After some recent experiences, I’ve noticed that some scrupulous sellers on the internet – Ebay for example…! - are taking advantages of our hard earned money by trying to sell us - honest VHS collectors - bootleg copies of rare and out of print (OOP) VHS movies. However, you may ask, how is it possible? well:
1) The tape comes without any box, sleeve in plain black…hmmm, ask the seller why and forget about the deal of the century that he was proposing – even if he was making a point of telling that he DOES NOT sell bootlegs.
2) The tape comes with only its “name” tag i.e. name of the movie, copyright, year etc. Ok. You bid on it and win it for 25$ US. After receiving it, carefully inspect the tag. Hmmm, looks like a bad color copy…shit…
3) The seller is…errr…selling the same super rare OOP movie…twice. What are the odds??? Suspicious…
4) A super rare VHS copy of your favorite obscure film is for sale at a very low price…seller has 5 copies of it….hmmmm….I wonder…
5) Same as 4), but you still want it very much. On inspecting the display picture that the seller provided, you notice the word SONY inscribed near the top of the cassette…again, suspicious.
6) Same as 4) and 5) but you desperately want it and don’t mind paying 42.50$ US for it. After receiving it, you open the package – white stained envelope – and…the tape is there no problem. Good. Suddenly, a doubt clouds your mind. The cassette itself seems to weight like some cheap dollar store blank VHS as opposed to the sturdy heavyweight tape from the good old days recorded in SP mode. Paranoiac like you are, you put the tape in you VCR. The tape starts itself, good sign. The image is a bit murky but better than your VHS dub from a rental that you made 25 years ago with two VCRs, again good.
7) So you relax and enjoy the movie as it was meant to be seen 25 years ago…with drop outs, white noise, sound problem, pan & scan frame, yellowing of the colours…
Ahhh…the good ‘ole VHS…
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