.) So I told my friend what happened to my VCR, that it seemed to work, and that he could have it if he wanted it. No big deal. I got rid of a ‘broken’ VCR, my friend got a semi-functional VCR for those rare times when he needs to view a tape, and a landfill has one cubic foot less in it.
Well, if sis had said “We’ve got a DVD player that nearly works, it’s yours if you want to try fixing it.”, then that’s one thing. As it is, she said “Here’s a gift.” Only later did she say, “Oh, BTW it doesn’t work, that’s why we replaced it.” That’s just irritating.
My aunt and uncle were having a garage sale, and my dad saw that they were selling their grill for about thirty bucks, so he bought it. My aunt ASSURED him it was perfectly fine.
Guess what…it wasn’t. Of course, my aunt is also the stingiest, cheapest person on the planet.
I had a roommate years ago that had a couch that was in her family for years. It was servicable and clean, but it had been passed around her family for about 20 years. When we went our seperate ways, she had her brother haul it out to his farm, we got a dozen or so people together with a keg and had a bonfire.
She even gave a farewell speech standing in front of it stating it was being put out of it’s misery and would never have to suffer the humiliation of being passed off to yet another family member. It really was quite touching, though the beer may have influenced my emotions. 
As far as broken VCR and DVD players go, I think I’m turning into my grandfather. I can’t turn down free shit even if it’s junk.
Every electronics junkie knows the drill, let’s repeat it together;
“You never know when you might need a part.”