Why you should hold on to your old video tapes

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We’ve already seen the resurgence of vinyl and cassettes and now video tapes could be next, according to reports.

Metro spoke to David Jinks of ParcelHero, an international courier, who said old boxes of video tapes may become more valuable as they become rarer – meaning hoarders with a stash in the attic could find themselves with a collection worth some serious cash.

"It's time to learn the lesson of vinyl. Many once unloved and discarded original LPs and singles are now worth significant sums," Jinks said. "Today video tapes are considered just as ephemeral as records once were, and are fast disappearing from our homes."

Video collectors say films made for VHS during the format’s 26-year reign look strange cleaned up for higher-definition DVDs. They prefer the grainer quality of the VHS format, in the same way a vinyl collector might speak about the warmth of a record’s sound.

“These are movies that feel too cleaned-up on DVD and Blu-ray, as if they were never meant to look that good. You can see the mistakes they made and the bad makeup and everything. Watching them on VHS is closer to the old drive-in or grindhouse theater, the way the director intended it to look,” Dan Kinem, a VHS collector, told Collectors Weekly.

Those old boxes of tapes might not earn you a fortune just yet: Jinks said an outdated VHS player typically sells on eBay for £15-£20 while small bundles of VHS videos are priced between £10-20.

Films that were not re-released on DVD sell best on Ebay, just like vinyl rarities, but they may be worth hanging on to for a while yet.

"It is precisely because they are being thrown out faster than you can say Betamax that they will become collectables in the future," Jinks said.