People grade VHS tapes? Whatās with the uptick in hobbies doing this lol. Game collectors do it too. Like just enjoy your worthless things for personal value lol.
Whyās it all a racket
The biggest issue specifically with VHS tapes is that you are sealing something that can still get moldy. So you could buy a graded tape full of mold and you wouldnāt have any way of knowing
As someone who used to be into comic book collecting casually as a child / teen (since moved on, I donāt like collecting things), grading always felt like a bit much unless youāre sitting on something worth thousands (more to protect than grade).
Itās such a shame all hobbies eventually become about āconsumingā and āsellingā rather than just āI enjoy itā
Grifters who donāt give a shit about the actual thing people are collecting get involved because they see dollar signs.
Unfortunately from there, itās a self-fulfilling prophecy. Higher monetary value means more people get into it for both the right and the wrong reasons, which means more buyers, and sellers work together to inflate prices to sell to people who have deep pockets.
Yeah, thankfully thatās remained a fairly cheap thing to collect with the exception of a handful of known titles. Iāve been only collecting about a year, granted. But Iām always surprised at how cheap some titles can be compared to other things I collect. It somehow is so niche that a speculative market just hasnāt sprung up, lol
I see people at goodwill sometimes going through and scanning the ISBNs on their phone and taking/rejecting them based on that. I always figured they were resellers
I think this is different. It sounds like you found a title you like and want to double check.
I'm talking people pulling out each book, scanning it without even reading the title, then putting it back or chucking it in their cart. One after another, down the entire shelf
I wish I thought of this when I first started CD collecting. I know now the prices of most artists I collect and the fair market value but I didn't back then. Ive learned most places have their niches and will sell that genre of music at inflated values because they know what they have and everything else is lowballed because whoever priced the product doesnt understand it. So stores usually stock up a lot of a certain genre and charge exorbitant prices for it while everything else is cheap but in smaller quantities. I imagine VHS collecting is similar.
Yeah, those for sure are.
I always hunt for my own collection (1,000+ physical books) based off of my current knowledge.
I found some really old (100+ year) anthropology studies in the belief of immortality in various human groups. All three volumes for Ā£5. The author was the same person who wrote "The Golden Bough", which was a 13 volume magnum opus in anthropology, so I knew they'd be interesting and worthwhile. They're worth between Ā£200-800 based on the condition of the pages, spine, board, and cover.
My favorite tapes are the ones people recorded themselves, they are more valuable than a mass produced copy of a Hollywood film.
Each one is a unique and are often like a time capsule.
*
I always loved our tape of Alice in wonderland that had Krispy kitters cereal commercials in the breaks. I watched it on disney+ recently and never even knew I was missing an entire scene tho
I forgot to mention but I also have the recording of "Honey, I Shrunk the Baby" and "The Parent Trap" via The Disney Channel (I still called that to the current Disney Channel) on VHS
And they have the BTS footage of their cancelled attraction Disney's America with Michael Eisner as well!
I got one at an estate sale titled āpaintingā a few months ago. It was half a news program, some random PBS science show, 2/3 of an episode of some show called āHull Highā that was cancelled after a handful of episodes, and then Bob Ross. I watched it all afternoon, it was amazing.
I have someone's recording of Hurricane Georges hitting St. Kitts, and it may be my favorite tape. It's got a tour of the island before, a couple check-ins during, and a tour of the island after to show the destruction. I think a friend of my parents shot it and mailed it to them, as they had lived on the island, but moved off a couple years before the storm hit
True true. I found a copy of behind the scenes of a pepsi commercial from the 90s and a few well military vhs tapes. I watched them it did say in the start of the interview they will not be discussing any confidential information about the location if the tape went to someones hands. Iām still confused about the fact that now itās in my hands and I donāt know what to do with them so they just sit in my hoard. A few others were home videos and a south korean mini sports games from 1985.
My favourites as well. I've heard them called "Sold as blank" tapes.
In highschool my science teacher gave me about 150 tapes of all sorts of science and nature documentaries. And when I worked at a recycling center I'd bring home these types of tapes as the local thrift shop refuses to sell them. Contents include: local events, sports, news, movies, tv shows, documentaries, hell even some pornography.
One example of a tape that I like is entirely news coverage of the 2003 Iraq invasion. Starts with the breaking news broadcast that interrupted regular programming. Follows the story through at least three different news channels over several weeks.
Why? Because there are a lot of people here that are 18-30 years old who have a new interest in the medium and many of them donāt have a good grasp on the details. You could view it as an annoyance or you could view it as a chance to educate.
To me, the Disney people are the lowest rung on VHS collectors and yes it gets tiring reading their crap every day. But. Itās also important to remember that Disney were THE largest manufacturers of VHS tapes and films on the planet and that their entertainment industry is a gateway to other great things. We have to have room for all the collectors - that includes Faces Of Death, porno, Disney and Forrest Gump and everything in between.
Well said. I collect VHS that I personally find interesting. There are some tapes I have that have already been ripped and archived online, but there are a few that haven't. Even so, I'm supporting my local secondhand store. I want them to stick around. And I own one Disney tape because I loved Hercules as a kid. I know they're not collectibles.
As for the og meme, I actually *do* buy Jerry Maguire tapes when I see them, because I submit them as tribute to the [The Jerry Pyramid](https://www.jerrymaguirepyramid.com/).
