There are certain vintage items that consistently generate a lot of interest when they come up for sale. This time around, it is an unopened 1984 VHS copy of Star Wars that is getting a lot of buzz, with the rare item expected to sell for a tidy sum of $60,000 at auction, which is set to end on February 23rd. When it comes to Star Wars media, the one thing that piques interest more than anything is copies of the original, unedited versions of the films, rather than the “Special Edition” versions that are now commonplace in any release. For one bidder, this VHS will be the prize piece of what is likely to be an extensive and expensive collection.
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Since Star Wars arrived in 1977, the franchise has become one of the biggest, most imitated and most lucrative in history. While the subsequent movies have both thrilled and annoyed fans in equal measure, one thing that has remained constant is the price some people will pay to hold a little bit of the Star Wars Saga in their hands. Whether it has been original action figures, LEGO sets, posters or anything else you can name, there is likely someone out there with a lot of money to part with for the right items.
As well as the extremely rare sealed VHS copy of Star Wars, which is listed as including a “Gray Tape-Head”, “First Edition Stereo Only red label”, “1984 Sleeve” and the relevant watermarks to prove its authenticity, there are two other 1984 copies of the movie up for sale and a sealed 10th Anniversary Trilogy set, which is expected to fetch up to $20,000 in the auction.
What Makes Original Star Wars Movies So Valuable at Auction?
A first edition of anything will always bring a lot of money when coming up at auction, and while this is usually associated with books, such as the first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that sold last year for $37,000. First edition VHS copies of any movie are hard to come by, especially in sealed condition, as at the time they were bought no one had any idea how much they would be worth in future and therefore didn’t hoard such items for a healthy future investment profit.
Star Wars VHS copies of this age are particularly important to die-hard fans, and franchise historians, mainly due to the number of changes that have been made over the years since the films’ initial release just under 45 years ago. Starting in the 1990s, George Lucas continually tweaked and adjusted segments of the original trilogy, adding scenes and special effects not available at the time, changing key moments and generally making Star Wars fans increasingly annoyed in the process. One such scene of contention is a Han Solo/Greedo scene in Star Wars, when Han shot the bounty hunter in the original movie, but in subsequent releases has been seen to draw after Greedo, at the same time as Greedo, and currently it is hard to tell what happens in the scene. It is for the preservation of scenes like this that the VHS tape is worth a lot of money to someone.
