You can sell just about anything on the internet. Old electronics, tattered “vintage” shoes, a grilled cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary.
And you can sell things like old VHS tapes. Recently, we shared that some people made some pretty good cash off their old iPods. According to various media sites, you can score a boatload of dough from your old Disney VHS tapes.
If your family was anything like mine, you had stacks and stacks of VHS tapes growing up. Before Netflix and Blu-ray, VHS tapes were the only way to watch our favorite movies at home and on the go—remember strapping that mini TV to your car’s arm rest?
On eBay, there are a lot of Disney VHS tapes for sale (specifically, over 26,000 listings). This Black Diamond “Beauty and the Beast” video is listed for $19,500.
This user is selling an 11-tape package for $25,000.
And this one is selling 15 Black Diamond VHS tapes for $20,000.
According to Tech Times, “The versions of Beauty and the Beast that are listed for $5K and up are those that are part of the rare ‘Black Diamond Collection.’ This collection features 18 animated features from 1988 to about 1993 that were first released for VHS. These editions come in a clamshell case and have a logo in the shape of a black diamond that says ‘The Classics’ on its spine.”
Being a little skeptical, I did some (unofficial) digging to see what was out there.
- Beauty and the Beast appears the be the video with the highest “for sale” prices.
- There are over 6,800 listings where the sellers are asking over $50.00 for Disney VHS tapes.
And how many products are actually being sold for these insane amounts listed?
- Over 7,300 Disney VHS tapes (or tape sets) have been sold on ebay.
- Of those 7,300 transactions, about 25 of them sold for over $500.00.
- Of those 7,300 transactions, 250 of them sold for over $50.00.
The rest have bids for a lot less than what they are actually being listed for:
- While listed for $45.99, this Dumbo VHS only has a bid of $0.01.
- This Bambi VHS is listed for $499.00 but only has a bid of $0.06.
So the theory rings true: Something is only worth as much as someone is actually willing to pay for it. If you have a large collection of Black Diamond Disney VHS tapes (in great condition), you may be able to make around $150 dollars for the entire set, like this one:
