I was on my way back from Walmart in my hometown a couple of days ago and took a side street instead of my usual route. Good thing I did. Someone had set out a bunch of free stuff by the sidewalk. I rescued over a hundred movies on vhs. Included were the first four Trek movies in full-screen format. But, also included was a set just like in these images below. All of the first six movies, in letterbox format. No watch, certificate of authenticity, or insert, but the 6 cards like these are there in their clear plastic page and the key card in its envelope is still attached to the lower left hand corner of the box of the one I rescued. The spring lock for the lid doesn't seem to work, but from what I gather that mechanism was better in concept than in execution. The condition of the 6 movies leads me to think that they were all only watched once each. Their boxes also all look like new. For that matter, all of the 100+ movies look like they were well kept. A lot of goodies. Boxed set of all 5 of the Dirty Harry movies. Boxed set of 3 Greta Garbo movies that look like they were only watched once each and looks like the set was quite expensive when new. Special promo version of 'Escape from New York'. Etc.
I have a very vague memory of seeing these sets in stores 25 years ago and thinking how grossly overpriced they were at $200 a pop, even with the watch included. Limited to 5000 sets....that works out to $1 million for Paramount.
It amazes me that people will shell out large sums for something at one time and then later on down the road just throw it away. Everything I rescued would have been soaked with rain in a short time if I had not happened along when I did. It's a very quiet side street that gets hardly any traffic and no ad was put up on Craigslist.
Several months ago, we bought a beautiful Panasonic 25" tv with built-in vhs player/recorder for $9.99 at a thrift store. It's in perfect condition. We were just waiting to find some movies to play on it.
Back in the day, they said vhs tapes would not last more than a few years....the tape would degrade and become unwatchable. Funny, but plenty of ones that are now over 30 years old still play like new. They actually beat dvds that get so easily scratched and start to freeze and hiccup.
I have a very vague memory of seeing these sets in stores 25 years ago and thinking how grossly overpriced they were at $200 a pop, even with the watch included. Limited to 5000 sets....that works out to $1 million for Paramount.
It amazes me that people will shell out large sums for something at one time and then later on down the road just throw it away. Everything I rescued would have been soaked with rain in a short time if I had not happened along when I did. It's a very quiet side street that gets hardly any traffic and no ad was put up on Craigslist.
Several months ago, we bought a beautiful Panasonic 25" tv with built-in vhs player/recorder for $9.99 at a thrift store. It's in perfect condition. We were just waiting to find some movies to play on it.
Back in the day, they said vhs tapes would not last more than a few years....the tape would degrade and become unwatchable. Funny, but plenty of ones that are now over 30 years old still play like new. They actually beat dvds that get so easily scratched and start to freeze and hiccup.
There are gems on VHS that I still find out there at flea markets and thrift stores for only a couple of bucks that has never been released on DVD, Blu or streaming.
