A Value or Valuable? 150,000 VHS Tapes – A Case Study in Merchandise Liquidation.

Consolidated Consignment helps businesses liquidate inventory. You want it to move and it hasn’t, so we make it move. Simple. Even if one day we find 150,000 VHS tapes that we didn’t expect to find.

We received a call from an individual that needed to make room in his warehouse to store boats, but the floor was too clogged with products that hadn’t been moved in a very long time and basically it had become a problem by taking up the valuable storage space. The new boat inventory is what he needed to focus on and this merchandise was preventing him from doing just that on his warehouse floor. There was a unique array of items he said including rubber base, you know, the stuff you make things with, golf store products, and some random media items. Such a collection of items sounded like it was an opportunity for a great story. So naturally, we said yes.

Consolidated Consignment arranged trucking transportation to move the items off his warehouse floor as soon as possible, which in this case was two days. When the merchandise arrived, we tore into the products with all the gusto of a Christmas morning. We found golf products in pristine condition that according to the manifest were sitting in storage for over 16 years. In today’s world, most people consider something that is 16 years old as obsolete, but there is always a market and a way to handle full liquidation. This is just the nature of Consolidated Consignment. We liquidate problems.

For the most part, we weren’t surprised by what we found and were eager to help the owner recoup the cost. However, this particular truckload had some additional items that really surprised us. We found cases and pallets of some illicit items that we weren’t expecting. Sandwiched as they were between pallets of wooden golf tees, athletic equipment, and rubber base, we found a hoard of VHS tapes that would make most people widen their eyes in surprise.

We began to count, and confirming details on the manifest, we catalogued more than 133 titles and nearly 150,000 VHS tapes. Old westerns, children’s videos, documentaries, some cult classics, and yep, you guessed it, soft porn, and everything was factory sealed and in excellent condition. All we could say was, Wow. So, we went to work.

Some individual titles would bring in a respectable amount of cash, but others were obviously not first line film favorites. However, we identified a market for the pallets of Playboy annals, Playboy casting calls, Showtime features, Caught on Tape, and Girls Gone Wild. Apparently, these were well sought after and of such a noteworthy reputation that we were able to identify several collectors and organizations that wanted to purchase the collection.

What did grandma used to say about one man’s leftovers being another’s five-star meal or something like that… Well, it looks like Consolidated Consignment found a prime example. This merchandise turned out to be a time capsule from an era before streaming services and high-definition TVs, spanning the 90s and early 2000s, and it became newly available and being distributed to people who were paying to acquire this merchandise.

More specifically, while some might see this one-of-a-kind collection as a nostalgic throwback, others might see it as a logistical challenge. With so many tapes taking up valuable space, we knew we had to find a solution. You might ask, but why would anyone want to buy a collection of VHS tapes in this day and age? The answer is simple: there’s a market for everything, and VHS tapes are no exception. Collectors, retro enthusiasts, and even museums might be interested in acquiring this unique piece of cultural history.

There is something to be said about the tangibility of physical media. While streaming services offer convenience and variety, there’s something special about holding a VHS tape in your hands, reading the back cover, and hitting play. It’s a sensory experience that is about owning a piece of the silver screen in your own home that can’t be replicated on a computer screen.

We are no strangers to unusual inventory. We find the value inside that which you do not have the resources to facilitate. We are in the business of liquidating problems. Can we help you liquidate yours today?