Amazon sells "Man on the Moon" VHS for $100+
I liked Jim Carrey's portrayal of "song-and-dance-man" Andy Kaufman as much as the next guy, but these Amazon.com glitches are beginning to get to me.[Thanks, Eric!] [Amazon]
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At least it is 5% off...
VHS is considered an antique item now. That explains the premium pricing :)
I recently saved $1600 on a Nerf gun on Amazon, down to $30 from $1630.76.
FREE SHIPPING!!!!!!!!!!!
That's an Andy Kaufman joke. We're supposed to force some laughter here.
"Rental-only" VHS tapes used to be sold for prices like that, back when buying movies was more of a rare novelty for people. This could be a remnant of that.
@plasticbiker: I realize that plasticbiker was probably kidding, but I think it is priced high because it is rare.
I've seen licensed toys on Amazon that are no longer made that cost a lot of money because they're now considered rare.
Only five left in stock!
ive actually seen a lot of VHS movies for sale for extremely high prices. Remember the My Giant fiasco when that VHS was several hundred dollars?
The studios limit how many they print and sell for premium pricing, like a collectors item or something.
always seemed stupid to me, that someone would pay so much more for inferior quality recording.
out of print and limited print VHS movies often cost over $100. for instance, remember how the "rental" release date used to be earlier than the store release date? all those movies cost the rental store $80-$120
When I worked at Blockbuster pre-DVD, that's how much some VHS rentals were when people lost them. Always slightly over $100. I never knew why, though.
Low supply = high demand?
It doesn't seem like a ridiculous error to me. $1000 would be ridiculous. If it's a "first-edition" VHS release, or some kind of collectors item then $100 may be reasonable.
I mean, I wouldn't buy it for a dollar, but there's someone for everything.
@snazz: I remember that back in the day, video stores had to pay something like $80 a title, b/c I used to hang out at one and look at their catalogs, but that gave them the right to rent it out, I guess.
But if I order it do I qualify for free shipping?
Hey, but you get free shipping!
This is considered "collectible" even though you can buy a "new" version (from the same page) for .27 cents.
BUT LOOK AT THE SAVINGS!
Oh,come on. There's no story here.
Go to Amazon and there are at least a half- dozen of these for under a dollar brand new.(Used start at 1 cent plus shipping). I have found that there are always these kind of outliers on Amazon. They are hoping that you will be lazy and hit the wrong 1 click tab or you are the kind of shopper that buys "collectible" editions for outrageous amounts.
I used to be in broadcast journalism and this kind of lazy reporting really chaps my ass...
Had Andy Kaufman really died, he would be rolling over (laughing) in his grave.
@Snarkysnake: Your bitterness chaps MY ass! Lighten up. And I totally used to work in broadcast also. I won't tell you where, but my last name rhymes with "Lather."
@Snarkysnake: really chaps my ass...
I always find that saying weird, as chaps have no ass. Otherwise, they'd be pants.
@KHAN!!!_GitEmSteveDave: Yes, and also they were recorded on higher quality tape that could withstand far more viewings than the average consumer would play them.
Wow only 5 left! Looks like all my Christmas shopping is done for next year.
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@Snarkysnake: I'm with you, dude. I love Consumerist, but every once in a while there is some stupid, ill-thought out post like this one...
I worked at a video store at around the time of the VHS --> DVD switch, and VHS tapes cost the store ~$120 unless it was a specifically promoted for sale movie, then it would run around $20.
There were many tapes that consumers could just not buy until the video stores sold them second hand, or they would pay the $120+ also.
That's just the way it worked and the reason that video store could actually make money before DVD/DivX+Broadband came along and made video stores more obsolete.
@Jack Alton Kennedy: Back in those days, VHS tapes were either "priced to own" or "priced to rent". More often, they were priced to rent since people more often rented video tapes than bought them for their own collections. Priced to rent videos were usually in the hundreds of dollars, since it made the studios more money, and the video stores recouped their costs through the price of rentals.
These days, since more people buy DVDs for their own collections, I don't even think "priced to rent" even exists anymore.
