[QUOTE=wheresgeorge04]
I remember a customer melting the movie Crash (David Cronenberg) and having to pay $106.99 for a replacement copy, in about the year 2000. That’s our cost from the video distributor, not a retail price.
Joe
[/QUOTE]
That movie was HOT- maybe it melted on its own. 
I remember having to sign a credit card slip for $100 each and every time I rented a movie. When you brought it back, they tore up your credit slip.
[QUOTE=jk1245]
I bought a Sanyo Beta VCR (complete with “Sanyo- The Official Electronic Products of the 1984 Olympics” sticker) for ~$600 in early 1984.
[/QUOTE]
That was my first VCR too! Same sticker and everything. I still have it in my basement storage room. I don’t think I ever rented a tape for it but I must’ve had close to a thousand movies and TV shows taped. All sadly now gone.
[QUOTE=BobLibDem]
I remember having to sign a credit card slip for $100 each and every time I rented a movie. When you brought it back, they tore up your credit slip.
[/QUOTE]
I held off buying a VCR until the price dropped below $400. When I finally got my $399.95 special (top loader, with little pushbutton tuning buttons and a 6-foot long wired on/off remote control) I ran right out to the one place I knew rented videotapes.
I had to put a $400 deposit on my credit card just to get a membership card. Not to mention the rentals themselves were something like $10.95 each.
Where I was from, you didn’t even have to flash ID or leave a deposit or anything. You just filled out a card, and they gave you a movie. My first ever rental was Firestarter. Then there was that store that let 14-year-olds like me rent pornos…
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan]
Or porn. There was always some sort of porn available on that one shelf behind the curtain which had the sign that said “Adults Only” on it.
It was slim pickings in the early days.
[/QUOTE]
Slim Pickens did porn?
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool]
Interview with the Vampire? The Mask? Speed? Dumb and Dumber? The Santa Clause?
[/QUOTE]
One of those, yes.
I beg that you assume some level of taste on my part.
I was young! I needed the obsession!
[QUOTE=Scissorjack]
Slim Pickens did porn?
[/QUOTE]
Yeeeeeeeehaw!
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan]
Quite serious. This was during a time when there were exactly two video rental stores in a metro area of 1.2 million people.
[/QUOTE]
Was one of them called Nord Video?
[QUOTE=Uncommon Sense]
Was one of them called Nord Video?
[/QUOTE]
:eek:
That’s the one that took my hard earned paper route money and then vanished after about 6 months.
My wife’s family owned and ran a video store in thate 80’s and early 90’s in a small town in Montana. It took me awhile to understand that she really meant the prices when we discussed buying copies of movies for the home.
They got out of the business right when walmart started selling DVD’s and tapes for around $20.
But yeah, the companies they bought their tapes from charged around $100 per copy for those VHS tapes. She swore up and down they were built a bit more rugged than the ones you could get at the store, but who knows?