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> If $190 feels outrageous for a film about a kangaroo accidentally coming into money, consider the price of a limited-edition copy of the 1989 Disney film “The

> If $190 feels outrageous for a film about a kangaroo accidentally coming into money, consider the price of a limited-edition copy of the 1989 Disney film “The Little Mermaid,” which is listed on Etsy for $45,000. The cover art for this hard-to-find copy is said to contain a male anatomical part drawn into a sea castle. Not really a direct response to the article, but just because someone threw it up with a 45k price tag on Etsy isn't really a good sign these are actually "worth" that much. Anyone can set an arbitrary value for these, and jumping from $200 (which is pretty "absurd", but well within reason for collectors) to almost $50k without any other stepping stones seems like unnecessary hyperbole.

dawnerd 6y ago
Ah, the good old Disney "Black Diamond" nonsense again. It's a new reseller trap. (I know this particular case is more about the cover art but it's the same thing). I really wish people would learn to look at sold comps instead of what the listing prices are.
chaostheory 6y ago
To me this might be money laundering if it’s not really collectible or in demand. I’m not sure I understand the demand for VHS when both DVD and Blu-ray are superior media formats that are more user friendly than VHS
- spijdar 6y ago
  I think there's some demand for this sort of thing. People definitely collect way weirder. I've dabbled in retrocomputing, and spend e.g. a couple hundred bucks on rare but totally useless hardware because I enjoy it. But there's wasting money on a hobby and, well, spending tens of thousands of dollars. The union on a Venn diagram of people with tens of thousands of dollars of disposable income who are fanatical collectors of obscure Disney VHS tapes and shop on Etsy has to be vanishingly small. :)
- herbst 6y ago
  Dvd and blue ray are both fragile and highly temporary. VHS is too, but if it starts breaking you still get a grainy film instead of nothing. I own neither but i get the appeal
lotsofpulp 6y ago
Surely the author of the article knows that too. But they need to sell an emotion evoking clickbait article, and quoting a few big irrelevant numbers helps with that.

dawnerd 6y ago

Ah, the good old Disney "Black Diamond" nonsense again. It's a new reseller trap. (I know this particular case is more about the cover art but it's the same thing). I really wish people would learn to look at sold comps instead of what the listing prices are.

chaostheory 6y ago

To me this might be money laundering if it’s not really collectible or in demand. I’m not sure I understand the demand for VHS when both DVD and Blu-ray are superior media formats that are more user friendly than VHS

spijdar 6y ago
I think there's some demand for this sort of thing. People definitely collect way weirder. I've dabbled in retrocomputing, and spend e.g. a couple hundred bucks on rare but totally useless hardware because I enjoy it. But there's wasting money on a hobby and, well, spending tens of thousands of dollars. The union on a Venn diagram of people with tens of thousands of dollars of disposable income who are fanatical collectors of obscure Disney VHS tapes and shop on Etsy has to be vanishingly small. :)
herbst 6y ago
Dvd and blue ray are both fragile and highly temporary. VHS is too, but if it starts breaking you still get a grainy film instead of nothing. I own neither but i get the appeal

lotsofpulp 6y ago

Surely the author of the article knows that too. But they need to sell an emotion evoking clickbait article, and quoting a few big irrelevant numbers helps with that.