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Remember when you were absolutely convinced that your Beanie Babies would pay for your retirement?
Pete Davidson feels your pain—except he went all in on sealed VHS tapes, and the results are exactly as gloriously disastrous as you’d expect.
The 32-year-old comedian recently returned to “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” to deliver an update on his once-viral investment strategy, and let’s just say it didn’t go the way any of us pandemic-era hobby collectors hoped.
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“Last time — I was here a while ago — I had this, like, weird hunch that VHS’s would be worth billions of dollars,” Davidson told host Jimmy Fallon during the Jan. 26 episode. “I had a lot of fun during COVID and bought 10,000 VHS tapes, sealed.”
Ten. Thousand. Sealed. VHS. Tapes.
For those of us who spent the pandemic rediscovering our childhood collections, impulse-buying vintage toys on eBay, or convincing ourselves that this hobby would definitely become profitable, Davidson’s confession hits different.
We’ve all been there—maybe not at the 10,000-unit scale, but the logic? The optimism? The absolute certainty that nostalgia would translate into cold, hard cash? That’s pure millennial collector energy.
Pete Davidson likened VHS tapes to the vinyl craze
Here’s the thing: Davidson’s reasoning wasn’t entirely unhinged.
During his original 2023 appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” he laid out his investment thesis with the kind of enthusiasm we all recognize from our own late-night eBay spirals.
“Listen to this, guys,” he told Fallon. “In 2026, it’ll be 20 years since the last VHS was made, right? So 20 years goes by, that’s enough time for people to be, like, ‘Oh that was cool. Remember? Like vinyl.”
And honestly? That logic tracked.
Vinyl records have experienced a remarkable resurgence over the past decade, with collectors paying premium prices for original pressings and limited editions. The tactile experience, the ritual of physical media, the nostalgia factor—it all contributed to vinyl’s comeback story.
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Why wouldn’t VHS follow the same trajectory?
After all, according to “The Los Angeles Times,” David Cronenberg’s 2006 movie “A History of Violence” is widely believed to be the last major Hollywood movie to be released on VHS. That means we’re approaching two decades since the format’s commercial death—exactly the timeline Davidson was banking on.
So how did the great VHS investment experiment actually pan out? Davidson delivered the verdict with characteristic deadpan honesty.
“Uh, they went down — so much,” he said. “But I get to look at them every day as a reminder not to do drugs.”
At least Davidson has somewhere to watch them
In a twist that perfectly encapsulates the absurdist comedy of the whole situation, Davidson at least has the proper equipment to enjoy his collection—if he ever decides to unseal those tapes.
In December, Davidson collaborated with builder Tony Angelo as part of eBay’s new “Built to Spec” series to create the ultimate “dad van” complete with a VHS player, mini fridge, changing table and bottle warmer.
“The amount of VHS, weird Burger King watches from the ’90s that I’ve ordered, and VHS TVs,” he said in an interview with People at the time — adding that he uses “eBay all the time.”
The timing is fitting, because Davidson now has someone to share his nostalgia with.
ALSO ON MOD MOMS CLUB: Pete Davidson, Elsie Hewitt Seemingly Name Daughter After His Late Father
Pete Davidson and his partner, Elsie Hewitt, welcomed their daughter, Scottie Rose Hewitt Davidson, on December 12, 2025, per People.