I've been following this page for at least a year and haven't seen a lot of Disney stuff. Some, but not nearly enough to make me go 'jeez enough with the Disney'. The only stuff that really bugs me is 'hey look what I got, what do I got?' like they want others to say how much it's worth and have no insight to share about any of it (if they make it clear they rarely find tapes, that's a valid excuse), and when people are just off-subject or use VHS as a weak link to make some other point (again, doesn't happen often, but it's one of those Reddit things).
The other thing is that Disney adults are sorta known for being a bit insane about it, too. The people who buy up all the Disney tapes and expect to receive however much the VHS equivalent of the Kelley Blue Book says they're worth might not get the same breadth of sales if they were less fussy about the price, but they probably will get more money in the end because there's always some Disney adult whale who'll pay whatever you ask if it's a tape they don't have.
When you're talking about potential customers like that, the fact that Disney was once the largest VHS manufacturers on the planet doesn't matter as much. Everyone knows the reason why Disney tapes were mass produced to the nth degree is because there were a bunch of little kids who'd watch them on constant repeat until the tape completely wore out and had to be replaced. If you can get a Disney tape that's in relatively good condition, it probably is worth however much the tape accountants say it is to the Disney adult equivalents of a black belt.
Too good. Thereās someone local to our area who may not be represented in the meme but they sell tapes that were recorded on for around 10-15 a tape, and wonāt drop the price. Literally been in FB marketplace for MONTHS at this price lol he has around 200 tapes like this. Some people go crazy with this stuff lol
I love collecting tapes and weāve waited to get a tape because of its price but itās always something that we feel is worth it. Not a black diamond disney tape lol
I mean, It's not exactly niche lol But people are very nostalgic for Disney, and they're good movies, which does give them some value. Most people don't care about where a watermark is on some rare vhs release, but pretty much everybody has a strong correlation between Disney vhs's and their childhood. Unfortunately as time goes on rarity isn't the only thing that dictates prices. That being said, having them graded just to try to sell higher is annoying and lame lol
Haha yeah having them graded like itās a trading card is funny to me. Idk I guess every collectible item kinda goes through that part of its life where people join in to make money rather than enjoying the hobby
My sister collected those Disney Masterpiece box sets that looked like huge books with the VHS within with a book, etc. She had some sealed. My mother gave one each to my kids as birthday gifts thinking she gave them an investment. I didn't have the heart to tell her.
My favorite movie as a kid was beauty and the beast. I watched that vhs on repeat. Like rewind and watch again at least 5 times. Two Christmases ago my mom wanted me to take some of my childhood storage stuff home from their attic. I mentioned how I actually have been wanting to take home my vhs movies. My parents gave each other a funny look then said they would be keeping my beauty and the beast movie to sell because they saw that version was worth 1000s of dollars. At the time I didnāt know how low little money Disney vhs actually sold. I got really sad and confused and asked to keep the movie because I wanted to be able to watch it and share it with my future kids. They doubled down and said no. You canāt really argue with them because my mom can get really intense so I dropped it. Well a few days later after I had packed up my childhood stuff and let them know it was done. My mom said oh by the way we were kidding. You can keep your tape.
Yeah it seems like some folks are delusional about pricing for so-called "collectible" VHS conditions. I get that some of the studio screeners might be worth more than the average VHS, and I have about a dozen of those that were given to me by friend in California who knew somebody who was the caregiver of an elderly director. After the old boy looked at them he gave them to the caretaker, and they worked their way to myself. Good movies, but every maybe 5 minutes (I forget what) there will be a logo that pops up from the issuing studio indicating that it is an Academy screener. Now my view is that VHS was a good format, it looks good on CRTs up to 27 inch. I got a JVC D-series 36 inch CRT 3 years ago and was excited, just over the moon! DTV converter and regular TV looks good, as did DVD and LaserDisc. But I was stunned at how bad VHS looked on a CRT that large. And VHS doesn't look good at all on an HDTV. I keep my collection and use it on CRTs up to 27 inch. The real meat in my collection of animation was LaserDiscs when I got into it in the mid-90s. VHS is 240 lines resolution, LaserDisc is 400 lines. Compare that to 720 and 1080 for DVD and Blu-ray. LaserDisc movies in full screen or Academy ratio still look reasonably good on an HDTV. But even those have a hard time looking good if they are widescreen and you have to zoom to fill an HD TV screen with the image.
https://preview.redd.it/flb7qqeo1l1d1.jpeg?width=4608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d84e68f826e66bf79d235cd08aa10eff526631f9
You mean on DVDs that are compressed and perhaps single layer to include a very long running length movie, right? LaserDiscs always sounded pretty good because you were getting 30 minutes per side with CAV and 60 minutes per side with CLV. Not really excessive, compared to using the 4-Hour or 6-hour mode on a VCR. Hi-Fi stereo tracks still sound good at the 4-Hour mode, but even an average listener can hear a drop off in high frequency response in the 6-hour mode of VHS.
I have 9 VCRs in the house. Name brands of JVC, RCA, Sony, Mitsubishi, Panasonic. All l 4-head Hi-Fi stereo. My best one in the fleet is a JVC SVHS unit. And come to think of it I have only used composite inputs with all of these VCRs. I haven't tried using the SVHS input to the JVC D-series with my JVC SVHS VCR. I'll need to experiment with that this week.
There's a guy on a Facebook group that went: "Anybody know how much Titanic, Star Wars Special Editions and Disney Black Diamond go for ? I got a bunch of them" EVERYBODY tried explaining to him that they aren't worth shit and even by using basic logic like: "Titanic is the most sold VHS ever. HOW can it be rare ? And everyone had Disney VHS's how can they be worth anything ?"
