VHS Copy Of ‘Back to the Future’ Sets New Auction Record After Fetching $75K

The 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis, ‘Back to the Future’ is a huge chunk of nostalgia for people from that time. It’s not uncommon for nostalgia to come with a hefty price tag. Just recently, VHS copy of ‘Back to the Future’ fetched a fortune.

A sealed, near-mint condition 1986 VHS tape of “Back to the Future” just set a new record for a videotape when it sold for $75,000 at auction. Tom Wilson, who played Biff Tannen in the popular ’80s film, held the VHS copy. Wilson had originally listed the tape, as well as others, on eBay, but had to take them down after receiving such a large response.

He then contacted Heritage Auctions in Dallas to arrange for a formal auction. Wilson had sealed and graded VHS tapes of “Back to the Future II,” “Back to the Future III,” and the 1990 boxed set of the “Back to the Future” trilogy. Wilson’s willingness to write a note to accompany each cassette and autograph each shipping made this collection unique.

Heritage Auctions said the $75,000 price tag for the “Back to the Future” VHS copy was “the highest price ever paid at auction for a sealed, graded VHS tape,” citing a bidding war won by a New York-based collector. Joe Maddalena, executive vice president of Heritage Auctions, told CNN that they had no idea it was going to happen.

We had no idea what was going to happen — no one’s done this before and to see the success, it’s amazing. When you see that, it’s a great sense of accomplishment, not even the financial aspect of it but just a moment of ‘I knew it! I knew nostalgic VHS tapes would be good.’

The auction came to a close with a dogfight over one of the films that characterized the videocassette period, the summer of 1986… and, for that matter, the summer of 2022. Maddalena expressed his optimism that the auction will rekindle interest in VHS tapes and persuade additional celebrities to part with their collections. For more such news, stay tuned to Thirsty.

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