CGC Home Video Certifies the Motor City Collection with a Special Pedigree
Upon grading an incredible cache of hard-to-find videocassettes, CGC Home Video™ is unveiling a pedigree label for collections deemed to have historical significance or that include extremely high-quality items. The group of cassettes is from just outside of Detroit, Michigan, and it has now been given the unique pedigree, Motor City Collection. CGC Home Video Senior Finalizer Paul Zamarelli shares some of the impressive VHS tapes from this special collection in a video posted to CGC Home Video's YouTube channel.
The astounding group of videocassettes was put together by a collector from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. He visited local retail shops in the Detroit area, buying numerous VHS tapes, and he would write the purchase date onto each tape’s retail sticker. Then, as the story goes, the collector would pack them away in boxes and never look at them again. As Zamarelli states, the grading team isn’t sure why the collector didn’t display the items on a shelf and instead chose to pack them all away. However, the result of the packed-away videocassettes is a collection of pristine, almost all sealed tapes, including some very early VHS releases.
One great example of the impeccable videocassettes from the collection is a copy of Back to the Future VHS, MCA Home Video (1986) – Scotch Sticker graded CGC 9.6 A++. The fact that the collector added specific purchase dates to each item is valuable to the videocassette collecting community. For this tape, a date of “8-11-87” was written on the retail price sticker just above the original $28.96 price. These dates helped CGC Home Video's grading experts identify certain watermarks, publisher stickers and other information about the origin of each videocassette.
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In many cases, the shrink wrap on the cassettes is perfect, with very little scuffing, scratches or tears, which led to numerous high grades within the collection. That was the case with an early copy of Mad Max VHS, Vestron Video (1983) – Gold Award & VideoGift Stickers graded CGC 9.6 A+. These exact cassettes, and others like them, are exactly what customers would have seen on retail shelves in the 1980s, complete with the retail stickers, hype stickers and intact shrink wrap.
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In total, there are several hundred videocassettes included in The Motor City Collection. Nearly 200 of the VHS tapes from the collection are being offered in an upcoming Heritage Auctions sale, being held September 29, 2023. Another classic film’s videocassette being offered in the sale is a copy of The Goonies VHS, Warner Home Video (1986) and pedigreed to The Motor City Collection graded CGC 9.6 A++.
Other popular movies from the collection that are being offered include Raiders of the Lost Ark, Footloose, Weird Science, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween and many more. Check out the Heritage Auctions sale of The Motor City Collection here, and make sure to keep an eye out for CGC Home Video-certified tapes that include the new gold pedigree labels for some of the most important collections in existence.
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