These VHS Tapes Are Worth a Lot of Money

Once a staple of American households, some are now difficult to find. And sometimes they're incredibly valuable.

These VHS Tapes Are Worth a Lot of Money

With the instant consumer gratification of big-budget Hollywood films streaming on services like Netflix, Amazon and iTunes now commonplace, it’s hard to believe we ever had to work to enjoy a movie at home. But we did.

In the not-too-distant past, people actually drove to video rental stores and browsed aisles and aisles of VHS tapes. You could even get popcorn and candy there, and when you were done watching the movie you had to rewind the tape (or face a fine!) and actually return it to the store. Crazy times.

That activity is firmly in dodo territory now — Bend, Oregon is home to the world’s last remaining Blockbuster video store, and the last VCR manufacturer ceased operations a few years ago. This has created a cottage industry for home movie buffs in which some of the rarest — and worst — films ever made can snag a hefty profit in VHS format. Or if they’re not going to make the seller rich they will at least make the buyer extremely happy.

VHS tapes are unlikely to ever become a great investment. The quality of the picture takes a major hit each time the tape is played, which was a major impetus for digitalization and the DVD. And unless properly stored, time alone will make a tape unwatchable. Plus, when’s the last time you saw a VCR?

Regardless, VHS tapes are certainly fun collectibles. As you will soon see, horror movies are some of the most sought after tapes (Warning: some of the covers of these movies are, well, horrific). Wrestling videos are also very popular, and so are campy cult classics and movies that just completely fell off the radar. A big bowl of buttery Orville Redenbacher’s seems appropriate for this read, so go ahead and grab your popper and settle into your favorite spot on the couch.

The Sound of Music

Title:The Sound of Music

Year:1977

Synopsis:The classic story of the Austrian Von Trapp singing family, who were popular before the outbreak of World War II

IMDB rating:8/10

Sale price:$45-$55

One of the all-time classics, “The Sound of Music” was also among the first three films released on the VHS format in 1977 (“Patton” and “M*A*S*H*” were the other two). People expected to see movies in the theaters back then, and 1977 saw major box-office successes like “Star Wars,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Saturday Night Fever.” So it stood to reason that the first home videos would be classics.

Magnetic Video was the first company to market VHS tapes, inking a deal with the then-struggling Twentieth Century Fox studio to release 50 films for home video. It also created the video rental system, forever changing the movie experience.

We were able to find one copy of the original VHS release of “The Sound of Music” selling on eBay for $45, with another, newer copy asking about $55. Those are pretty good deals considering the cost of the tape was $50-$70, which is $208-$291 adjusted for inflation. Luckily for movie buffs the price of VHS would drop dramatically over the years to levels that put a home movie collection within reach for millions of American households.

Tales from the QuadeaD Zone

Year:1987

Synopsis:A mother reads two blood-curdling stories to her dead son

IMDB rating:3.7/10

Sale price:$3,500

Dan Kinem, who co-directed a documentary called “Adjust Your Tracking” about VHS collectors, told Flipsy he acquired two copies of this extremely rare blaxploitation horror film from an abandoned New Orleans video store post-Hurricane Katrina. Kinem kept one and sold the other for $3,500.

VHS collectors regard “Tales” as the holy grail of tapes because so few copies exist. The box cover alone can fetch as much as $700, according to Kinem, who added that he’s never seen other copies of the film.

The Great American Bash

Year:1986

Synopsis:A pay-per-view wrestling event

IMDB rating:n/a

Sale price:$4,950

Wrestling tapes fetch hefty prices among VHS collectors, and this second edition of “The Great American Bash” is one of the most sought after. A single copy of it sold on eBay in 2016 for nearly $5,000.

Fans of this brand of entertainment will no doubt recognize the value here, as “Bash” events were the highlight of the wrestling calendar. This one also features two legends of the sport in a National Wrestling Alliance heavyweight title fight: Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes.

Pterodactyl Woman From Beverly Hills

Year:1997

Synopsis:After her paleontologist husband takes a dinosaur egg from sacred grounds, a woman is cursed with turning into a prehistoric creature

IMDB rating:4.7/10

Sale price:up to $300

Beverly D’Angelo is a fine actress who has many memorable comedic and dramatic roles to her credit. This is not one of them. It did, however, make for a very rare VHS tape.

It’s unclear how valuable a copy of this film is, but at least one eBay seller is asking a whopping $300 for it. Other VHS copies are being sold for much more reasonable amounts. There is also an unsubstantiated claim floating around that a copy once sold for $2,799.

The Legend of Hillbilly John

Year:1974

Synopsis:While wandering the Appalachian Mountains, a balladeer encounters a creature that transports him back in time

IMDB rating:6.4/10

Sale price:$43.85-$60

This bizarrely plotted film is firmly in the realm of cult classic, even though it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard of it or seen it. That’s because it doesn’t appear to be available outside of the few remaining VHS and laserdisc copies listed on retail sites. There are a few Amazon sellers asking reasonable prices for a copy, so this is one of the more affordable VHS collectibles out there.

The Evil Dead

Year:1981

Synopsis:Three adventuresome college students accidentally release evil spirits during a cabin outing in the woods

IMDB rating:7.5/10

Sale price:$250

Created by the venerable filmmaker Sam Raimi, “The Evil Dead” is as classic a horror franchise as they come. It’s also prized by VHS collectors and relatively easy to find. But one copy in particular is the most coveted.

It was released in the UK by Palace Pictures, which found itself in hot water over obscenity charges related to the sheer level of gore in the movie. But after prevailing in court, the company released a special edition with a sleeve that reads, “NOT GUILTY! — ‘THE EVIL DEAD’ IS BACK.”

