Friday night fun consumer homework stats: 2.1 million people still pay $20 each month for dial-up AOL service; Almost 5 million subscribers still pay a monthly subscription for physical Neflix DVD rentals by mail; Blockbuster is dead right? Nope. 51 of over 9,000 original stores remain. All franchisees pay a license fee. 26 of the 51 Blockbusters are located in Alaska and Texas, owned by a guy with last name Payne, pronounced pain… makes sense; VHS is officially dead, shipping it’s last unit in 2008 and last major movie title “History of Violence” in 2006. However, VHS tapes are NOT dead as collectibles with high-end, rare mint in box tapes selling for up to thousands of dollars. Interestingly enough, the most valuable tapes tend to be 1) Disney titles, 2) Wrestling titles, 3) Japanese horror flicks and 4) Awful third rate titles. This is what I do on Friday night when even the dog is snoring.
Jeremy Padawer