A video store boss has finally laid his hands on a Dundee collector’s treasure trove of VHS tapes.
Andy Johnson arrived in the City of Discovery on Wednesday afternoon to begin the process of shipping thousands of videos back to his rental store in Liverpool.
The 42-year-old revealed the extent of Dundonian George McInnes’s collection could be well in excess of the initial 20,000 estimate.
Andy runs VideOdyssey, thought to be the last remaining VHS rental store in the UK.
He was delighted to save George’s collection from landfill and collected them from storage units near Fairfield Road.
‘This is the biggest collection’
Andy said: “This is the biggest collection we’ve ever been donated.
“I’m giddy having a sift through some of the videos George has amassed.
“We started the discussions with the family around 18 months ago regarding the tapes and unfortunately with the pandemic we’ve been a bit delayed in coming up.”
George was unable to attend but those who know him from the lock-ups said the pensioner had amassed the collection from car boot sales and other donations over the years.
It is understood some of the tapes had been sold on online auctions recently with one ex-video rental appearing in a tv commercial given its rarity.
As work began to load the tapes into a waiting van, the VideOdyssey boss admitted he was “intrigued” to get to the back of three lock-ups.
‘The nostalgia market is crazy’
He added: “Just from having a quick look through we’ve come across an ex-video rental of The Goonies which could be quite sought after.
“We also found sealed VHS tapes of the television series M*A*S*H – George has really hoovered up an incredible collection.
“Just from having a look at how far the lock-ups go back we reckon there is more than 20,000.
“Previously our biggest donation was around 4,000 tapes but we’ll get to work in processing these all through.”
Andy opened his shop amid a rise in people seeking out retro ways to watch films and TV shows, particularly the VHS format that was most popular more than 20 years ago.
“The nostalgia market is crazy at the moment, its like you’ve seen with the resurgence of vinyl.
“We recently sold a VHS copy of The Shining for over £60 so there is a big demand for some of those rarer finds.
“After finding this haul of tapes we reckon we’ll have one if not the biggest collection of VHS tapes in the UK.”
Planet of the tapes: Dundee collector donates 20,000 VHS films to ‘UK’s last remaining rental shop’