CCG Seeks Top Experts in VHS Tapes to Press Play on New Grading Service - BETAMAX next? 3 3

[F For Fake]

On 5/10/2022 at 10:04 AM, jsilverjanet said:

few questions

1 - what have you recently sold, that will be going up in price

2 - i loved hd-dvd, i thought it was a superior product to blu-ray (at least in the beginning)

3 - i wonder if CDs in their old carton packaging (long box) will be worth more in the future

 

1. As far as media, I used to collect horror and sci-fi VHS tapes, but I sold them years ago, long before the market bump. As for recent sales, I will sometimes prune my collection and sell off out of print blu-rays. If you're wanting to get into it, searching sold eBay listings for "OOP Blu Ray" will give you some idea. Slipcovers are a HUGE part of the market, so many people pay ridiculous money for a cardboard cover around the movie. "OOP slipcover" is a good sold search to track current prices. Since physical media is dying off in the mainstream, companies aren't pressing as many copies, so it's not unusual for movies to sell out quickly, or for first printings to include slipcovers that are shortly discontinued. 

In addition to slipcovers, steelbooks are another huge market for packaging collectors. It's always worth checking out Best Buy's weekly listings to see if anything is coming out that might be worth scooping up. Some steels will sit unsold for months. Others will sell out in days and then have big markups on the secondary market, doubling or tripling in price. So, for instance, you can't give away Snake Eyes steelbook, but the Spider-Man No Way Home is a $70+ steel.

However, a warning with movies: similar to comic hardcovers and omnibus which will go out of print and command high prices, it's not unusual for some movies to be reissued, thus killing prices. Best Buy have a habit of suddenly releasing stock of movies that are long out of print, and the prices take a nosedive. So, like anything, I'd always recommend that you collect what you love, because value is not always guaranteed.

Similar to VHS, horror is a huge market, so out of print movies, slipcovers and steels from Scream Factory, Arrow, Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, etc are always worth keeping an eye on. And of course, Criterion. Criterion Collection nuts are their own breed, so prices can go bananas on those things when they go OOP.

2. I was also an HD-DVD fan early on. the HD-DVD standalone players were much cheaper than the Blu-Ray players at the time. Blu-Ray didn't really gain market dominance until the PS3 broke through, as it was then the cheapest BD player on the market. HD-DVD stumbled when it went with X-BOX 360, and then ONLY as a peripheral device you had to pay extra for, instead of being built in. HD-DVD had the better specs, but PS3 won the war for BD. 

3. I think it's possible for sure. The thing is, ANY media, anything that people can associate nostalgia and good memories, is ripe to become a collectible market. And if it's difficult to find examples in sealed or otherwise mint complete condition, that just adds to the potential. I sure don't see longbox cd's often, if at all.

[MetalPSI]

On 5/10/2022 at 9:02 AM, theCapraAegagrus said:

Your ability:

Tap: Target player rolls their eyes at you.

And you are?

[theCapraAegagrus]

On 5/10/2022 at 11:27 AM, The Meta said:

And you are?

[Robot Man]

On 5/9/2022 at 6:41 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

A lot of Disney I would definitely agree, however there are some Extremely rare and hard to find Disney VHS that several collectors would pay good money to even have a copy, much less sealed. 

Was  “Song of the South” ever released?   I heard Disney “retired” it due to to content that was deemed “questionable” or “offensive” by todays standards. I enjoyed it as a kid for what it was, just a fun film. Long before I was poisoned by adults and their bigoted views. 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 5/10/2022 at 6:21 AM, Cat said:

On 5/9/2022 at 11:41 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Agreed. I have sold a few SW LRC and Welcome to Pooh Corners. The later ones definitely did well..

You keep trying to send me 'Welcome to Poo Corner.' Please stop. 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 5/10/2022 at 9:38 AM, The Meta said:

I don't have much imagination to be scared, but I'm scared of what my card may be

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 5/10/2022 at 10:50 AM, Robot Man said:

Was  “Song of the South” ever released?   I heard Disney “retired” it due to to content that was deemed “questionable” or “offensive” by todays standards. I enjoyed it as a kid for what it was, just a fun film. Long before I was poisoned by adults and their bigoted views. 

