VHS lives on--just barelyRetro status ahead
Larsson grudgingly admits that turning a VCR into a pet feeder may be one of last ways it can be made useful, but he also says it may be too early to completely write off the machines. After all, he said, high-end amplifiers with vacuum tubes are now luxury items, decades after the tube technology was thought to be dead. Also, he noted, Super-8 is seen as an attractive film media by artists. "I feel strongly that there is a tiny niche among people who appreciate a particular kind of distortion and image quality that is (VHS)," Larsson said. "I would be surprised if in 10 years there wasn't some kind of high-end VCR still manufactured."
"People will pay more for things that aren't on DVD," Shadgett said. "If you look on eBay, people pay a lot of money for VHS tapes that are not on DVD, like old classics. A lot of movies from the '30s, '40s, '50s (aren't on DVD), and God knows if they ever will be." For example, Shadgett pointed to a VHS copy of the 1971 Lewis Gilbert film Friends. Because it is not available on DVD, he explained, sellers on Amazon.com are asking for nearly US$60 for the film, while those on eBay ask US$25 or more. But what happens when and if the film comes out on DVD? "We'll probably sell it for a dollar," Shadgett said.
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