Rare 'Back to the Future' VHS sells for $75,000 at Texas auction house

A digital copy of "Back to the Future" will set you back about $15 on iTunes. Real BTTF nerds might spring for the complete trilogy in its limited edition steelbook form, now $70 on Amazon. But if you really, really want to prove your bonafides, you need to own it on VHS, for which the market has likely ballooned now that a copy was sold by Texas' Heritage Auctions for $75,000. 

Granted, the one sold last week is far from a normal VHS. First, it’s sealed in its original Shrinkwrap, including the white MCA Home Video watermark, making it an even rarer collectible given that the classic time-travel comedy starring Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly is now 36 years-old. Second, this specific copy of the film was auctioned by its original owner, actor Tom Wilson, who played a history book’s worth of McFly family bullies throughout the films, most notably Biff Tannen. 

The VHS came with a signed note from Wilson as well as a picture of him holding it, donning white cloth gloves and also holding a toothpicked festive gherkin (not included). 

"This is a VHS tape of the first release of Back to the Future, sent to me by the studio at the time," Wilson’s note reads. "Since I knew that the VHS platform would be around forever, I saved it for later and now I can’t find a VCR. Oh well. Enjoy!"

Wilson, who somewhat famously carries business cards to answer FAQs for fans who might recognize him, including his confirmation that "Michael J. Fox is nice," also sold sealed copies of "Back to the Future II" for $16,250 and "Back to the Future III" for $13,750. Each came with signed provenance from the late Tom Pollock, former Universal Pictures chairman. 

For younger readers like the intern who once told me she'd never heard of VHS but who love the idea of analog formats like vinyl, a VHS or video cassette is effectively a spool of magnetic tape that contains separate video and audio tracks somehow read by a VCR as it moves the tape from one side of its plastic shell to the other. The picture quickly degrades each time the tape is pulled through the machine and often it would get tangled in the VCR’s mechanisms, effectively ruining the tape when it was ejected. This is the world we once lived in, so please don’t complain about slow Wi-Fi to your elders. 

Despite the degradation of VHS tapes and the increasing difficulty of finding a machine to actually play them, the analog format has seen a boom in collectible sales. Heritage Auctions also just sold a near-mint-plus VHS copy of "The Goonies," featuring a white wraparound Warner HV watermark that collectors apparently covet, for $50,000, and a mint copy of a 1983 "Jaws" VHS release sold for $32,500. 

Among the lot, which also included "Star Wars" and "Ghostbusters" VHS releases, was one of the format's most important titles: "Top Gun." While home videos were originally incredibly expensive—hovering around $70-plus per tape on average—the fighter-pilot flick with a legacy sequel currently in theatres helped launch the format into homes with its relatively affordable $26.95 price tag, quickly making it a must-own. A 1987 promotional copy of "Top Gun" with a Pepsi logo on the cover sold for $17,500 last week.

“The success of this inaugural auction shows, again, the power these movies and this format hold over audiences young and old,” said Joe Maddalena, Heritage Auctions executive vice president, in a release. “This is a new area of collecting, and it’s clear there’s a deep love for what we’re offering. We can’t wait for the next VHS auction.”