Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

E.T., The Goonies, Back to the Future: Your old VHS tapes might actually be worth thousands

Time to dig those VHS tapes out of your parents' basement

a collection of vhs tapes
Lucie'sDad

Movie fans know that the method of watching a film really adds to the feelings and emotions you experience in relation to the picture. We all wish we could watch everything on the massive and aesthetically impressive theater screens that movies are intended to be shown on from the time they’re released. But after a movie has been out for a while, the avenue we watch it by at home changes drastically through the decades. Now we seem to subscribe to a gluttony of streaming services that provide an endless number of movies to watch. Some people want to own films on Blu-ray or 4K. Old-school nerds will remember when everything had to be watched on VHS tapes, though.

The feeling of putting in a tape and hearing the cartridge rewind or fast forward created a tangible excitement for when the movie would finally begin. As DVDs started to take over the market in the late 1990s, VHS became a thing of the past. The format became essentially obsolete in the late 2010s, but any person familiar with the way retro technology works probably knows where this story is going. Collection addicts and movie nuts yearning for nostalgic remnants of their past are willing to pay big bucks for VHS tapes right now, leading to a classic supply and demand dilemma on sites like eBay.  Some of the greatest movies of all time are being sold in the VHS format for thousands of dollars on the auction site:

Recommended Videos

All of these movies are in mint condition, many of them never being opened from their original wrapping when they were bought decades ago. The quality of the tape is invaluable to the price of the movies due to the deterioration that happens to these cassettes if they have been used. Unlike digital formats and discs, VHS tapes can become unwatchable if they have been used for a long time. Some people report poor footage quality if the tape has been watched over and over again. They can also degrade over time regardless, especially if they have been stored in hot or humid locations or near magnetic sources.

What this means is you should look around your house for any old VHS movies that you never opened that may have slipped through the cracks. Put them on eBay and make a pretty penny from what was seemingly an innocuous purchase back in the day. Or wait even longer and see if the value of these tapes goes up even more.

Shawn Laib
Shawn Laib is a freelance writer with publications such as Den of Geek, Quote.com, Edge Media Network, diaTribe, SUPERJUMP…
Every Mission: Impossible movie, ranked
The series was adapted from a long-running television series from the 1960s
Paula Patton and Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

The Mission: Impossible franchise is one of the most reliable franchises in modern Hollywood. Spanning more than 20 years and still ongoing, the franchise has produced a number of unbelievable action movies, and, because it's a Paramount franchise, they also represent the most rewatchable movies on Paramount Plus.

Starring Tom Cruise as action hero Ethan Hunt, these movies are always ostensibly about Hunt as an agent of the Impossible Mission Force assigned to save various world calamities. Really, though, this franchise has just become an excuse to watch Cruise do some of the most insane things you've ever seen. The stunts are incredible, but just as remarkable is how consistently great these movies have been. We're ranking the entire franchise from worst to best, but remember that most of these movies are pretty good.

Read more
Discover the 8 best classic movies you can stream on Tubi
These free classics give you an alternative to what's on Netflix

Movie fans are used to searching Netflix, Hulu, Max, and Prime Video for their favorite films. While these services have the most options, the increase in streaming prices has limited the number of options people can afford to choose from. Bundles make it better, but watching movies for free is even better. Look no further than Tubi. This online site has a ton of great, overlooked films in a variety of genres to provide entertainment to the masses without having to pay a subscription.

As older movies get harder to find, Tubi has decided to make it a priority to collect a large library of classics for free. Whether you want to watch a literary adaptation or a comedy flick, all of the pre-21st-century legends are at your fingertips. These are the best classic movies to stream on Tubi.

Read more
Binge-worthy alternatives: 7 shows like The Diplomat on Netflix
Old political classics and new thrillers to check out
Keri Russell in The Diplomat.

Netflix has found another major hit with its original series The Diplomat. Starring Keri Russell as the titular political ambassador and Rufus Sewell as her husband, the show mixes personal issues and international distress. Russell's character struggles to juggle her duties for the United States overseas while being distracted by her marriage, and the show captures the way these two things intersect in most people's lives.

The Diplomat isn't going to teach you a whole lot about politics or international relations, but it does fall in line with a long legacy of entertaining and thrilling series centered on government and the people who run it. With an incredibly binge-worthy vibe, The Diplomat will probably be over before you know it and you're looking for similar shows to scratch that itch. We have you covered with the best shows like The Diplomat.

Read more