About us

We are a British company based in Oxford.

We pride ourselves in being the UK's largest buyer of private and trade collections; buying on average 105 collections direct from the public every day.

Since starting in 1978 we have built up a reputation as a trusted company with a passion for what it does.

We treat our customers with the utmost respect.
See some testimonials for more on this.

News Bulletin

The demise of VHS Formatted Titles (Video)
Being the last major professional company still buying VHS within collections, the day we all feared finally arrived on May 1st 2010. On this day the painful decision was made to cease purchasing VHS formatted titles further to a continuing worldwide demise of the format itself. Our 33 years of successfully buying and selling VHS has finally come to an end, and our award winning achievements within this sector of the industry destined for the history books with pride and respect.

OUR HISTORY

Our company began its humble beginnings when it saw an opportunity to provide Videos on the Video 2000, Beta and VHS format to the busy Rediffusion/Granada TV Rental shops in the late 1970’s. The very first “racking” as it came to be known into high street shops had begun. Membership to join was £25 and the very first hiring charges were £5 per night!

Thirty three years of buying collections
We purchased our very first private collection of videos in the summer of 1978 and our very first trade collection by the end of 1978. Now, more than thirty years later we proudly buy on average 105 Private Collections every day from both regular and new customers throughout the country.

Largest independent wholesaler
We became the largest independent wholesaler in the late 70’s providing both new and second hand videos throughout the UK’s increasing number of video libraries including a mobile swapping service which we went on to Franchise.

We instigated the very first “family video libraries” by “inventing” sectioning of libraries. This separated adult / horror theme titles from family / children’s films and made libraries “family friendly” for the very first time.

Industry awards
We were the first to build “caves”, “live rockeries”, dedicated “children’s theme areas” and “film memorabilia displays” into the new mega libraries of the eighties for which we won a handful of prestigious industry awards.

We were the first to satisfy the growing need for Mobile Video Libraries, which we successfully trialed on the south coast and then franchised out all over the country.

Work with the British Board of Film Censors
We worked closely from 1984 with the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), the British Videogram Association (BVA), the Federation against Copyright Theft (FACT) and The Trading Standards. This work involved educating the then thousands of libraries throughout the UK that non-censored films
(which included the notorious Snuff movies) would have to be removed from their shelves for the general good of the trade.

We invested heavily into “film synopsis” reporting at a national level which gave every library the very first truthful opportunity to read just how good, or as importantly, how bad each forthcoming new release was prior to purchasing. After all most A films were then costing upwards of £50 each.

Selling direct to the public
We supported “sell-thru” when the idea was first born – to sell films on video direct to the public. We joined three other companies and “racked” as many libraries and suitable shops with the then full range of 25 titles. Nobody at first took it seriously and sales were appalling. Today the industry sells tens of millions of such items every year.

Started a search service
Towards the end of the 1980’s we founded our nationally acclaimed “Search Service”. Assisting thousands of customers directly as well as customers from reputable companies such as HMV, Virgin, and Tower Records. Additionally we were also as privileged to assist directly The London Museum’s, many of our countries Universities and Television Companies as well as a host of smaller independent search companies that had grown alongside us. Because of our envied buying position we searched out and in most cases found rare and deleted titles both on Video, CD and DVD. At the height of our assistance we had over 20 staff working solely on this side of our business. Nowadays of course with copying, pirating and downloading pretty much out of control and some internet auction sites openly harbouring individuals who busy themselves advertising their, shall we carefully say, “not with the copyright holders permission” items; the demise of our “search facility” became regrettably predictable after nearly 20 years.

Passionate about our reputation
Throughout all this time though we have purchased private collections from our public customers and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future with the same passion and total dedication that our reputation has always been based on.

Thank you

May we just take this opportunity to collectively mention our heartfelt condolences to the families of the many veterans within this industry who we have had the pleasure of working alongside or knowing over the past thirty years but are sadly no longer with us. Their joyful and hard working memories will always remain a part of our history and their contributions a part of our future.

Any Comments?

If you have a comment or contribution you wish to make about this page please e-mail our Team on mail@filmvault.co.uk

 

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