We’re back with another edition of Urban Legend: Fact or Fiction. In this chapter, we are going to talk about weirdly overpriced Disney VHS tapes.
Are some really worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars?
The Story
Everyone, check your basements and attics; those dusty old Disney VHS tapes could make you a fortune! Especially if they have the Black Diamond logo or if it’s the infamous banned cover for “The Little Mermaid.”
Is it Real?
Not really; there are a few Disney VHS tapes that go for serious money, but you likely don’t own any of them. To understand the fluctuating values of these tapes, you have to understand how Disney structures its releases.
The Vault
Back before streaming was even an option, Disney would cycle physical media releases in and out of print. Once a film was released on any form of home media, it would only be sold for a limited time before being “vaulted” for 10 years.
After 10 years, the animated features would be released back onto home media and often in theaters. These cycles also helped update the films to whatever the new dominant platform was, with many classic releases hitting VHS, then DVD, and then Blu-ray. Because of this, there are sometimes brief windows in which a popular Disney film hasn’t had a physical media release in almost a decade.
For example, in the early 2000s, when DVD has fully pushed VHS out of the market. So for a few years, classic titles like “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella” were still vaulted, and VHS releases were the only game in town. During those brief windows, yes, some classic animated Disney VHS did sell for hundreds of dollars….20 years ago…
Once this self-imposed scarcity by the company ends, new releases would be produced on huge scales, effectively flooding the market each time. Now that things like DVDs and Blu-rays are backwards compatible, there isn’t a real need to update to a new format each time. Meaning that VHS hasn’t been the only medium these were available on for at least 1 or 2 cycles. Tanking the value of these tapes.
Why Do People Think They Are Worth Money?
It’s a wild concept, isn’t it? Imagine something available in every second-hand store (that still sells VHS) or basement in America, secretly being worth a fortune. So how did such an illogical rumor get started?
In 2015, an article began to circulate that a VHS release of “Beauty and the Beast” sold for $500. The problem is that the listing linked didn’t sell at all. It has been sitting for sale this entire time, and you can see for yourself here.
After this a flood of articles began to come out about how valuable Disney VHS had suddenly become. The issue is many of these sources use current listings, like the aforementioned piece, to determine these outrageous numbers.
Rule number 1: When you’re using eBay to gauge the price of an item, always set it to sold listings.
Anyone can put anything on eBay for whatever price they want, that doesn’t mean someone is going to pay it. Whereas sold listings give you an idea about what an item is actually selling for and how recently.
These, mostly clickbait, articles led to a swarm of people loading up on commonly available Disney VHS at second-hand stores. Then trying to sell them on eBay and Facebook for outrageous prices. This flood of listings just further fed the notion that people were buying these tapes, they weren’t.
Once these new sellers realized something was wrong the rumors shifted to it being only Black Diamond editions or a notorious banned cover. While both of these factors do play in, it’s not nearly to the degree they are made out to be.
Walt Disney Animation
Factors
Disney stopped making Black Diamond editions in 1994, about midway into the VHS boom. So these tapes are slightly older, sometimes making them more rare.
As for the banned “The Little Mermaid” cover, a 1990 release had a phallic-shaped spire on the golden castle in the background snuck in by an artist. Once the lude image was discovered, the tapes were pulled and rereleased. But as we discussed above, Disney produces tapes on a massive scale. There is no telling how many of these banned covers were sold because we had a copy and most of the kids we grew up with did too. Yes, these being pulled make them rarer but “dick cover” “The Little Mermaid” tapes are far from hard to find.
A quick search of sold listings on eBay only shows two tapes that have recently sold for over $20. A release of “The Little Mermaid” discussed above and a copy of “Beauty and The Beast.” Both of these tapes are Black Diamond Editions, but they are also still factory sealed, commanding the heavier price tag.
VHS degrades over time so many collectors value still having tapes factory sealed. Which, even in something mass-produced, gets rarer and rarer each passing year. Even still, a sealed, banned cover, Black Diamond Edition of “The Little Mermaid” will only fetch you about $80, not $100s.
Those price tags are really only attached to insanely rare releases or buyers with too much money (and best of luck consistently finding one of those).