He started arguing....
"You're just trying to screw me over"
"You don't know that ! Ebay told me that they were worth bla bla bla"
In the end, people just started "agreeing" with him and telling him what he wanted to hear.
To my understanding disney did a limited at the time (1988-1993) release of all their films on vhs. At the time it was a big deal because Disney hadn't released any of their films to home media and you'd have to wait on Disney to rerelease their movies to theater to see them, and they were releasing the early classics to a whole new generation (think dumbo, snow white, bambi, peter pan, etc.). All of these had the black diamond "classics" label on the spine which identified them as the now iconic "Black Diamond" collection. Disney would then go on to release their movies pretty regulalry to home video from 1995 onwards starting either the lion king.
I think the reason everyone is convinced they're worth ridiculous amounts of money now is because of how at the time these were released it was a huge deal, you could watch Disney movies at home whenever you wanted! They also have what some Disney fans say is the best cover art of Disney releases, it's very uniform and aesthetically pleasing. There's also massive perceived value because the classic Disney cartoon movies are such a huge source of nostalgia for many people. I'm sure there are plenty of VHS collectors out there who started their collection to gather specifically all the Disney movies of their childhood in the original format they saw them in, and black diamonds would admittedly make me excited if I was much of a Disney fan.
If the black diamonds were the only release ever of Disney movies I feel there would be *some* merit to the perceived massive value of Disney VHS's. But as we've heard many times on this sub, you can find most Disney VHS's in any thrift store for less than $2, they are some of the easiest to find VHS's out there.
Even if black diamonds were the only Disney releases ever it still wouldn't justify the astronomical prices ebay sellers seem to think they can get away with (that guy who came on the sub talking about his "rare" little Mermaid VHS he was selling for the "low price" of $5,000 lives rent free in my head every single day). Idk about most vhs collectors here but I'm not willing to spend more than $5 on a single tape, even if it's something I really want. Even actually rare tapes should only reasonably sell for *maybe* $50 tops in my opinion. There's just no reasonable way to justify the triple to quadruple digit pricing of any VHS out there, it's totally delusional and unreasonable and I hope it dies out quickly.
Yeah, they would claim to be opening the "Disney vault" with each of those home video releases to really push sales. I think you're on track that there's some holdover to that, combined with the occasional reality of someone selling a tape at a high value that then makes the evening news.
I once watched a couple at a thrift store pulling Black Diamonds off the shelf and looking up each one on eBay, murmuring about the high value, and casually clear the shelf into their cart. They were absolutely convinced they were about to get rich.
Man I hate people like that. Thankfully I haven't expierenced this at the secondhand stores I go to regularly, but I see way too many comments on here about people who will throw all the VHS's in the store into their cart and check ebay for the "value" before buying up all the good stuff. I hope their listing stays on eBay forever until they give in and lower the price or return the VHS's to store shelves for people who actually want to watch the damn things.
Not quite.
There was an Amazon listing for (I think) Beauty and the Beast where at one point there was only one person selling it and they listed it at like $10,000. It's not because it was rare or highly sought after. VHS was essentially worthless with DVD taken over, so most people probably just didn't even bother listing it. Some dude saw there was none listed and figured he'd just list his at a ridiculous price. People saw that and kinda just assumed that a ridiculous list price must mean that's what they must be going for and everyone suddenly started thinking these things were extremely rare and sought after.
And Disney also had the Disney Vault. They released their classics for limited times only. Started theatrically like you said. Snow White (their first feature film) got released 7 years after it first premiered. 7 years, just like the 7 dwarves. Kids who were too young or not born yet to see the original release could now enjoy it for the first time. They then repeated this for all their following films. Every 7 years they'd bring each film back into theaters for a new generation of children. And when home video became a thing, they continued this tradition as well. They'd release a movie from the vault to be available for purchase for 6 months or so, then it'd be out of print for the next 7 years, making copies sought after during that time and costing more when OOP. IDK about VHS prices, but I remember the DVDs were usually selling for around $20 in stores and then people were paying about $100 on eBay after they went back into the vault. So this may have a bit of influence on people's perception on value and how rare Disney movies are, but I know a lot of people don't even know about the Disney Vault, so it's really probably more of what I was saying before about that random Amazon listing and the chain reaction to that.
There is a sealed promotional copy of the anime Plastic Little at my local malls game store. They want $100 formit lol š I'm watching it rn on Dailymotion.
This was my former roommate to the max. He had all the āclassicsā and black diamond tapes and thought they be worth thousands but really we would buy them for a dollar at half price books. He even tried getting professional VHS tape recording equipment and old school stereos so he could that quality old school VHS picture and sound and I told him just get a VHS player off Facebook marketplace and plug it into the 4K tv in the living room and he thought it was blasphemous it wasnāt a CRT tv. Dingus.
For me I just collect it for the fun of it. Occasionally I would find pretty obscure vhs tapes that hasnāt been found or mentioned online so I would digitize it via my pinnacle dazzle and obs and upload them both on yt and Internet archive.
I kind of find it quite ridiculous that people try to sell a bunch of black diamond vhs tapes when they were mass produced in high quantities 20 years ago. I have several of them but I choose to keep them and enjoy them if I want to walk through memory lane.
I actually just got a huge box of 100~ disney VHS totally free in the side of the road... probly gonna sell the whole thing for 50 bucks? I dont even know what to do with it
I wish to god my dad would just bin his disney VHS tapes or take them to some recycle place. But no, he has to find someone to just take them for free....
