By Michael Moore, PWTorch Collectibles specialist

Wrestling fans are paying hundreds of dollars for a tape featuring Vince Russo booking at its worst.

In March 2013, some readers were shocked to learn just how much collectors were willing to pay for old VHS wrestling tapes. Nearly two years later, even with the WWE Network and sites like YouTube offering a seemingly endless amount of wrestling content, collectors are still forking over the cash for these tapes. In fact, several more titles have risen in popularity over the last two years.

Perhaps the most cringe-worthy and inexplicable thing about this trend is that the top selling wrestling tape over the last few months doesn’t feature classic Mid-South matches or rarely seen gems from Jim Crockett Promotions. No, the top seller during fourth quarter 2014 was WCW’s 2000 Bash at the Beach. Collectors were paying as much as $450 for a copy of the show that was headlined by Hulk Hogan laying down for Jeff Jarrett and Vince Russo cutting a scathing worked-shoot promo on Hogan. Most of the copies that have sold over the last three months on eBay went in the $200-300 range. If any VHS collectors can explain the allure of this particular tape, please do.

Collectors have also been snatching up pre-Attitude Era tapes of WWF pay-per-views and compilations from the mid-1990s. This is probably due to the limited supply of these tapes that was created because most of them were sold only outside of the U.S.

WWF In Your House: Mind Games, which features the classic Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind main event and the very first ECW invasion of the WWF, is the highest selling of all of these. Most copies have been selling in the $180-230 range. WWF In Your House: D-Generation X from 1997 has sold in the $100-150 range lately. The 1995 WWF In Your House: Lumberjacks tape, headlined by Diesel vs. Sid Vicious and Shawn Michaels vs. Jeff Jarrett in a very good match, isn’t far behind, usually selling for around $100.

WWF Mega Matches, a Canadian-exclusive compilation tape from 1996 with Shawn Michaels on the cover, has been selling in the $140-160 range. WWF Canadian Fan Favorites from around that same time, with Bret Hart on the cover, sells for about $100.

A lot of Jim Crockett Promotions/WCW Clash of the Champions and pay-per-view VHS tapes sell in the $60-80 range. One of the scarcest and most popular of these is 1998’s Clash of the Champions IV: Season’s Beatings. This show featured a fantastic main event of Ric Flair and Barry Windham vs. the Midnight Express, and a match between Dusty Rhodes and Road Warrior Animal that was set up by Animal attempting to gouge out Dusty’s eye with a metal spike.

Then & Now

Many of the VHS tapes that were hot in March 2013 have cooled considerably, which is illustrated in the graphic included with this column. Sales of the 1986 Crockett Cup are so infrequent that the value of that VHS tape is hard to gauge. In March 2013, a couple of copies sold in the $500 range. However, there were no completed listings in the last 90 days, but one eBay seller is offering a copy for $594.96 or best offer. There are several second generation DVD copies being sold for $30 or less.

The 1987 Great American Bash, which was selling in the $40-60 range in March 2013, has dropped considerably to $9.99. The WWF’s Big Event from 1986 also has dropped, from $40-$60 to $10-$30.

The 1990 Great American Bash - Sting’s first WCW Title win - is available with two alternate covers. The more common cover has Sting and Ric Flair, and usually sells in the $20-40 range. The scarcer version has just a picture of Sting in his red, white and blue face paint, and this is the version selling in the $80-100 range in March 2013. The only sale in the last 90 days was $129.99, up slightly.

The 1997 Survivor Series has mostly held its value, usually selling in the $100 range.




PWTorch Collectibles Specialist Michael Moore can be reached at michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MMooreWriter .

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