So it's come to this, eh capitalism?

Look, I don't begrudge actor Thomas F. Wilson Jr. the huge sums of money he just made selling off his collection of VHS tapes, many of which went for thousands of dollars including a seventy-five thousand dollar sealed VHS copy of Back to the Future. I really don't, but this is what end-stage capitalism looks like isn't it? Rich people buying old video tapes?

The tape cost what, $50 in 1986? So in a sense,
someone just paid $74,950 for a clear lucite box.

Sixty-five million Americans basically
voted for real-life Biff Tannen in 2016.

Wilson, you might recall, played Biff Tannen, old Biff Tannen, alternate universe thinly veiled, yet remarkably prescient Donald Trump Parody Biff Tannen as well as Biff's ancestor Buford Tannen (which, genes don't work that way, but whatever), in the Back to the Future movies. The character was the series's antagonist and sexually assaulted Leah Thompson's character who would go on to hire him as a handy man because the 80's, but that's the character. I'm sure the actor is a decent person.

Said nostalgia was also predicted
by those movies making me wonder
if Robert Zemeckis is a witch...

A decent person who tried to eBay some of his old Back to the Future VHS tapes only to discover that people are willing to pay absurd money for shit from the 1980's. And this is where I start to worry about my generation. Well, not really my generation, I'm somewhere between X and Millenial. Xenial maybe? I was just slightly too old for Pokémon, but definitely played with Ninja Turtles. Also, when I text I spell out entire words and refuse to use emoji, but that might just be because I'm pedantic.

Doesn't matter, the point is I'm very concerned that the obsession with 1980's nostalgia is starting to resemble the worst of the Boomer nostalgia for the 1950's. Which, ironically, is all over Back to the Future. But seventy-five thousand for a VHS tape? I know it's no where near the absurd amounts paid for sealed video games, but that's a lot for something you can stream for four bucks. And sure, this is factory sealed, and that it was owned by one of the film's stars helps, but still.

"The 50's were the greatest time to be alive! The music, the cars, 
the casual misogyny and racism. We were the real greatest generation."

-Some boomer

Pictured: I feel like there are cheaper
ways to feel nostalgia for the 1980's...

After learning just how batshit insane collectors can be, Wilson took the tapes off eBay and went to Heritage Auctions, you know that company that was accused of colluding with WATA games to inflate the price of graded video game cartridges? And that's where he found out that there are people out there willing to pay a student loan debts' worth of money for thirty year old tapes that they'll never even take out of the boxes. Which, I mean, who even has a VCR? 

Also due to background radiation, these tapes might well be blank in any case. But that's not stopping Heritage or the inexplicably wealthy people who frequent their auctions. The sale of Wilson's tapes were part of a larger auction that made a total of $584,750. Yes, of money. 

I get that our broken and fundamentally unfair economic system means that some
people can just afford to throw money away like this, but you'd think they'd have to be
reasonably good decision makers to get rich in the first place--oh, right, inherited wealth.

C'mon Joe, you just got a cut of a half a
million dollar VHS sale, it's a little bit
about the financial aspect, isn't it?

According to Maddelena, who I can only assume by his tone is sexually aroused by the prospect of a whole new market for overpriced collectors' items: 

"We had no idea what was going to happen -- no one's done this before and to see the success, it's amazing. When you see that it's a great sense of accomplishment, not even the financial aspect of it but a moment of 'I knew it! I knew nostalgic VHS tapes would be good.'"

-Joseph Maddalena, about how it's

not about the money...uh-huh... 

But what do I know? Maybe I'm just kicking myself for not having the foresight to stock up on VHS tapes and NES cartridges back when they were in the clearance bin. Sure, who could have predicted things like Heritage Auctions or eBay? If only I had a time machine, I could go back and tell my younger self to go and buy--or I could just sell rides on my time machine. That seems like it'd be way more profitable. 

Now who's the butthead, old Biff? Now who's the butthead?