Collecting 101: VHS Tapes & VCRs! History, Popularity, Value and Hot Trends! Episode 2

Hey, what's going on guys? Welcome to episode two of Collecting 101. And today we're gonna address VCR and VHS tapes. Now we all remember VHS tapes, back in the 80s and 90s, going to the video stores, renting the tapes, getting home, and can't wait to watch the new releases that come out. So today we're gonna touch base on the history of the VCRs and VHS tapes. We're gonna touch on the popularity throughout the years, what to collect, and of course the values. So let's get started today with the history. Let's start off by going all the way back to 1956, when the VTR or videotape recorder was used commercially worldwide, a massive amount of success. Now in 1971, the JVC company, and more specifically, give me a second here, Yuma Shirishi and Shizuo Takano wanted to produce a VTR for home use. So that is what they started working on in 1971. And by August 23rd of 1977, they released the first VCR nationwide. Now, the price of these things were crazy to me. They were retailing out at about $1,000 to $1,400. Now that, you know, equating to today's market is about $4,600. $4,600 for a VCR, that's crazy. But then, you know, the more you think about it, people spend $1,500 to $2,000 on cell phones, you know, $500 to $1,000 on video game equipment. I mean, you know, everybody always wants the new electronic piece. So I guess it's not that crazy to think about, but man, $4,600 for a VCR is just crazy to me. But, you know, what is a VCR without VHS tapes? So the first three VHS tapes released were a Sound of Music, Patton, and MASH. And of course, those retailed out at $72 a piece. Wow, you know, it's crazy, because, you know, DVDs nowadays, you get them for $10 to $20 for new releases, but you get that first VHS tape at $72, man, that's crazy. But of course, the VCR just wasn't used for, you know, watching movies. You could also record on it. So you could buy a blank tape for $20 and record your favorite TV show, movie, football game, whatever you wanted. I mean, it was a very versatile machine for, you know, the 1970s. Now, by the mid-1980s, they became a nationwide and really a worldwide success. Over 11.5 million VCRs were sold in the U.S. by then. So, I mean, it was such an amazing product that it blew off the shelves. I mean, it was huge. You know, and as it got going, and it continued its popularity into the 90s, you know, the companies took notice. And that's when your companies like IBM and Apple, those big computer companies, got together with Sony and Philips, and they wanted to produce a singular formatted disc that would be able to be used through multiple products. And so they went to production on the DVD. Something that could be used from computers to DVD, you know, obviously to play movies, play music, anything like that. They wanted to use all of these things in the one disc, and that's what they worked on. And by 1996, they released the first DVD. Now, the first DVD came out, and the VHS and market, it took a dramatic hit. It was a devastating blow to it because DVDs turned out to be more slimmer, more sleek, and not so big and bulky that the VHS tapes were. So much so that by 2003, DVDs started surpassing VHS tapes in rentals and purchases throughout the United States and throughout the world. So, VHS tapes fought hard, though. They didn't want to go away. And they literally lasted all the way to 2008. It was October 28th of 2008 that the last VCR was produced in the U.S. And at that same time, the last VHS release for the VCR was A History of Violence. So, I mean, if you look at it, it is 31 years of relevancy. I mean, VHS really changed the game on how you got to watch movies and how you got to see your favorite actors or your favorite TV shows. Or I remember back when my dad's friend used to record VHS wrestling pay-per-views and always give them to us the next day. I mean, it was such an innovative product that was an amazing advancement in technology at the time. So, all right, guys, that was the history of these. So let's go on to the popularity. After its release in 1977, the VCR faced stiff competition from Sony's Betamax, which was released a year earlier. But the VCR offered so many great qualities. They offered a lighter machine as well as the ability to record for four to six hours, but the Betamax could only record for an hour. So you can get a full-length movie out of your VCR that you just couldn't get out of your Betamax. And consumers definitely took note because by 1980, VCR took 60% of the market from the Betamax. And by 1987, 95% of the consumers were using the VCR for their VHS needs rather than the Betamax. Now, with the rise in popularity of the VCR became the rise in popularity of the VHS tape. Now, in the 1980s, the highest sold copies for a VHS film was Disney's Cinderella with 17 million copies. And when the early 1990s hit, that's when you started getting the rise of popularity of VHS tapes as well as video stores. And I don't know about you guys, but the video store I remember the most was Blockbuster Video. Now, they had over 9,094 stores in business at one point. Now, I always remember the tagline, be kind, please rewind. It was on all the tapes and you better rewind because if not, you're gonna face that fine. And like I said, nobody wanted to face the fine. So yeah, Blockbuster Videos were really cool places to go into. There was always tons of movies and video games. I loved going Friday nights and getting videos and then you'd have to bring it back till Monday. Awesome time. Loved going to the video stores. But let's do a little top five inside of our Collecting 101. We're gonna give you guys a top five sold VHS tapes in the 1990s. Now, number five was Beauty and the Beast. Great movie. There's gonna be a lot of Disney representation as you guys will see on this countdown. Number four was Titanic. Now, fun fact about Titanic. It was actually released on VHS while it was still in theater. Now, Amber seen this movie in theater like three or four times. I did not see it in theater. But I heard it was so popular in theater that they were still making so much money on it that they didn't wanna take it out of the