Hi cbenham,
Why not use a digital standards converter to convert NTSC 3.58 525/60 to PAL 4.43 625/50. You would then have continuous access to all your usual NTSC programming.
I use a batch of these CDM-660 standards converter to generate NTSC USA from PAL to feed my US sets. Picture quality is surprisingly good, the transcoding only betrays itself when the camera pans a scene horizontally, there is some motion judder, but it's only annoying on a relatively large screen. As i collect small-screen sets (1 to 9 inches), it's barely noticeable.
An old VCR means maintenance, periodic head changes, etc.
If you still want an old Euro-VCR, you can find them easily in Germany:
http://sammeln.listings.ebay.de/TV-V...istingItemList
or the UK
Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France