Song of the South was never released in the states on VHS , however it was released over seas.  Here is a website that goes over the history and all types of memorabilia released. 

https://www.songofthesouth.net/memorabilia/visualmedia.php

[Namtak]

On 5/10/2022 at 10:38 AM, The Meta said:

I don't have much imagination to be scared, but I'm scared of what my card may be

Same herebut @ADAMANTIUM should have a summon card by now......or does he needs it just kidding 

[Buzzetta]

On 5/10/2022 at 9:45 AM, wardevil0 said:

 I do agree the VHS degrades inside the case, just like the problem of graded G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero figures (if you didn't know, those 80s GI Joes were held together with a rubber band that degrades with age and they can fall apart on their own). With as much nostalgia as there is for the 90s cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of crossover from comics fans sending in their tapes.

 

Exactly the problem.  As I have pointed out over the years, I would stay away from carded GI Joes.  The MOC Joe collectors are playing hot potato with those figures as well.  What we have seen is that once the figure breaks and collapses upon itself while sealed on the card the figure loses a significant amount of value.  If you paid $500 for a MOC Joe that is standing up on its own, why would you pay the same amount for a sealed pile of body parts?    People aren't.

These VHS cassettes are in a state of rapidly deteriorating condition.   Paying $33,000 for a sealed copy of Terminator that most likely does not work is a fool's errand akin to the beanie baby craze. 

[Buzzetta]

On 5/10/2022 at 11:50 AM, Robot Man said:

Was  “Song of the South” ever released?   I heard Disney “retired” it due to to content that was deemed “questionable” or “offensive” by todays standards. I enjoyed it as a kid for what it was, just a fun film. Long before I was poisoned by adults and their bigoted views. 

It was no longer available by 1993 when I had started to work for the mouse.   Having seen it back then (we had a copy anyway) it was cringeworthy by 93' standards. 

[jdandns]

CGC should first get every issue of "Horrorhound" magazine that has a "Video Invasion" feature article. There are 30 of them, at least, which catalog and show pictures of the box art for multiple vintage companies that are popular with collectors. These are horror-themed labels that are exhaustively covered, but that's where a lot of this business will be. Then, I would suggest CGC ask the writer of those articles to suggest some experts best suited to authenticate videos in that genre.

[Robot Man]

On 5/9/2022 at 5:21 PM, Dreamtoreal1 said:

In my opinion best investment options with sealed vhs are

- Horror titles from the 80s sealed   (VHS has incredible horror covers and I believe they will do extremely well in an auction) also they are scarce as most of the horror movies were opened to be watched so population report should be relatively low (like precode horror comics)

Movies released from 1980 -1985  1st releases with watermarks like Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Karate Kid, Star Wars, etc I consider 1980-1985 the golden age of vhs so any classic/cult movies from that time period will have a tremendous nostalgia factor behind it

Movies with Superstars like Sylvester Stallone (Rambo/Rocky Movies) Arnold Swarzeneger (Predator/Terminator)  but not the 90s movies with them

Stay away from movies from 1989-2004 unless you can buy them really cheap (because there are a ton of those out there (think modern comics)

ironically 2005/2006 releases should be a good investment because 2006 was the last year vhs was produced so movies like Batman Begins, I Robot, Napoleon Dynamite should have strong value. at that time people and also last movie ever release on vhs "A Hystory of Violence" with Viggo Mortensen

 

Good advice from the Master VHS hunter! 

[ThreeSeas]

I remember back in the early 90's when Warner pulled the ten volume VHS set of Looney Tunes cartoons because they had included some WW II racist ones. There was a store at the local mall that had the set, maybe called Suncoast, but I cannot remember for sure. As soon as they announced it on the news I went to the mall and paid my $90 for the set because I was sort of a completest when it came to those cartoons and thought I would never get a chance to own them again. Yeah, in one cartoon Bugs was handing our bombs to soldiers of one of the countries that we were at war with and he used about every, um, racist word about that ethic group that I had ever heard. Yeah, the times were different. 

