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The VHS cassette, emblem of the 80s, a new fashion for collectors

Black, thick, brittle and a minimal heavy… If VHS is lots of points, it is not recognised to be realistic in any case.

Yet in June, at an auction in the United States, collectors confirmed their unwavering fascination. $ 75,000 is the value one particular of them compensated for a cult tape Back again to the Long runfollowed by a duplicate of the Sea enamel offered for $ 32,500 and a further for Ramboto 22,500.

This return to the selection plays on a wave of nostalgia, men and women want to relive what they have acknowledged, starts Chloé Delaporte. For this professor-researcher in the socioeconomics of cinema, there is the seduction of the old, the enjoyment of rediscovering. The rewinding sound, the weakened tape, the don and tear are all memories that can appear back again to people who lived by way of the heyday of the cassette in the 1980s.

A collector’s item

I assume there is a longing to have an item to keep, claims Margaux Baralon, a journalist specializing in tv series and cinema. At the time of streaming and on the internet platforms, no objects definitely hook up us to our preferred videos. What pursuits collectors, I believe, is exactly the idea of ​​owning.

This apogee of the VHS corresponds, for Margaux Baralon, to a The golden age of Hollywood relatives movie and at the birth of blockbuster, Jaws remaining the precursor. It is not only the medium that counts, but also the movies, underlines Chloé Delaporte. They are iconic movies of the society of the 80s. Men and women were also marked by the articles.

videos like et, Star WarsThey Gremlin or ghost Buster they stay timeless productions. Like Disney, thrillers and horror films are still duly sought following by collectors now. Witness the Facebook postings of groups specializing in the sale and redemption of second-hand VHS (La Caverne aux VHS, VHS Collectors / Traders, and so on.).

Cassettes consequently have a robust psychological possible to claim their put in classic vogue together with vinyl and the disposable camera. But it appears that they are not but completely ready to return to the stalls of the retailers.

A market that remains next-hand

Quentin Mazel, Health care provider of Movie and Audiovisual Scientific tests, is formal: It remains a second-hand market, with personal consumers who are 2nd-hand sellers, admirers and spectators. But for the everyday consumer, the VHS has unquestionably no curiosity.

With the release of the last film on VHS in 2005 (A tale of violence) and the close of commercialization of the VCR in 2016, the cassette has turn out to be obsolete. Currently, this is not a shopper marketplace.

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Involving 2010 and 2020, the physical movie marketplace was divided by ten. Gross sales of Blue Ray and other DVDs are in absolutely free drop. The Countrywide Middle for Movie and the Moving Image no for a longer time even studies physical media revenue on its stability sheets, they are so modestprovides Chloé Delaporte.

For the latter, a return to the cassette appears today absolutely incongruous equipment pretty unprofitable. It is really a manner influence that will not give rise to an financial phenomenon guiding it.

All in all, VHS tape would not look to be a priority. The film industry has other issues to choose treatment of that are additional urgent, if only to endure monetarily. So I never see them attempting to make a new current market when they previously have a single too quite a few in in between right now platforms and movies in theaters “, concludes Margaux Baralon.

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Previous cassettes in the attic, a dusty VCR, how do I make space and how considerably are my objects worthy of? For a common cassette in fantastic problem, it takes amongst € 1 and € 5. To see them, you will have to pay 10 € for a VCR in excellent affliction and up to 50 € for a classic item.

But a very simple VHS is not ample to remember to collectors. Like any collection, an original edition will have a lot more price.

Nonetheless, the cassettes remain tricky to estimate. Quentin Mazel clarifies: The trouble with this marketplace is that, being a 2nd-hand current market, there are no figures. There is no centralization of sales, volumes, price ranges. So we have very little.

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