The nostalgia industrial complex – where people who didn’t use things like record players, tapes or VHS imagine them to be romantic and old-school.

So much so, in fact, that someone will recreate these technologies and sell them at a ridiculous profit.

Some of the reissues are cool, of course. A record player forces you to actually listen to an album instead of automatically hitting shuffle.

Also – and don’t shoot me for saying this – the sound quality is actually better.

I know this because I own one, and grew up listening to my parent’s record player. It was a big deal when we finally upgraded to a tape deck, and then a CD player.

Polaroid cameras are also a nice break from Insta-culture. There’s no taking 600 photos and then posting the best one filtered within an inch of its life. Once you take the picture, it prints, flaws and all, and you’ve captured a genuine moment.

Which brings us to VHS tapes. Here’s Mashable:

Hope you’ve still kept some old VHS tapes lying around, because turns out they’re actually worth something.

Urban Outfitters has rolled out its latest attempt to get you to buy stuff you don’t need, in the form of a random assortment of five comedy video tapes from the 1990s.

Uhm, okay. So the States has moved onto trying to sell VHS tapes. The problem with VHS is that, unlike vinyl and instant photos, there’s really nothing spectacular about them. They melt in the sun, stretch so that they’re unwatchable, and if putting something in a machine gets you going, you can do the same with a DVD.

The tapes at Urban Outfitters (a brand that prides itself on being a little hipster, bohemian and retro ) come in packs of five.

Not only can you buy The Waterboy or A Night At The Roxbury on the superseded medium, but there are also horror, sci-fi and romance sets for sale.

“Each set is unique, iconic and will vary from what is pictured here. Don’t worry – there are no duds in this batch!” reads the product description.

They’ve been compiled by a company called Studiohouse Designs for the retailer, who has been selling vintage tech like vinyl (which has been having a long resurgence) and Polaroid cameras for some time now.

Oh – did I mention that five VHS tapes go for around $40 a set? That’s R560 for the world’s most useless collection of objects.

Chances are this ridiculous trend will make its way to SA soon, so don’t throw out those old VHS tapes your parents forgot to get rid of.

There’ll be plenty of kids born after the advent of the DVD who are just dying to take them off you.

[source:mashable]