The Worst of 'You Can’t Do That On Television'

Year:1989

Synopsis:A best-of compilation of classic moments from the hit show

IMDB rating:8.5/10

Sale price:$100

This Canadian sketch comedy featuring teenage actors was created specifically for an American audience, and it aired in the U.S. from 1981 to 1990. At that point the Nickelodeon network picked it up for several years of reruns before creating its own version called “All That.”

Nickelodeon was famous for its liberal use of slime and other substances that were just flat out gross, and shows like “You Can’t Do That On Television” took this to extreme levels. Apparently that made it valuable in the mind of at least one VHS collector, who in 2017 paid $100 for a beaten up old copy of the video.

Let It Be

Year:1970

Synopsis:A documentary about the writing and recording of The Beatles album of the same name

IMDB rating:7.8/10

Sale price:$99

Beatles memorabilia is always hot, so it’s not surprising that a VHS copy of this documentary sold for nearly $100 in 2017. Another copy is currently listed on Amazon for twice that much, while someone is asking for about $175 for it on eBay.

For a long time the movie was only available on VHS. This is likely because the footage makes it quite evident the group was approaching its final days, so heavily promoting such a sour time seems counterintuitive. It’s now available on DVD and is set for a re-release in 2020 to mark its 50th anniversary.

Bash at the Beach

Year:2000

Synopsis:A pay-per-view wrestling event

IMDB rating:6.9/10

Sale price:$500

This marked the last beach bash put on by World Championship Wrestling before it was bought out by World Wrestling Entertainment, which perhaps explains the price tag for the VHS since WWE made available all “Bash at the Beach” events for streaming in 2014. But as we’ve learned, there’s no substitution for a good VHS tape.

The 2000 rendition featured none other than Hulk Hogan himself, who apparently fell out of favor with WCW after going off script and pinning Jeff Jarrett. After the bout, Jarrett was somehow declared champion but Hogan would have nothing of it, leaving with the belt in his final appearance for WCW.

555

Year:1988

Synopsis:A detective tracks a psycho dressed as a hippie who’s killing teens for five consecutive days during the fifth month of the year every five years

IMDB rating:4/10

Sale price:$275

Campy, low-budget horror flicks are all the rage among VHS collectors, and “555” is among the most coveted. It helps that this bizarre but fun movie was filmed on VHS during the VHS craze of the 1980s, but it’s still impressive that someone paid $275 for it in 2016.

It was the only film from director and producer Wally Koz, according to his IMDB profile. Koz was a miner and gold prospector who had no filmmaking experience prior to “555” but was so fed up with the shlock being passed off as horror films that he decided to make his own. With the help of family and friends, soon a VHS legend was born.

Halloween

Year:1978

Synopsis:Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital to kill again 15 years after murdering his sister on Halloween night

IMDB rating:7.8/10

Sale price:$13,220

The “Halloween” franchise is one of the horror genre’s greatest success stories, and numerous editions of the original film were released on VHS by different distributors. That means it’s not especially hard to find a copy, but some copies are different than others. Like, for instance, the original Media Home Entertainment release that fetched a mind-boggling sum of $13,220. Or the confusingly titled MEDA betamax release that once sold for a mere $250.

Another sought after version is the mistaken release by Media in the 1980s that contained the TV version of “Halloween,” which has additional scenes shot years after the first release. Why So Blu? provides a dizzying but informative recap of all the versions of the film and its sequels, but the bottom line is that some older VHS versions of “Halloween” are frighteningly rare and valuable.

Electric Dreams

Year:1984

Synopsis:A man and his artificially intelligent PC spar over their courtship of the same woman

IMDB rating:6.5/10

Sale price:$57-$263

If you’ve seen “Electric Dreams,” it was probably a few decades ago — unless you’re a serious VHS collector who also watches their collection. The movie was never digitized for streaming and was only released on DVD outside the U.S., making it a favorite of home video buffs. VHS copies are being offered on Amazon for as low as $57 and on eBay for as much as $263.

It’s hard to believe that a movie with such a prescient plot by today’s standards has been mostly forgotten by time. Artificial intelligence is all around us and many fear the singularity is near, so why wouldn’t an old comedy set in San Francisco about a smart computer that falls in love with a woman be streamable? After all, “Her” earned twice as much as it cost to make and it’s essentially the same storyline.

The Wild Life

Year:1984

Synopsis:Following three crazy teenage boys who live in suburban Los Angeles and their antics on one particularly memorable night

IMDB rating:6.1/10

Sale price:$17.79-$88.88

Perhaps the fact that this film is rare by VHS or any standards is a testament to the saturation of such movies in the 1980s. It was written by Cameron Crowe, who practically invented the ‘80s teen romp genre, and stars many familiar names (Chris Penn, Eric Stoltz, Rick Moranis, Randy Quaid). But it just didn’t have the staying power of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” or “The Breakfast Club,” and that has made it a darling of VHS collectors.

What few copies do exist are priced between about $17 and $88.

‘A History of Violence’

Year:2006

Synopsis:A man must confront his past when a stranger comes to his small town seeking revenge under the assumption he’s a long-lost Philadelphia mobster

IMDB rating:7.5/10

Sale price:up to $175

This Viggo Mortensen-led crime drama directed by David Cronenberg was the last major Hollywood movie to be released on VHS. By 2006, the VCR had been losing market share to the DVD player for years. It’s eventual production death was still 10 years in the making, but people had effectively moved on higher quality and easier-to-use DVDs.

But despite its relative youth, this is not an easy VHS to find. There are only three listings on eBay, with sellers asking from $60 to $175 for a used copy, and none on Amazon or other online retailers. It’s unclear if anyone has paid those high prices on eBay.