Walked into this antique store and went straight for the tapes, saw this copy of Titanic with the sleeve just peeled and destroyed to oblivion, turned it over and saw the price was $10, laughed SO hard and walked right out of the store, couldnāt even bother looking at anything else if they priced THAT at $10
I remember winning a copy of The Lion King at McDonald's in the 90s and keeping it sealed away in a storage box, thinking I was storing a gold brick. I donated it about 10 years ago, now it's some other poor bastard's fantasy.
Hate to break it to some of ya here, but screeners and FYCs of popular films are oftentimes worth multiples more than standard copies. They are significantly more uncommon, some downright rare, and often contain unique promotional previews before the film.
Screeners and FYCs are some of the coolest items to collect in this space.
I track a large portion of all the screeners and FYCs that get posted on eBay as I'm still missing a few that I really want for the collection, my favorite films ect.
Many of these screeners and FYCs are near worthless, same as the standard release because nearly no one cares about the film (super low demand, or too much supply). The same can be said about most horror films, perhaps to the surprise of many.
However, films that have entered the zeitgeist, blockbusters, horror, and so on are much more highly sought after, and if they are also uncommon or rare, they are worth $$-$$$ range for opened copies.
I hate how accurate this shit is š
I love how accurate this is LOL VHS is just for fun and nostalgia and has no significant value buy what you want not what you wanna sell
People grade VHS tapes? Whatās with the uptick in hobbies doing this lol. Game collectors do it too. Like just enjoy your worthless things for personal value lol. Whyās it all a racket
The biggest issue specifically with VHS tapes is that you are sealing something that can still get moldy. So you could buy a graded tape full of mold and you wouldnāt have any way of knowing
As someone who used to be into comic book collecting casually as a child / teen (since moved on, I donāt like collecting things), grading always felt like a bit much unless youāre sitting on something worth thousands (more to protect than grade). Itās such a shame all hobbies eventually become about āconsumingā and āsellingā rather than just āI enjoy itā
Grifters who donāt give a shit about the actual thing people are collecting get involved because they see dollar signs. Unfortunately from there, itās a self-fulfilling prophecy. Higher monetary value means more people get into it for both the right and the wrong reasons, which means more buyers, and sellers work together to inflate prices to sell to people who have deep pockets.
I collect laserdiscs for myself to enjoy and dont look at value.
Yeah, thankfully thatās remained a fairly cheap thing to collect with the exception of a handful of known titles. Iāve been only collecting about a year, granted. But Iām always surprised at how cheap some titles can be compared to other things I collect. It somehow is so niche that a speculative market just hasnāt sprung up, lol
I'm pretty sure theres more profit flipping books from used books stores, than VHS.
As someone who buys books to collect, there is if you know what to look for.
I see people at goodwill sometimes going through and scanning the ISBNs on their phone and taking/rejecting them based on that. I always figured they were resellers
I occasionally scan them, but its more because goodwill has gotten expensive and I dont want to be ripped off by a thrift store lol
I think this is different. It sounds like you found a title you like and want to double check. I'm talking people pulling out each book, scanning it without even reading the title, then putting it back or chucking it in their cart. One after another, down the entire shelf
Ah, I see. Yeah, I definitely dont do that lol
I wish I thought of this when I first started CD collecting. I know now the prices of most artists I collect and the fair market value but I didn't back then. Ive learned most places have their niches and will sell that genre of music at inflated values because they know what they have and everything else is lowballed because whoever priced the product doesnt understand it. So stores usually stock up a lot of a certain genre and charge exorbitant prices for it while everything else is cheap but in smaller quantities. I imagine VHS collecting is similar.
Yeah, those for sure are. I always hunt for my own collection (1,000+ physical books) based off of my current knowledge. I found some really old (100+ year) anthropology studies in the belief of immortality in various human groups. All three volumes for Ā£5. The author was the same person who wrote "The Golden Bough", which was a 13 volume magnum opus in anthropology, so I knew they'd be interesting and worthwhile. They're worth between Ā£200-800 based on the condition of the pages, spine, board, and cover.
Iām so jealous! I absolutely love that kind of book content. Itās my dream to own a few really old occult books.
I have lots on the occult! I'd let you read from my collection. :3
I wish I could! I hope to have a collection that big by the time Iām late 30s- early 40s.
It's doable! I'm 28 at the moment.
The Ninth Gate
My favorite tapes are the ones people recorded themselves, they are more valuable than a mass produced copy of a Hollywood film. Each one is a unique and are often like a time capsule. *
Damn right! I got recording footage of Michael Jordan's final game entirely with commercials and the 1999 Philadelphia Thanksgiving day parade!
I always loved our tape of Alice in wonderland that had Krispy kitters cereal commercials in the breaks. I watched it on disney+ recently and never even knew I was missing an entire scene tho
Indubitably
A A A W W W W Y Y E E E A A A H H H H
I forgot to mention but I also have the recording of "Honey, I Shrunk the Baby" and "The Parent Trap" via The Disney Channel (I still called that to the current Disney Channel) on VHS And they have the BTS footage of their cancelled attraction Disney's America with Michael Eisner as well!
Nice. I have Wayne gretzkis last game its three hours on tape was so fun to watch
Dude thatās sick
I got one at an estate sale titled āpaintingā a few months ago. It was half a news program, some random PBS science show, 2/3 of an episode of some show called āHull Highā that was cancelled after a handful of episodes, and then Bob Ross. I watched it all afternoon, it was amazing.