[Gonzimodo]

On 5/10/2022 at 12:11 PM, Buzzetta said:

Exactly the problem.  As I have pointed out over the years, I would stay away from carded GI Joes.  The MOC Joe collectors are playing hot potato with those figures as well.  What we have seen is that once the figure breaks and collapses upon itself while sealed on the card the figure loses a significant amount of value.  If you paid $500 for a MOC Joe that is standing up on its own, why would you pay the same amount for a sealed pile of body parts?    People aren't.

These VHS cassettes are in a state of rapidly deteriorating condition.   Paying $33,000 for a sealed copy of Terminator that most likely does not work is a fool's errand akin to the beanie baby craze. 

As a side note, anyone who has an interest in GI Joe card and packaging art should head over to 3djoes.com .  The website is great on its own, but the merchandise he puts out is of the very highest quality.  (This isn't a paid plug or anything, I just love the website and what he's done to archive everything.  If you know of something similar for vintage Star Wars or other vintage toys, I'd love to know about it.)

[F For Fake]

On 5/10/2022 at 11:50 AM, Robot Man said:

Was  “Song of the South” ever released?   I heard Disney “retired” it due to to content that was deemed “questionable” or “offensive” by todays standards. I enjoyed it as a kid for what it was, just a fun film. Long before I was poisoned by adults and their bigoted views. 

SotS was never released on home media in the US. There IS a Japanese laserdisc, and a lot of the VHS boots you'd see around shows were taken from that LD.

[rabidwolf]

As much as I am not into collecting horror comics [pure marvel guy] I am the complete opposite with VHS.

here's my favorite/grail I had picked up a while back:

1980 Friday the 13th:

 

 

[Dreamtoreal1]

On 5/10/2022 at 3:52 PM, rabidwolf said:

As much as I am not into collecting horror comics [pure marvel guy] I am the complete opposite with VHS.

here's my favorite/grail I had picked up a while back:

1980 Friday the 13th:

 

 

wow that is amazing congrats!  

[BlackHeksen]

I don’t think they know what they are getting into with this. 
First of all the VHS collecting community (the legitimate one, not the online gambling speculator/latest craze) hates this. Hard. The other grading companies have gotten nothing but negativity from the community.

Second, sealed VHS is a joke. Outside of a few companies none of the manufacturers had labeled shrink wrap, it was, for the most part, primitive shrink wrap, the kind you can replicate on just about any of todays shrink wrap machines. This is on top of the fact that there were tons of tapes that never came shrink wrapped at all. Finally, tape rot (which will come up again in a moment) you’d have to open the tapes to ensure they aren’t full of white crusty mold, which does happen quite often in sealed tapes and can ruin your player and potentially make you sick. 
Third: ex rentals. The VAST majority of valuable VHS tapes are ex rentals, this means cut boxes, rental stickers, security devices, price stickers, genre labels, etc. how do you even begin to account for this? Current collectors kind of account for this, however when grading tapes it would be akin to comic collectors being cool with random store stamps, names being written on the comics, pages removed, but there, staples being removed, and so on.

finally the dreaded tape rot/spool swap/case swap- this is a doozy: 

example: I have a copy of a movie, it’s got horrible tape rot but a beautiful sleeve, I can, with minimal effort, use a garbage old vcr, clean some of the gunk off of it, dub it to a brand new tape, open the original case and swap the spools. 
Example 2: I have a destroyed tape but the top label is fine. With, once again, minimal effort, I can remove that label and the spools and put them in a new case. Since some of these movie were produced on multiple different tapes, some commercially available, you’d never know the difference.

how would you grade that?

 

[Kevin76]

I remember being so excited that Friday the 13th part 4 was coming out...when I was in 4th grade.  Used to watch those movies over and over.  

[Bludriver]

On 5/10/2022 at 6:52 PM, rabidwolf said:

As much as I am not into collecting horror comics [pure marvel guy] I am the complete opposite with VHS.

here's my favorite/grail I had picked up a while back:

1980 Friday the 13th:

 

 

I'd call it a 6.5...might do better with a pressing.