> The cost of VHS tape in the 80s is one reason I think VHS tapes are an underrated collectible. But Gen Xers are more nostalgic for their video games than for movies, at least for now.
They're an overrated collectible. There's no great quality-of-media benefit to VHS tapes, versus say the audio record market (where there is an argument in terms of the audio experience).
People are in fact quite nostalgic for movies, not VHS tapes. The author is confused on the difference.
Nobody is buying Ikari Warriors 1/2/3 (old NES games) for $50 on the PS5 today; but people have been buying Top Gun on DVD, then Blu-ray, then 4K, and paying retail prices to do it. They do it because there has generally been a quality increase. The rare exception is a few hyper popular games from the past that eg end up on Steam (Final Fantasy 1/2/3/etc games, or Age of Empires) or on a Nintendo repackaging hardware device.
Most NES video games for example were not endlessly repackaged with each generation of video game machines. The companies make new games, the old games largely stay in the past (in part due to the vast improvement in the quality of the games, the graphics, the size of the games, etc). The same is not true of movies. I can buy a superior copy of the movies The Color of Money or Heat on disc today vs the same movies on VHS, and that's why nobody cares about collecting VHS tapes, the same exact movies are reproduced at often dramatically better quality vs the past. They're not merely reproduced, it's typically a superior offering (certainly moving from shoddy VHS tapes to modern discs, when they're done well by the studio, is a vastly superior consumer experience).
My son once grabbed a huge crate of ditched VHS on the sidewalk, filled with 80s action movies (complete Stallone, VanDamme, Schwartzenegger etc). He made a lot of 80s-movies-watching with his friends from these VHS. They loved the experience of watching 80s movies on 80s technology apparently :)
They're an overrated collectible. There's no great quality-of-media benefit to VHS tapes, versus say the audio record market (where there is an argument in terms of the audio experience).
People are in fact quite nostalgic for movies, not VHS tapes. The author is confused on the difference.
Nobody is buying Ikari Warriors 1/2/3 (old NES games) for $50 on the PS5 today; but people have been buying Top Gun on DVD, then Blu-ray, then 4K, and paying retail prices to do it. They do it because there has generally been a quality increase. The rare exception is a few hyper popular games from the past that eg end up on Steam (Final Fantasy 1/2/3/etc games, or Age of Empires) or on a Nintendo repackaging hardware device.
Most NES video games for example were not endlessly repackaged with each generation of video game machines. The companies make new games, the old games largely stay in the past (in part due to the vast improvement in the quality of the games, the graphics, the size of the games, etc). The same is not true of movies. I can buy a superior copy of the movies The Color of Money or Heat on disc today vs the same movies on VHS, and that's why nobody cares about collecting VHS tapes, the same exact movies are reproduced at often dramatically better quality vs the past. They're not merely reproduced, it's typically a superior offering (certainly moving from shoddy VHS tapes to modern discs, when they're done well by the studio, is a vastly superior consumer experience).