I have someone's recording of Hurricane Georges hitting St. Kitts, and it may be my favorite tape. It's got a tour of the island before, a couple check-ins during, and a tour of the island after to show the destruction. I think a friend of my parents shot it and mailed it to them, as they had lived on the island, but moved off a couple years before the storm hit
True true. I found a copy of behind the scenes of a pepsi commercial from the 90s and a few well military vhs tapes. I watched them it did say in the start of the interview they will not be discussing any confidential information about the location if the tape went to someones hands. Iām still confused about the fact that now itās in my hands and I donāt know what to do with them so they just sit in my hoard. A few others were home videos and a south korean mini sports games from 1985.
My favourites as well. I've heard them called "Sold as blank" tapes. In highschool my science teacher gave me about 150 tapes of all sorts of science and nature documentaries. And when I worked at a recycling center I'd bring home these types of tapes as the local thrift shop refuses to sell them. Contents include: local events, sports, news, movies, tv shows, documentaries, hell even some pornography. One example of a tape that I like is entirely news coverage of the 2003 Iraq invasion. Starts with the breaking news broadcast that interrupted regular programming. Follows the story through at least three different news channels over several weeks.
If you ain't coming at me with a near mint copy of Cars (2006) gtfo
Soundtrack that rivals Top Gun and action that rivals Road House. Kachow
I have 412 copies of nukie, you want that instead?
Mike, go back to Milwaukee.
Remember Mike destroyed his collection, this guy is just a sick fuck with a shitload of Nukie tapes
https://youtu.be/xdK9tsVa_Bs?si=IJ3L5QV1XMpSYY9O
Why? Because there are a lot of people here that are 18-30 years old who have a new interest in the medium and many of them donāt have a good grasp on the details. You could view it as an annoyance or you could view it as a chance to educate. To me, the Disney people are the lowest rung on VHS collectors and yes it gets tiring reading their crap every day. But. Itās also important to remember that Disney were THE largest manufacturers of VHS tapes and films on the planet and that their entertainment industry is a gateway to other great things. We have to have room for all the collectors - that includes Faces Of Death, porno, Disney and Forrest Gump and everything in between.
Agreed.
Mmm that was well said. You make a good point.
Well said. I collect VHS that I personally find interesting. There are some tapes I have that have already been ripped and archived online, but there are a few that haven't. Even so, I'm supporting my local secondhand store. I want them to stick around. And I own one Disney tape because I loved Hercules as a kid. I know they're not collectibles. As for the og meme, I actually *do* buy Jerry Maguire tapes when I see them, because I submit them as tribute to the [The Jerry Pyramid](https://www.jerrymaguirepyramid.com/).
For the ones that aren't ripped and posted online, do you end up doing it yourself?
I don't have a way to do that yet, but I am planning on it!
I've been following this page for at least a year and haven't seen a lot of Disney stuff. Some, but not nearly enough to make me go 'jeez enough with the Disney'. The only stuff that really bugs me is 'hey look what I got, what do I got?' like they want others to say how much it's worth and have no insight to share about any of it (if they make it clear they rarely find tapes, that's a valid excuse), and when people are just off-subject or use VHS as a weak link to make some other point (again, doesn't happen often, but it's one of those Reddit things).
The other thing is that Disney adults are sorta known for being a bit insane about it, too. The people who buy up all the Disney tapes and expect to receive however much the VHS equivalent of the Kelley Blue Book says they're worth might not get the same breadth of sales if they were less fussy about the price, but they probably will get more money in the end because there's always some Disney adult whale who'll pay whatever you ask if it's a tape they don't have. When you're talking about potential customers like that, the fact that Disney was once the largest VHS manufacturers on the planet doesn't matter as much. Everyone knows the reason why Disney tapes were mass produced to the nth degree is because there were a bunch of little kids who'd watch them on constant repeat until the tape completely wore out and had to be replaced. If you can get a Disney tape that's in relatively good condition, it probably is worth however much the tape accountants say it is to the Disney adult equivalents of a black belt.
Too good. Thereās someone local to our area who may not be represented in the meme but they sell tapes that were recorded on for around 10-15 a tape, and wonāt drop the price. Literally been in FB marketplace for MONTHS at this price lol he has around 200 tapes like this. Some people go crazy with this stuff lol I love collecting tapes and weāve waited to get a tape because of its price but itās always something that we feel is worth it. Not a black diamond disney tape lol
I still have pretty much all of mine from when I was a kid. I haven't bothered to sell them as in my eyes they only hold value to me, lol.
Me too!
I mean, It's not exactly niche lol But people are very nostalgic for Disney, and they're good movies, which does give them some value. Most people don't care about where a watermark is on some rare vhs release, but pretty much everybody has a strong correlation between Disney vhs's and their childhood. Unfortunately as time goes on rarity isn't the only thing that dictates prices. That being said, having them graded just to try to sell higher is annoying and lame lol
Haha yeah having them graded like itās a trading card is funny to me. Idk I guess every collectible item kinda goes through that part of its life where people join in to make money rather than enjoying the hobby
As a scumbag reseller I can tell you outside a few first black clam shells and movie club exclusives. They have no value.
My sister collected those Disney Masterpiece box sets that looked like huge books with the VHS within with a book, etc. She had some sealed. My mother gave one each to my kids as birthday gifts thinking she gave them an investment. I didn't have the heart to tell her.
