Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and WiFi-powered digital behemoths now dominate the home video market with sprawling libraries and crystal-clear picture quality. But for passionate hobbyists, indie retailers, media experts and average film-watchers who spoke to NBC News, VHS will never go out of style. They find nostalgic charm and, in some cases, financial value in hunks of plastic that some might consider useless junk.
It's about simplicity, not quality," said Sarah Godlin, 39, a copywriter in the admissions office at California's Humboldt State University who picks up tapes at local thrift stores. Instagram, in particular, is home to some of the most creative expressions of VHS ardor. Aficionados post photos of their collections organized by color hashtag: vhscollectorsunite ; graphic designers upload images from contemporary movies reimagined as retro VHS box art.
At least a few major retailers are taking notice — and capitalizing. Disney hawks wearable pins shaped like clamshell cases from the s. Meanwhile, record shops and secondhand stores are awash in tapes.
EBay spits out more than , results if you search "VHS movies. Jackie Greed, who works at the indie record emporium Amoeba Music in Los Angeles, used to struggle to find takers for the store's trove of used cassettes, wondering if she'd ever be able to sell the stuff.
But in the last few years, the tapes have been "selling faster than I can keep up with," Greed said, adding that and something customers are burning through everything from megahits like "Titanic" to relatively run-of-the-mill titles from the s, such as the Clint Eastwood thriller "Absolute Power.
Greed, 51, said that these days Amoeba Music sells close to an average of 2, VHS tapes every month. She and her boyfriend have more than 5, tapes in their personal collection. The renewed enthusiasm for the old format has created a small but spirited cottage industry. Adam Haug, a graphic designer and veritable VHS addict who lives in Omaha, Nebraska, said he has "amassed hundreds of friends in the VHS community," a patchwork of folks who assemble in private Facebook groups and Reddit forums , usually with a yen for horror and sci-fi arcana.
It's thriving," said Haug, 38, who said he has "somewhere between 1, and 2," tapes in his basement, many of them schlocky horror flicks that never made the jump to DVD and then went out of print. I'm almost completely out of room in my basement.
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Already a member? Sign in. Check Your Email We sent you an email to reset your password. Create an Account Get started by entering your email address. You're Almost Done! There are some individual data for select countries; for instance, the Danish government had some estimates where more than 10 million tapes were sold only in that country on an annual basis. And then you can picture just how many of these were produced and marketed in larger countries across the globe.
Just thinking about all of that plastic that now serves no purpose is scary from an environmental standpoint. And that also means that getting rid of old VHS tapes is not as simple as just throwing them out with the rest of the garbage. Plus, the magnetic part of the tapes is coated with a metal that can be toxic.
Once they do, though; they will contain more than enough toxicity to be classified as e-waste. After all, chances are that you can cheaply find those movies, tv shows, or concerts online in a much higher resolution these days. Luckily, there are ways of converting the content found on the VHS tapes into digital files that any computer can ready. Now, in terms of your computer; each of these USB video converters tends to have its system requirements.
Most of them will run on a machine that has Windows 7 or above. And finally — the only other commodity that you need to keep in mind is time.
And best of all — a majority of software suites for video converters will allow you to make further alterations to the software. After that, you can do whatever you want with it; backing it up somewhere or uploading it to YouTube is always a good idea. Of course, we do recommend using a cloud service or backing up these tapes to multiple devices.
Though hard drivers are a much more dependable storage medium than VHS tapes; they still sometimes fail as well. While recycling your old VHS tapes is one way to get rid of them — you should also consider if you can make a couple of bucks in the process. However, depending on what your VHS movie collection contains; you may find that there are some true gems in there, that has become a rare and valuable commodity. There are plenty of memorabilia appraisers who would probably be more than happy to take a look at your collection.
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