Browsing recent Heritage Auctions VHS results to see whether sealed tapes tell us anything useful about IP value in 2025. Spoiler: the market still worships the same half-dozen franchises you already know by heart—just now on plastic bricks instead of box-office charts.
Heritage’s March 28, 2025 showcase auction reads like a micro-index of boomer and Gen-X nostalgia: boxing movies, Spielberg water, Star Wars, and a DeLorean or two. Treat the numbers less like a price guide and more like a sentiment graph for which studio logos still trigger bidding wars.
Selected high-end VHS results (Heritage, Mar 28 2025)
| Rank | Film / Tape | Year | Format | Home video lineage* | Realized price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rocky – 1982 drawer box, VGA 80+ | 1976 | VHS | 20th Century Fox Video (MGM/UA) | $11,250 |
| 2 | The Goonies – 1986, IGS Box 9.5 GEM | 1985 | VHS | Warner Home Video (Warner Bros.) | $8,437.50 |
| 3 | Rocky III – 1982, VGA 85 NM+ | 1982 | VHS | CBS/Fox Video (MGM/UA + Fox) | $4,300.00 |
| 4 | Top Gun Diet Pepsi Promo – VGA 85 NM+ | 1986 | VHS | Paramount Home Video | $3,125.00 |
| 5 | Jaws – 1983, IGS Box 8.5 / Seal 8.5 | 1975 | VHS | MCA Home Video (Universal) | $3,000.00 |
| 6 | First Blood – Thorn EMI clamshell, VGA 85+ | 1982 | VHS | Thorn EMI Video (Carolco IP) | $2,375.00 |
| 7 | Jaws Betamax (Canadian) – IGS Box 7.5 | 1975 | Betamax | MCA Videocassette (Universal) | $1,500.00 |
| 8 | Star Wars Trilogy – 1988 CBS/Fox drawer box | 1977–1983 | VHS box set | CBS/Fox Video (Lucasfilm / Fox) | $1,500.00 |
| 9 | Risky Business Betamax – VGA 85 NM+ | 1983 | Betamax | Warner Home Video | $1,375.00 |
| 10 | Star Wars: Episode I Screener – IGS Box 9 | 1999 | VHS screener | 20th Century Fox (Lucasfilm) | $750.00 |
*Lineage refers to the corporate parent that ultimately owns the film IP, not just the tape imprint. Source: Heritage Auctions.
Metamedia tells
- The IP isn’t subtle. Even inside a niche VHS event, the money goes to Rocky, Star Wars, Jaws, Goonies, Top Gun.
- The corporate gravity is familiar: Disney/Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal. Map the hammer prices back to current studio parents and you get a proxy for legacy catalog equity.
- Under the right provenance, prices go vertical—Heritage sold a sealed Back to the Future tied to Tom Wilson’s collection for $75,000 in 2022. That tells you nostalgia investors will still chase trophy tapes if the story is right.
Treat this table like a sentiment check. Studios are busy counting streaming ARPU; the nostalgia market is busy telling you whose logos still command a premium even when the format is deader than dial-up.