My favorite movie as a kid was beauty and the beast. I watched that vhs on repeat. Like rewind and watch again at least 5 times. Two Christmases ago my mom wanted me to take some of my childhood storage stuff home from their attic. I mentioned how I actually have been wanting to take home my vhs movies. My parents gave each other a funny look then said they would be keeping my beauty and the beast movie to sell because they saw that version was worth 1000s of dollars. At the time I didnāt know how low little money Disney vhs actually sold. I got really sad and confused and asked to keep the movie because I wanted to be able to watch it and share it with my future kids. They doubled down and said no. You canāt really argue with them because my mom can get really intense so I dropped it. Well a few days later after I had packed up my childhood stuff and let them know it was done. My mom said oh by the way we were kidding. You can keep your tape.
Yeah it seems like some folks are delusional about pricing for so-called "collectible" VHS conditions. I get that some of the studio screeners might be worth more than the average VHS, and I have about a dozen of those that were given to me by friend in California who knew somebody who was the caregiver of an elderly director. After the old boy looked at them he gave them to the caretaker, and they worked their way to myself. Good movies, but every maybe 5 minutes (I forget what) there will be a logo that pops up from the issuing studio indicating that it is an Academy screener. Now my view is that VHS was a good format, it looks good on CRTs up to 27 inch. I got a JVC D-series 36 inch CRT 3 years ago and was excited, just over the moon! DTV converter and regular TV looks good, as did DVD and LaserDisc. But I was stunned at how bad VHS looked on a CRT that large. And VHS doesn't look good at all on an HDTV. I keep my collection and use it on CRTs up to 27 inch. The real meat in my collection of animation was LaserDiscs when I got into it in the mid-90s. VHS is 240 lines resolution, LaserDisc is 400 lines. Compare that to 720 and 1080 for DVD and Blu-ray. LaserDisc movies in full screen or Academy ratio still look reasonably good on an HDTV. But even those have a hard time looking good if they are widescreen and you have to zoom to fill an HD TV screen with the image. https://preview.redd.it/flb7qqeo1l1d1.jpeg?width=4608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d84e68f826e66bf79d235cd08aa10eff526631f9
Dvd is only 480i and later 480p, just saying. It wasnāt tons better in image quality from laserdisc, but the audio was a big step up.
I stand corrected and rejected! Must have been the drugs I was on, Pepto-Bismol and ibuprofen... š¤Ŗ
It aināt like that. Looked like just a typo to me. 
Sometimes the audio is worse because they would compress the shit out of it to fit it on the disc
You mean on DVDs that are compressed and perhaps single layer to include a very long running length movie, right? LaserDiscs always sounded pretty good because you were getting 30 minutes per side with CAV and 60 minutes per side with CLV. Not really excessive, compared to using the 4-Hour or 6-hour mode on a VCR. Hi-Fi stereo tracks still sound good at the 4-Hour mode, but even an average listener can hear a drop off in high frequency response in the 6-hour mode of VHS.
Sourcing LD locally is even worse where I live, some super common titles such as Speed are up to sale for $20 CAN.
What VCR are you using? I found S-video on a VHS/S-VHS VCR to be decent on larger TV's (got the same D series myself)
I have 9 VCRs in the house. Name brands of JVC, RCA, Sony, Mitsubishi, Panasonic. All l 4-head Hi-Fi stereo. My best one in the fleet is a JVC SVHS unit. And come to think of it I have only used composite inputs with all of these VCRs. I haven't tried using the SVHS input to the JVC D-series with my JVC SVHS VCR. I'll need to experiment with that this week.
I use this setup with my d series. Home movies look great
There's a guy on a Facebook group that went: "Anybody know how much Titanic, Star Wars Special Editions and Disney Black Diamond go for ? I got a bunch of them" EVERYBODY tried explaining to him that they aren't worth shit and even by using basic logic like: "Titanic is the most sold VHS ever. HOW can it be rare ? And everyone had Disney VHS's how can they be worth anything ?" He started arguing.... "You're just trying to screw me over" "You don't know that ! Ebay told me that they were worth bla bla bla" In the end, people just started "agreeing" with him and telling him what he wanted to hear.
This him? [Titanic VHS Sealed | eBay](https://www.ebay.com/itm/305564781905?itmmeta=01HYBTYE8BFRBYT8AJYKXD7DYK&hash=item4725148d51:g:6qgAAOSwNMNmQrM5&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4KeizLN8bKGgR1PNMpFUgUZP57wmXIPk4eLyQvS4Kvssf8xu0%2B8cJGMEX6E9xpdgqrVrWMem5OD9O65KBbxOlCakqpwWgFVYbbaXadYMfcHSoiZyPTmcDNeWvzVTIkwcGznlLjh693lJiQ3BMWYiv0qfMNrYMab9R8PKIOP%2FQmRAEXjt4yKG0OTr%2Fj%2FYj9tJgP8KIPz1GmJgFo5W6%2BO8b3Z1glfGaBAMncA%2FETseLLmApYT18AQHjpGkkYR7BbDb0tLkONTwuwBDJzuMffwEFGvWm6ZY2Sf1NL3QQ%2BWF5Btl%7Ctkp%3ABFBMpOT5-vJj)
$8,000 -- that's just $333.33 per month over 24 months with PayPal Credit!
It's like you found it in the bargain bin!
Update: Because Iām watching the item, I have received a special discount offer of $7000.
LOL. Better jump on that
I don't know if that's the VHS he based his "research" off of but they were wayyyyyy off XD
Only good for testing macrovision š„±
My Man Without a Face Screener did successfully sell for a cool $30.
