In a lot of circles, even some pretty intensely movie-loving ones, the DVD is an antique. An outdated object viewed with derision. At first I was surprised when I’d talk to other cinephiles and they would confess that they no longer owned a DVD or Blu-ray player. Then that same exchange happened again and again and again. It’s happened so many times over the last couple years, it no longer gives me pause.
But someone out there still likes these things. And just as the secondary market for VHS has exploded in the last few years, there are signs emerging that DVD could be the next “old fashioned” tech to become desired by collectors. Most of the same companies that grade tapes for quality and authenticity also offer the same service for discs.
As of this writing, the market for graded DVDs is small compared to VHS. A recent look at eBay sales of graded VHS showed quite a few tapes selling in the hundreds of dollars. A few even hit quadruple digits. No graded DVDs sold for that much on eBay in the last few months — but quite a few did sell for hundreds of bucks.
Here are 10 graded DVDs that sold for some surprising dollar amounts on eBay. (The numbers cited come from eBay’s own sellers’ hub, where you can research listings.) I’m not encouraging anyone to buy anything on here or on eBay as an investment; that would be foolish. But I’d be lying if I said that I looked at these discs and didn’t think to myself for a couple seconds “Should I maybe buy a graded copy of Avatar as an investment? Avatar fans are so intense that might be a thing…”
Graded DVDs Worth Huge Amounts of Money
These old discs sold for way over their original retail price on eBay in recent months.
READ MORE: DVDs and Blu-rays With the Best Special Features
Graded VHS Tapes Worth Huge Amounts of Money
These graded VHS tapes recently sold for three or four-digit prices on eBay.
