2023-07-27 21:36:36
Sarah Paquette, VHS collector confirms it: no, your VHS collections that have been gathering dust for decades in your garage are not worth thousands of dollars today, but the versions dubbed in Quebec have more appeal.
In discussion in Alexandre Moranville’s podcast on the QUB radio audio platform, Sarah Paquette asserted that VHS is not a quality medium and has been largely surpassed by DVDs and Blu-rays in visual and technical terms. The interest of VHS, specified Mrs. Paquette, is rather in the supplements around the films offered on these cassettes today not found elsewhere or the dubbings which have not been reissued in subsequent versions.
The collector takes the example of Aladdin, the Disney classic, whose eponymous character was dubbed by Joël Legendre in Quebec. However, when the DVDs arrived on the Quebec market, it was rather the version dubbed in France that was chosen by Disney for Quebecers, to the great dismay of the latter.
Listen to the interview with Sarah Paquette, VHS collector, via QUB radio :
Of course, with streaming services like Disney+, these dubs are much more accessible today, but for a long time the VHS version was prized by collectors because it contained this precious Quebec dub.
The VHS market, still the Wild West
Unlike other resale markets like vinyl, there is no platform to determine the prices of VHS tapes. This is what often leads to quite excessive arbitrary assessments. “Just because the tape has a price of $5,000 on eBay doesn’t mean it sells for $5,000,” insisted Ms. Paquette.
The sale is mainly between VHS enthusiasts through Facebook groups most of the time. The most sought after VHS are horror, B-movie or exploitation movies. Everything that is marginal at bottom. That’s why Disney films, for example, have virtually no resale value.
Some special editions of common tapes may be worth more money, but that’s a far cry from the thousands of dollars you might expect: “Maybe you’ll find someone who’ll shell out $100 for your tape, but the truth is that it is often only worth a few dollars,” added Sarah Paquette.
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