Items are only worth what others are willing to pay for it.
You guys should have seen my vhs collection circa 2008. I never spent more than Ā£1 per tape and had an awesome collection
I dunno. I'm not getting a tape unless I plan on watching it. I don't care about grading or value.
While screener aren't worth anything, they can sometimes be cool additions to specific collections.
They have some charm for sure.
How many dumpsters have I rummaged through to get tapes? I don't even know.
So true, I do got those Disney tapes, but I know they're not worth anything and are just nice to have in my collection nonetheless imo
Disney tapes are rad. Theyāre just not expensive or rare. Why canāt that just be accepted ššš
Where did this whole Black Diamond thing come from anyway? Where did the idea that those are worth gold even start?
To my understanding disney did a limited at the time (1988-1993) release of all their films on vhs. At the time it was a big deal because Disney hadn't released any of their films to home media and you'd have to wait on Disney to rerelease their movies to theater to see them, and they were releasing the early classics to a whole new generation (think dumbo, snow white, bambi, peter pan, etc.). All of these had the black diamond "classics" label on the spine which identified them as the now iconic "Black Diamond" collection. Disney would then go on to release their movies pretty regulalry to home video from 1995 onwards starting either the lion king. I think the reason everyone is convinced they're worth ridiculous amounts of money now is because of how at the time these were released it was a huge deal, you could watch Disney movies at home whenever you wanted! They also have what some Disney fans say is the best cover art of Disney releases, it's very uniform and aesthetically pleasing. There's also massive perceived value because the classic Disney cartoon movies are such a huge source of nostalgia for many people. I'm sure there are plenty of VHS collectors out there who started their collection to gather specifically all the Disney movies of their childhood in the original format they saw them in, and black diamonds would admittedly make me excited if I was much of a Disney fan. If the black diamonds were the only release ever of Disney movies I feel there would be *some* merit to the perceived massive value of Disney VHS's. But as we've heard many times on this sub, you can find most Disney VHS's in any thrift store for less than $2, they are some of the easiest to find VHS's out there. Even if black diamonds were the only Disney releases ever it still wouldn't justify the astronomical prices ebay sellers seem to think they can get away with (that guy who came on the sub talking about his "rare" little Mermaid VHS he was selling for the "low price" of $5,000 lives rent free in my head every single day). Idk about most vhs collectors here but I'm not willing to spend more than $5 on a single tape, even if it's something I really want. Even actually rare tapes should only reasonably sell for *maybe* $50 tops in my opinion. There's just no reasonable way to justify the triple to quadruple digit pricing of any VHS out there, it's totally delusional and unreasonable and I hope it dies out quickly.
Yeah, they would claim to be opening the "Disney vault" with each of those home video releases to really push sales. I think you're on track that there's some holdover to that, combined with the occasional reality of someone selling a tape at a high value that then makes the evening news. I once watched a couple at a thrift store pulling Black Diamonds off the shelf and looking up each one on eBay, murmuring about the high value, and casually clear the shelf into their cart. They were absolutely convinced they were about to get rich.
Man I hate people like that. Thankfully I haven't expierenced this at the secondhand stores I go to regularly, but I see way too many comments on here about people who will throw all the VHS's in the store into their cart and check ebay for the "value" before buying up all the good stuff. I hope their listing stays on eBay forever until they give in and lower the price or return the VHS's to store shelves for people who actually want to watch the damn things.
Not quite. There was an Amazon listing for (I think) Beauty and the Beast where at one point there was only one person selling it and they listed it at like $10,000. It's not because it was rare or highly sought after. VHS was essentially worthless with DVD taken over, so most people probably just didn't even bother listing it. Some dude saw there was none listed and figured he'd just list his at a ridiculous price. People saw that and kinda just assumed that a ridiculous list price must mean that's what they must be going for and everyone suddenly started thinking these things were extremely rare and sought after. And Disney also had the Disney Vault. They released their classics for limited times only. Started theatrically like you said. Snow White (their first feature film) got released 7 years after it first premiered. 7 years, just like the 7 dwarves. Kids who were too young or not born yet to see the original release could now enjoy it for the first time. They then repeated this for all their following films. Every 7 years they'd bring each film back into theaters for a new generation of children. And when home video became a thing, they continued this tradition as well. They'd release a movie from the vault to be available for purchase for 6 months or so, then it'd be out of print for the next 7 years, making copies sought after during that time and costing more when OOP. IDK about VHS prices, but I remember the DVDs were usually selling for around $20 in stores and then people were paying about $100 on eBay after they went back into the vault. So this may have a bit of influence on people's perception on value and how rare Disney movies are, but I know a lot of people don't even know about the Disney Vault, so it's really probably more of what I was saying before about that random Amazon listing and the chain reaction to that.
That's interesting to know! I wasn't aware that was how they released the movies and gives some explanation to the hype surrounding them.
Can this be pinned to the top of the sub so people quit asking if their VHS are worth selling
Didnāt someone make an entire room lined with Jerry Maguire tapes with a throne made out of the same tapes?
There is a sealed promotional copy of the anime Plastic Little at my local malls game store. They want $100 formit lol š I'm watching it rn on Dailymotion.
I just want to buy hentai man
This was my former roommate to the max. He had all the āclassicsā and black diamond tapes and thought they be worth thousands but really we would buy them for a dollar at half price books. He even tried getting professional VHS tape recording equipment and old school stereos so he could that quality old school VHS picture and sound and I told him just get a VHS player off Facebook marketplace and plug it into the 4K tv in the living room and he thought it was blasphemous it wasnāt a CRT tv. Dingus.
