Charity shops: the VHS graveyard

Charity shopsThis post was contributed by Jerome Turner.

I mostly encounter videos now in charity shops, and always find it interesting how the same films seem to turn up a lot. Mostly Jurassic Park and the like, always a few ‘keep fit’ videos too, probably dumped after the New Year resolution to lose weight goes out the window.

There also seem to be a lot of children’s VHS tapes in charity shops. I guess this may be partly due to the popularity of DVD formats, but also the ‘always on’ nature of CBeebies and other kids channels. I know the idea of buying kids DVDs seems a bit defunct.

I wonder how many people actually buy charity shop VHS tapes? People must do, otherwise the staff would just bin them I guess.
5 comments on “Charity shops: the VHS graveyard
  1. Charity shops can be a veritable goldmine for the VHS collector. Amongst the many copies of Friends episodes, Titanic and Jurassic Park I have heard of people finding rare pre-cert tapes and American NTSC tapes. Another interesting comparison point is the car boot.

  2. Thanks for the post Jerome. I too have browsed VHS tapes in charity shops and wondered about the audience for them. Would be keen to hear from anyone who uses charity shops as an outlet to find new purchases.

  3. Friends is an interesting one. Does the advent of the Friends VHS tape sit on the cusp of the age of the DVD box set?

  4. Sutton Coldfield’s charity shops turn VHS away now… as I think I said on Twitter at the time – that’s when a format dies, not when Curry’s stop selling the players. (um, this contradicts my point that it’s when Blockbuster stops stocking media that the format dies – whoops!)

  5. Pingback: Video Cultures | Video Cultures: Formulating Research into Video Shop Culture

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