theater. And so by the time the VHS came out, it was still playing in theater which is crazy to even think about. Now, number three was Aladdin. Again, great Disney movie. I actually have the VHS copy of that. Number two was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Again, it was released in the 1930s but obviously put into the VHS format I believe in 1994. Number two on the list for sure. Definitely a well-respected movie. Number one, I'll give you guys a quick second. See if you can guess it. Number one was The Lion King. The Lion King, man. Jonathan Taylor Thomas had all that home improvement fame with Tim Allen and he turned it into The Lion King. Lion King, tremendous movie. Again, I have that on VHS as well. But after those were done, guys, and the mid-90s hit and we talked about the DVDs coming out, VHS tapes took a huge hit and just lost its popularity. And even those video stores we're talking about, Blockbuster Video, guys, there is from 9,094 down to one in 2020 and I believe, believe it's in Eden, Oregon, I believe. I think it's somewhere in Oregon, I think. So yeah, one Blockbuster Video store back. But again, all the streaming services, everything, pretty much killed that whole market. So yeah, just crazy to think about the popularity, how it started with millions and millions of copies sold in the 80s to now where it's just pretty much a non-existent product. So all right, guys, let's head on to value and what to collect. Now, most of the VHS tapes you guys are gonna come across, you're gonna be able to get for a quarter to a buck, anywhere around there, just those fairly common ones. They're not too hard to come by. And if they are, they're usually pretty cheap. But the VCRs, that's something you wanna look into because you guys can get and sell VCRs anywhere from $15 for your most common ones. And I've seen some sell for five, $600 as I'll show you guys in these listings here. I always look for VCRs because sometimes you guys get those really, sometimes they're not even rare, they're just those later produced ones in the 90s that actually can fetch some pretty good money. So always be on the lookout for VCRs. And I wanna try to touch base too on a kind of a myth. This is the Black Diamond Disney VHS tapes. Now, I don't know if you guys have read the articles out there where some are selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is not true. Guys, they did not sell for that much. You're gonna look up eBay listings, yeah, it's gonna show up, but trust me, they did not sell for that much. There is easily, I've come across, I have probably two tubs full of those things because I kind of got caught up in it too and I started buying them and I seen them at garage sales for 25 cents to a quarter or to a dollar or whatnot. But most of those sell, I mean, most of them sell for 10 to $15 at the most. Great collectibles, Disney movies were phenomenal, but they're not worth thousands of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, if you find them when they're still sealed, which is ultra rare to find a DVD or a, sorry, a Disney VHS tape still sealed, you're gonna start talking about some more money, but the chances of you finding one of those, I'm trying to be realistic with you guys and I try to be straight up with you, it's hard to find those. If you find just regular Black Diamonds, if you like the movie, get it, but if not, those are the most collectible, but still not worth a ton of money. So if you're looking for the VHS tapes or actually can bring you some good cash, I know just a few examples, I know Halloween 1 or 2, the Michael Myers scary horror film that just terrified me for my whole childhood, I absolutely could not stand watching that movie because it scared the crap out of me, but those in their original artwork can be worth some good money. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks, I know there's another one that's worth some good money, but then also try to get into your more popular films, the Star Wars trilogies or the trilogy, the Godfather saga, ones like that are the popular titles that can still fetch you some okay money, but then if you go to what to collect, guys, if you're trying to resell, I highly recommend you get into horror movies. Now, the horror movie genre is huge, and I'm even talking about those B movies, the ones that are all cheesy, corny, those ones are actually probably the most popular, those will sell for some really good money, but just your regular horror movies like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, they sell for a little more than your most common VHS tapes, and of course, the Disney movies are another one that they sell better than the common ones. You might be able to get a buck or two more out of them a piece, but definitely if you're looking into the reselling part of this collection, you wanna get into the horror movies, absolutely, or you wanna get into the ones that were released in the 70s, the late 70s when VHS first came out, those VHS tapes are gonna be worth a little more as well, so if you're on the lookout for those for the reselling purpose, definitely go to those two categories, but at the end of the day, it's your collection, so collect what you want. If you like the movie, pick it up, even if it's worth a quarter, who cares? You guys, that is a part of collecting. Get what you like, and always, that's what you should be collecting, not collecting for money, because like I said, at the end of the day, it's your collection, make sure it's what you like, so. All right, guys, that's all. That's our rundown of VHS tapes and BCRs. This has been an awesome video. I love this video. I love kinda doing a little research for this video. I just love the topic. It was great, so hopefully you guys enjoyed it. You guys can hit a like, subscribe to the channel, and comment below, man. You guys gotta have some VHS stories. Go into the video store, anything like that. Let's hear your stories. What was your favorite movie to watch? Any kinda extra things you guys wanna add in, let's hear them, so. Thank you guys all so much for watching, and like we always say with your collection, it's about memories over money. See you guys later.