The Old School Otaku Lounge

So I've been trying to collect older anime on VHS for the last 3 months. When I started getting back into watching old favorites, and buying a few here and there from thrift stores and used book stores, I guess part of me expects they should all be fairly cheap. Especially when you consider that most of the popular series made it to DVD and BR, and hardly anyone has a VCR anymore, in general.

I started asking around for people to sell me old VHS or trade them for art on my personal blog, but many of course were hesitant to let their VHS go because of nostalgia and being sentimental. I totally understand that. Others wanted to sell them to me for what I thought was too much.

About 4 years back I sold alot of my collection, mainly needing to do so to pay bills. I got maybe $.25 a piece for them. And I sold about 30-40 tapes. Of course it's something I greatly regret, because now I find myself wanting to buy them all again. I honestly think $2 is too much for a used VHS tape...unless it's near new condition or somewhat rare. I bought Ranma 1/2 One Grew Over the Kuno's Nest OVA for $4 on eBay Buy It Now recently, and I got it because I knew it'd be harder for me to acquire and it was the last OVA I needed anyways. But otherwise I try not to spend too much or a single one unless it's a good deal for a whole set or something.

Maybe I'm cheap, I don't know. But how much are VHS worth really?

My rule has been that if it's only available on DVD, I may as well just download it. Although for shows I really like, like Genesis Survivor Gaiarth, I usually track down the VHS anyways.

I bought the 2nd OVA series of Patlabor on VHS because it wasn't available on DVD, many years ago. Then Central Park released it on DVD, and I no longer needed the VHS box set. Once a series is available on DVD, the VHS is not worth much at all. I tried buying some of the Dancougar VHS because it was never released on DVD, but those were going for more than I'd say they were worth... mainly because the series was not available on DVD.

I think that used books and media stores near you would be glad to sell their stuff off for whatever price. Tons of people got rid of their anime VHS when they replaced them with DVDs. Bookstores would buy them, but after a while, everybody stopped buying VHS.

It depends on the show. If the show is also available on DVD, chances are the VHS version will be worth basically what you got--25 cents. If it's hard to find or not available on DVD (like Genesis Survivor Gaiarth) it can be worth as much as demand dictates, whether it be $10 per tape or $50 per tape.

There are a bunch of stores in my city that sell used VHS tapes. They usually run from 50 cents a tape to a dollar. Casually, I spied a few anime tapes as well.

Ryoran, I have a bunch of VHS tapes I'd like to get rid of, but I'd be looking for DVDs that you might want to trade. They'd be mostly one-offs and OVAs I'd be looking for--I'd be willing to trade several tapes for one DVD. If you're interested, I can list what I have and you can see if you want any of them.

VHS is running $1 a tape in most thrift stores and used media stores. I've seen some places try to slap "collectible" prices on a few tapes, but then again I've seen comic book stores that are still selling 1990s vintage anime VHS with the original $29.95 price tags. Some backwoods flea markets are still trying to get $5 a tape.

I actually think that anime VHS is moving into the 'scarce' category, particularly the titles that have never been released on DVD, the weird dubs, things like that.

At "yard sale" type events at the anime cons I have sold quite a few old anime VHS releases for anywhere from $1 to $8. At this stage of the game, for me it's more about de-cluttering than it is about making a buck.

llj wrote:Ryoran, I have a bunch of VHS tapes I'd like to get rid of, but I'd be looking for DVDs that you might want to trade. They'd be mostly one-offs and OVAs I'd be looking for--I'd be willing to trade several tapes for one DVD. If you're interested, I can list what I have and you can see if you want any of them.

Hmm I don't have a ton of DVDs, but I'd love to see what you have. If there are specific DVDs you're looking for too, I can always be on the lookout for them at the stores I frequent and we can do trades that way too. Either way, I'd love to see what you have!

Okay, I'll post it in your thread in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum.

I've always maintained that anything is only worth whatever you can get for it. The older stuff that was released on kids video lines or the rights have been returned to the Japanese producers might be worth a premium, especially if they were old rental only tapes (the ones that originally cost over a hundred bucks a shot). That said, I'll make up a list and see if I find anything on it in my travels.

Was out looking for tapes today at several places. Bought a copy of "Big Man On Campus" which has never been released on DVD. It was a never watched sealed copy. eBay lists the used copies at $20 - $50 each. I see one guy wants $130 for a sealed one! Ditto on Amazon.com. Not a bad tape to flip since it only cost me $1...

Thanks for making me go out and see what was on the shelves...

I did find quite a few anime tapes but nothing that was on your list...

_D_ wrote:Was out looking for tapes today at several places. Bought a copy of "Big Man On Campus" which has never been released on DVD. It was a never watched sealed copy. eBay lists the used copies at $20 - $50 each. I see one guy wants $130 for a sealed one! Ditto on Amazon.com. Not a bad tape to flip since it only cost me $1...

Thanks for making me go out and see what was on the shelves...

I did find quite a few anime tapes but nothing that was on your list...

Any titles you remember? I'm looking for things outside my list too.