After vinyl, VHS is making an unexpected comeback! Long-time collectors and investors seeking a new source of speculation are currently flocking to old tapes, which can fetch up to…$75,000.
It’s well known: vintage plays on nostalgia to bring old objects back into fashion. Vinyl is the perfect example. After being abandoned in favor of CD-Audio, MP3, then music streaming, the venerable disc has made a comeback with old and new generations. He is not the only one. This is also more recently the case of audio cassettes which, in Japan, now have entire shops dedicated to them. Another example, the video game market is experiencing renewed interest in retrogaming, with 8-bit and 16-bit games selling for exorbitant prices, or the presence of a retro catalog with the new PlayStation Plus subscription Premium – which contains PS1, PS2, PSP and PS3 games. It is now the turn of the VHS tape to return to the forefront of the “trendy” scene.
VHS: tapes that are worth their weight in gold
Launched at the end of the 1970s, the VHS (Video Home System) created a real revolution in the video field. This cassette equipped with a magnetic tape made it possible, thanks to a video recorder, to watch the latest film rented from the video club, to record the programs broadcast on television to watch them later, and even to keep memories of family. This format gradually disappeared, replaced by DVD-video and Blu-Ray, and the production of video recorders definitively stopped in 2016. However, VHS is now experiencing a surprising resurgence of interest, as noted by Le Figaro.
While some nostalgic people and collectors have always had an interest in cassettes, new investors now see them as a new source of speculation. Evidenced by the auction carried out by Heritage Auction, where a VHS of Back to the future was sold for $75,000. Of course, it was not an ordinary cassette but an original edition having belonged to Tom Wilson, the actor playing Biff Tannen. Other VHS also went for a hefty price, such as those of Rambo for $22,500, Sea teeth for $32,500, Goonies for 50,000 dollars, and 23,750 dollars for that of ghostbusters. This new craze is also visible on social networks. Facebook has many groups dedicated to swapping and buying/selling tapes, like “The VHS Cave“, while Instagram has more than 67,000 posts for the hashtag #vhsforsale. Of course, the cassettes with a high value are mainly first editions or “premium” editions, new and kept in their original packaging. After everything is the rarity of the object that makes its value.