THE MYSTERY STICKERS
But perhaps the best stickers were the ones that made absolutely no sense.
A random number.
A barcode.
A little handwritten note.
A sticker covering another sticker.
A sticker covering part of the artwork.
A sticker covering another sticker that was itself covering a previous sticker.
Eventually you weren't sure whether you were looking at a VHS tape or an archaeological dig.
And that's what makes old rental VHS tapes so fascinating.
They're artifacts.
Every sticker, scribble and faded label can tell you something about the tape's journey.
YOUR VHS TAPES HAVE STORIES
Today, we can watch practically anything instantly.
We don't have to drive to a video store.
We don't have to search through hundreds of shelves.
We don't have to worry about rewinding.
And we certainly don't have to deal with late fees.
But something was lost along the way.
VHS tapes were physical objects.
They were handled.
They were rented.
They were shared.
They were sometimes abused.
And those little stickers were part of that history.
That's why I love them.
I made most of the stickers you've seen here because I wanted to recreate a little piece of that VHS-era magic—the weird, colorful, slightly chaotic world of video stores when picking a movie was an adventure all by itself.
So the next time you see an old VHS tape covered in BE KIND, REWIND, PROPERTY OF, NEW RELEASE, HORROR, PREVIOUSLY VIEWED, and PLEASE RETURN BY FRIDAY stickers, don't just see a bunch of old labels.
You're looking at a tiny piece of movie history.
And whatever you do...
BE KIND. REWIND.
What VHS Stickers Do You Remember?
Did your old tapes have a sticker that I missed? Maybe your local video store had its own unique labels, warnings, rental tags or wonderfully bizarre handwritten notes.
Tell us about them in the comments! Let's see how many different VHS stickers we can remember from the glory days of physical media.