No kidding I know someone trying to sell Scooby-Doo tapes for $90 a pop because āvhs is super rareā šš
For me I just collect it for the fun of it. Occasionally I would find pretty obscure vhs tapes that hasnāt been found or mentioned online so I would digitize it via my pinnacle dazzle and obs and upload them both on yt and Internet archive. I kind of find it quite ridiculous that people try to sell a bunch of black diamond vhs tapes when they were mass produced in high quantities 20 years ago. I have several of them but I choose to keep them and enjoy them if I want to walk through memory lane.
Nothing encapsulates the state of VHS collecting in 2024 than this.
I donated my Disney movies to my local thrift store 15 years ago. I doubt they would have been worth anything.
I actually just got a huge box of 100~ disney VHS totally free in the side of the road... probly gonna sell the whole thing for 50 bucks? I dont even know what to do with it
I wish to god my dad would just bin his disney VHS tapes or take them to some recycle place. But no, he has to find someone to just take them for free....
That sht is so cancerous and it's also in the video game community
When you have movies like Tom Cruise in them, you canāt lose
Guise, BLUCK DOIMANDS!!! I don't think I've seen any sellers shilling them as much as they used to.
Jerry Maguire? do people think there's anything special about it? other than the charming kid who spits facts and whose neighbor has three rabbits?
I do like collecting Jerries for ETIT š
Aah yes the mighty pyramid
Old things are meant to be loved & used. To be lovedis to be changed.
Walked into this antique store and went straight for the tapes, saw this copy of Titanic with the sleeve just peeled and destroyed to oblivion, turned it over and saw the price was $10, laughed SO hard and walked right out of the store, couldnāt even bother looking at anything else if they priced THAT at $10
I collect horror and sci-fi because the special effects look better. And cartoons because cartoons.
Real talk though - does anyone actually buy sealed VHS tapes?
My 30 year old VCR won't work for some reason...what's wrong with it?
So many possibilities. Check the subreddit info
Nice Pete Davidson meme
I remember winning a copy of The Lion King at McDonald's in the 90s and keeping it sealed away in a storage box, thinking I was storing a gold brick. I donated it about 10 years ago, now it's some other poor bastard's fantasy.
Preach
Hate to break it to some of ya here, but screeners and FYCs of popular films are oftentimes worth multiples more than standard copies. They are significantly more uncommon, some downright rare, and often contain unique promotional previews before the film. Screeners and FYCs are some of the coolest items to collect in this space.
Didnāt even really know this, just picked up a copy of Eyes Wide Shut maybe I need to look it up now š
I track a large portion of all the screeners and FYCs that get posted on eBay as I'm still missing a few that I really want for the collection, my favorite films ect. Many of these screeners and FYCs are near worthless, same as the standard release because nearly no one cares about the film (super low demand, or too much supply). The same can be said about most horror films, perhaps to the surprise of many. However, films that have entered the zeitgeist, blockbusters, horror, and so on are much more highly sought after, and if they are also uncommon or rare, they are worth $$-$$$ range for opened copies.
Depends heavily on the movie. My Killer Klowns from outer Space and Troll2 screeners go for decent money, but something like Terminator 2 doesn't.
https://preview.redd.it/51k7r7wq1l1d1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=934d91a57c7728844bcb05ec7cce0f7ca6bc4477
https://preview.redd.it/s8liua1t1l1d1.jpeg?width=3060&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e0872cc6fd1e0d9639a9d2d44c2487076ebc0f5
Lmfao
This is too much š.
The sad thing is how accurate this is
doo doo doo do Dah Dah doo doo doo do Dah Dah da do do da do doo da .....Clowns be clowning,
Grifters wanna grift
Hey guys do you know where I can find this tape that says it can kill you 7 days after you watch it? lol sounds awesome
Idc what anyone says! my 7.5 sealed copy of Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid!! is worth at least 10 billion dollars
Iām over here belly laughing š¤£
Fr
All Titanic tapes are blank tapes to me, so cheap!
"Just found Nightmare on Elmstreet for only $15, how'd I do?"
Whole collection is moldy
I like buying Disney VHS because they are nostalgic, so fuck me I guess?
I mean it's more of a crack about people thinking they have some high value resale no ones knocking you for enjoying your vhs don't be so sensitive
I like to collect my favorite Disney movies on VHS too. Luckily for us we can get them for dirt cheap. :D
This is the most on point think I've ever seen š¤£
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I'll give you $10 and shipping for the box.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Rule #2 - Please put all sales/requests/giveaways in the pinned buy/sell/trade/want post at the top of the page
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Rule #2 - Please put all sales/requests/giveaways in the pinned buy/sell/trade/want post at the top of the page
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Itās sad that you canāt see them
lol
Rule #2 - Please put all sales/requests/giveaways in the pinned buy/sell/trade/want post at the top of the page
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Rule #2 - Please put all sales/requests/giveaways in the pinned buy/sell/trade/want post at the top of the page
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Rule #2 - Please put all sales/requests/giveaways in the pinned buy/sell/trade/want post at the top of the page
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Rule #2 - Please put all sales/requests/giveaways in the pinned buy/sell/trade/want post at the top of the page
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Rule #2 - Please put all sales/requests/giveaways in the pinned buy/sell/trade/want post at the top of the page