Friday 23 September 2011

Video Nasties - A Price Guide

Putting together a complete collection of all 39 Video Nasties is something of a Herculean task. Tracking down the entire list was relatively do-able right up to the early 90's, but nowadays most tapes are in the hands of serious collectors and change hands for serious money - the chances of finding an original edition of GO Video's Cannibal Holocaust at a car booth sale are virtually nil. As well as the scarcity of tapes - most collectors agree that scoring a Beast In Heat or a Devil Hunter demands patience and plenty of money; another problem facing collectors are the amount of fakes or "snides" on the market, many of which are expertly designed to fool even the most expertly trained eye...

The DPP39 collection of Pre-Cert Video forum member and collector extraordinaire Andyman. Note the alternative label/sleeve varients among the collection

Compiling a price guide for the 39 Video Nasties is extrmemely difficult considering prices fluctuate from one ebay action to the next, as well as private sales between collectors. The list below was put together by Pre-Cert Video forum member Exorcist1998 last year and is a good indication of the kind of prices excellent/mint quality tapes have fetched on eBay.

Absurd - £120
Anthropophagus The Beast (VFP) - £172
Anthropophagus The Beast (VideoShack) - £600
Axe - £93
Beast in Heat - £1450
Blood Bath - £82
Blood Feast - £70.55
Blood Rites - £87.50
Bloody Moon - £107.00
Burning (The) - £25.50
Cannibal Apocalypse - £44
Cannibal Apocalypse (alternate sleeve) - £800
Cannibal Ferox - £160.50
Cannibal Ferox (bones sleeve) - £190
Cannibal Holocaust - £205
Cannibal Man (The) - £400
Cannibal Man (The) - (Big box Release) - £1000
Devil Hunter (The) - £535
Don't Go in the Woods - £90
Driller Killer (The) - £83
Evilspeak - £35
Exposé (Cut Carton) - £400
Exposé (intact carton) - £1200
Faces of Death - £145
Fight For Your Life - £160
Flesh for Frankinstein (Vipco) - £73.05
Flesh for Frankinstein (Video Gems) - £78.11
Forest of Fear - £98.50
Gestapo's Last Orgy (VFP) - £205
Gestapo's Last Orgy (VideoShack) - £1700
House by the Cemetery - £31.01
House on the Edge of the Park - £225
I Spit on Your Grave (Astra) - £150
I Spit on Your Grave (Wizard) - £250
Island of Death - £300
Last House on the Left - £110
Love Camp 7 (Abbey) - £155
Love Camp 7 (Market) - £181.03
Madhouse - £62
Madhouse (Alterative sample sleeve) - £60
Mardi Gras Massacre (Goldstar) - £400
Mardi Gras Massacre (Market) - £275
Night of the Bloody Apes - £88.00
Night of the Demon - £82
Nightmares in a Damaged Brain - £51.27
Snuff - £176
SS Experiment Camp - £200
Tenebrae - £60
Werewolf and the Yeti - £127
Zombie Flesh Eaters - £101.55
Zombie Flesh Eaters (cut version) - £37

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13 comments:

  1. Anthony113823 September 2011 at 19:28

    That's a pretty impressive collection, but I couldn't even imagine paying some of those prices. Damn! I'd be happy to just have them all on DVD.

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  2. Wes23 September 2011 at 19:52

    Yep, serious hardcore collecting action there... I'd love to have a collection like that. I have a few tapes, but that's it. Have you visited the Pre-Cert forum linked above Anthony, the guys over there really know their stuff about VHS.

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  3. A hero never dies23 September 2011 at 20:07

    Interesting post Wes, I like my media but some of those prices are completely insane. A part of history though I suppose, can you imagine some of them popping up on Antiques roadshow in years to come?

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  4. Wes24 September 2011 at 07:56

    Ha, the Antiques Roadshow... I could imagine one of the experts pouring over a copy of The Beast In Heat and then delivering a killer blow to the would-be millionaire opposite - "Very sorry chap, but this is a fake"...

    I was thinking about all those tapes that were seized and most probably destroyed in the raids in the 90's - whole collections that took years to put together, ruined in a day. I remember seeing those raids reported on the BBC lunchtime news, showing the title sequence from I Spit on Your Grave. Worse still the same story was on ITV and they were showing a clip from Anthropophagus and holding it up as evidence of snuff movie trading ! People had clearly taken leave of their senses. Imagine, a bunch of cops coming into your home and carting off your film collection in bin liners - it seems like something that would happen in North Korea, not Manchester or Liverpool...

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  5. Anthony113825 September 2011 at 16:06

    I've read about the Video Nasties raids and have watched documentaries. A very fascinating and scary point in history. And even after seeing evidence, it's almost hard to believe that it actually happened anywhere, let alone in the UK.

    I started poking around the Pre-Cert forum after reading this post. Looks like quite an extensive resource for VHS collecting. Thanks for sharing the link, Wes.

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  6. Jon T28 September 2011 at 13:37

    Before VHS came to the high street you could only buy tapes direct from the distributor or a few video shops and they were expensive. I remember Dawn of the Dead was about £35.00 to buy new when Intervision first brought it out!!!!!

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  7. Silver Ferox Design28 September 2011 at 22:27

    Very interesting price list - I too had about 1,000 tapes in the 80s and sold 'em all for peanuts to finance my burgeoning (at the time) music making hobby - this was the dawn of the acid house era, remember? Can't say I really miss any of them, except my Intervision DAWN OF THE DEAD, SHIVERS etc. Just so pleased to be able to have Blu-ray now.

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  8. Wes29 September 2011 at 08:42

    Jon, I remember that... I distinctly remember Back to the Future on sale at the video shop with a sticker saying Yours to own for £75 - a small fortune back in the mid '80's...

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  9. Wes29 September 2011 at 08:53

    Jeremy, how did you ditch the tapes ? I used to pour over the classifieds in Samhain, discovering obscure films - some guy would be selling Through the Looking Glass, and I would go off and find out what the film was. Those classifieds were great, but it backfired in the 90's when trading standards officers were using the same classifieds to target collectors.

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  10. Silver Ferox Design3 October 2011 at 21:54

    Funny that, I used to adore SAMHAIN and would be pretty much up to the same thing - a dealer mate of mine got his address book taken so I thought it would only be a matter of time before I got a knock on the door - anyway, it was time for me to move on at that time so I didn't regret selling the tapes (to Psychotronic Video, a specialist shop in Camden, London). It's only now that I wish I'd kept a few back...

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  11. Wes4 October 2011 at 07:06

    Ah I remember visting Psychotronic Video in the 90's... I went in to ask for the re-issue tape of Eraserhead, and the guy behind the counter, probably not used to grappling with an Irish accent said "A razor, 'ead ? Nah mate, you be better off down the chemist..."

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  12. Craig Edwards26 November 2014 at 15:59

    WOW! I wouldn't buy the tapes at those prices - but I wish I had the cash available so I could - several dozen other movies would join my video vault...

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  13. Wes5 December 2014 at 11:43

    Yep, me too, I would never have the funds for this and anyway I'd have no place to store such a collection ! All those clunky VHS boxes ! I've seen pics of guys' collections, shelves of tapes - how does anyone move house with those things ?

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