The Video Shop

[Jingbang]

Does anyone else have any 80s video shop memories?
I remember the places always smelt of Mr Sheen polish and cigarettes,usually it was a pound to rent a film or maybe £1.50 or £2 in the later 80s for new films.
All the video shops i ever rented from never cared if kids were renting 15 and 18's nastys etc, there was sometimes a list on the counter that said "films without covers" ie pirates i remember ET, Empire strikes back and First blood being on there.
There was also usually a Betamax and Video 2000 section too which was very small and do sod ever botherd with, i only ever remember one kid at school having a Betamax.

[memoman]

Re: The Video Shop

1982 we joined Star Video.They Charged £29.99 to join films £1 for 2 weeks.But why would you keep a film for 2 weeks.Well we used to swop films with friends who also used the service So we watched each others films before we returned them.I remember watching Rocky 1, 2 and 3 in the same day.I remember all the films i used to watch.And the Adverts on the cassettes.I remember entering a contest to win a holiday in america and winning a runners up prize of European Vacation.on vhs.They did not supply pirates as i can remember?But i remember friends later getting tapes of films recorded off american laserdisc.I remember them having betamax.not sure about the phillips video 2000 tapes.Double sided video tapes soon died out.I remember i used to buy ex rental vhs from other shops usually tapes that were quite recent.You could pay quite a bit for them.Some i have are a view to a kill,crocodile dundee 2.I had a stack of cheaper ex-rental tapes also.

[Richard1978]

Re: The Video Shop

In the 1980s a lot of video shops opened, some even renting out the players as well as the tapes.

I never really got into renting videos from shops that required membership, but I used to get a lot from my local library.

[Jacqueline]

Re: The Video Shop

1982 we joined Star Video.They Charged £29.99 to join

Crikey - that was expensive?

[Trickyvee]

Re: The Video Shop

We had a little video shop up the road called 'The video scene'. Never used it that often. I remember the cheap, beige photocopied inserts with the badly printed shop logo on that the owner used to replace all the covers. No expense spared lol.

[memoman]

Re: The Video Shop

Crikey - that was expensive?

I am sure it was that.I remember how expensive video movies used to be at £79.99 for one of the early starwars.

[sixtyten]

Re: The Video Shop

Indeed. I remember trying to talk a friend, a huge Prince fan, out of buying Purple Rain on VHS when it was released in 1985.
It was £45 to buy!

[branny]

Re: The Video Shop

I am sure it was that.I remember how expensive video movies used to be at £79.99 for one of the early starwars.

They used to charge that much for ex-rentals and there was no such thing as sell through. It also took around 9 months after cine release for the video to come out.

[darren]

Re: The Video Shop

well it happens im a big collector collector of old videos.pre cert videos.
i loved getting out of school going into the vid shops and looking at the scary covers and wondering what the films where like.

quite often id keep tapes for a week films like salems lot,jaws etc.
i was member of most of my local video shops.
lots of ti,es i was never asked my age,i was just allowed to take what took my fancy.

and u could rent vids from lots of places like radio rentals or shops that where not video shops.

one of first memories was going into my local vid shop took forever to get to the top as there must have been near 100 steps up to the actual shop.

it was so smoky you could hardly see in front of you.

i remember seeing all the pre cert videos and the famous nasties and the covers scared the life out of me.
covers like cannibal ferox,cannibal holocaust etc.

and now i collect them paying over 100 quid for individual pre certs.

[memoman]

Re: The Video Shop

Old vhs on amazon from 99p.They almost give them away.

[memoman]

Re: The Video Shop

They used to charge that much for ex-rentals and there was no such thing as sell through. It also took around 9 months after cine release for the video to come out.

How much has changed since then.

[Richard1978]

Re: The Video Shop

I remember a few years ago picking up some tapes in a 2nd hand shop for £1 each, most of which were in good condition.

[frame]

Re: The Video Shop

'Square Eyes' was the name of our local rental shop and was a great source of entertainment for a few years.
Frame.

[Jingbang]

Re: The Video Shop

I remember the first few cheapish videos you could buy were Raiders of the lost ark, Jaws 3d and An officer and a gentleman and they were £29.95 i think and that was around 1984.
Some films like ET, Empire strikes back and Return of the Jedi took about 5 to 7 years to eventually come out to rent.

Darrens right a lot of Pre Certs are worth stupid money if i remember rightly Beast in the heat and Devil hunter were 2 of the rarest nastys and the going rate was about £400 to £600 that may have changed though, even a few beta films are worth over a £100.
Most sell thru vids these days aint worth 20p even most of the charity shops bin em these days and dont bother with them.

The only film i was refused when i was a kid was Death Wish 2 because the man in the shop said there was a nasty rape scene in it.
I always loved Golan Globus films theyre still good now in a "its so **** and cheesey its good way" some of my faves were American Ninja, Invasion USA, Revenge of the ninja and The Delta force must have seen Delta force over 100 times and probably still has the best movie theme tune ever!

[memoman]

Re: The Video Shop

I remember the first few cheapish videos you could buy were Raiders of the lost ark, Jaws 3d and An officer and a gentleman and they were £29.95 i think and that was around 1984.
Some films like ET, Empire strikes back and Return of the Jedi took about 5 to 7 years to eventually come out to rent.

Darrens right a lot of Pre Certs are worth stupid money if i remember rightly Beast in the heat and Devil hunter were 2 of the rarest nastys and the going rate was about £400 to £600 that may have changed though, even a few beta films are worth over a £100.
Most sell thru vids these days aint worth 20p even most of the charity shops bin em these days and dont bother with them.

The only film i was refused when i was a kid was Death Wish 2 because the man in the shop said there was a nasty rape scene in it.
I always loved Golan Globus films theyre still good now in a "its so **** and cheesey its good way" some of my faves were American Ninja, Invasion USA, Revenge of the ninja and The Delta force must have seen Delta force over 100 times and probably still has the best movie theme tune ever!

Vhs was good in it's day but has long been surpassed by superior formats.