@plasticbiker: Indeed. They don't make VHS tapes anymore, and the last major distributor of VHS tapes gave up the ghost at the start of this year.
@KHAN!!!_GitEmSteveDave: I believe the phrase is supposed to be chafes; ex:
chafe (chāf) Pronunciation Key
v. chafed, chaf·ing, chafes
v. tr.
To wear away or irritate by rubbing.
To annoy; vex.
To warm by rubbing, as with the hands.
v. intr.
To rub and cause irritation or friction: The high collar chafed against my neck.
To become worn or sore from rubbing.
To feel irritated or impatient: chafed at the delay.
n.
Warmth, wear, or soreness produced by friction.
Annoyance; vexation.
[Middle English chafen, from Old French chaufer, to warm, from Vulgar Latin *calefāre, alteration of Latin calefacere : calēre, to be warm; see kelə-1 in Indo-European roots + facere, to make; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]
Synonyms: These verbs mean to wear down or rub away a surface by or as if by scraping: chafed my skin; water abrading the canyon walls; metal bristles that excoriated her scalp; rope that fretted a groove in the post; stone steps galled by years of heavy use.
Somewhere along the line it got mispelled like breathe and breath and there and their.
@FranktasticVoyage: if you think that's bad, you should read io9.com. Half the writers there don't know what journalism means.
I remember back in the day, long before DVDs or even CDs, stores would stock VHS tapes for $89.00 within the first 30 of release, then drop the prices to around $29. I remember walking into stores like Lechmere and wondering why anyone would be so incredibly stupid, especially near the time the price would drop--it wasn't as if people didn't know the absurd price was about to cut by 2/3's.
A little off topic, but seeing these prices on Amazon reminds me of then (the early to mid 1980's).
Amazon haven't caught on it's still online for $102.59
Ironically, they're 88 used copies available starting from $0.01
@Fenders-Stratosphere: The word is chaps:
verb
become sore and roughened: to become sore and cracked by exposure to wind or cold, or make skin sore and cracked in this way ( refers to skin )
Yes, it's etymology is likely from chafe, but it is not wrong and the phrase is correct as "chaps my ass". Not even Mr. Darcy used chafe in this manner ("I say, Bingley, Miss Elizabeth certainly chafes my ass").
@Confuzius:
Keep in mind, that when the studios would price VHS tapes at $120+ to virtually ensure "rental tape" status, that was only the List Retail Price for buying a single copy. There's no way you could convince me that the national rental chains who might buy tens of thousands of copies, or even a small mom-and-pop store who might buy only 30 copies, weren't getting a bulk-price discount from their distributors.
@cunninglinguine: as did JVC (i believe) ending their last standalone VCR plant. Now if you want a VCR you have to buy a VCR/DVD combo. Why would somebody actually WANT a VCR? DVDs are dirt cheap now...at least a lot of them, and new ones are only $15, that's less than going to see the movie with somebody in the theatres!
Amazon's sky-high VHS pricing worked to my advantage once. I had missed a pivotal episode of a TV series so many times that it was finally worth it to me to buy the whole season for $15 from an ebayer, shipping included. After I saw the episode, I took the set to a local dealer. The desk guy made a phone call and I got the distinct impression that his supervisor was telling him to look at the Amazon price and offer me a percentage. He hung up, clicked a little on the PC, and then said, "Sorry, I can offer you only 20 bucks." I "reluctantly" accepted my $5 profit without smirking. I checked later and Amazon's VHS price was far higher than the DVD price.
well if amazon uses LIFO for accounting their inventory this would probably make sense. It might be some kind of deal between amazon and the studio that charges amazon the first couple vhs for $90+ and later shipments for $5-10 per, so it probably averages out $15 a piece to amazon, but the historical cost for the first couple items is still $90+amazon's profit margin. if the system is managed automatically, it might not occur to amazon to go through some of the out dated inventory items and manually set price to finally clear up the space in warehouse. or it could just be their automated pricing system price items inversely proportional to the remaining quantity in stock based on the assumption people willing to pay more for 'rare' items.
Rental pricing is still cool, right guys?