I Sold Electronics for 40 Years. RCA’s VideoDisc Was a $580 Million Mistake

🛒 Everything I learned in 40 years on the selling side of the counter, in plain words. 📘 BUY IT ONCE - get it here: https://askvincentthomas.com If your family had one of those RCA VideoDisc players, you remember sliding the big plastic sleeve into the slot, pulling it back out empty, and getting up off the couch at the hour to flip the disc. Maybe you never knew what happened to it. One day the discs were in every store, and a few years later they were gone. I'm Vincent Thomas, and I sold that machine to dealers all over Pennsylvania and New Jersey for a distributor out of Philadelphia. I had one in my own living room too. In this video: How a VideoDisc actually worked, with a needle reading a movie off a record The 17 years RCA spent in its Princeton labs, and the men's room sink that saved the disc The vote RCA's bosses held on the VideoDisc, and the one man who voted no Why RCA put the SelectaVision name on two completely different machines Launch night in March 1981, and why half the movies weren't in the stores The rental store that finished it, and why the VCR always won How RCA ended up selling the very machine that killed its own disc April 4, 1984, the $580 million loss, and 150,000 unsold players The last discs ever pressed, and what really went wrong No hindsight experts, no fancy graphics. Just what I saw from my side of the counter, the dealers I sold to, and the family that wore out one Muppet Movie disc. Did your family have a VideoDisc player? What was the first disc you bought, or were you a tape family from the start? Tell me about your rental store too: what it was called, what town, and the first movie you ever rented there. Chapters: 0:00 The night RCA showed dealers the VideoDisc 2:29 How the lever and the sleeve worked 4:32 The guide I put all of this in 4:53 Seventeen years in RCA's Princeton labs 6:49 The vote, and the one man who said no 8:12 Two machines called SelectaVision 9:17 Launch night, March 22, 1981 11:19 The other brands that sold it 12:04 The Muppet Movie in our living room 12:37 Inside the disc plant in Indianapolis 13:42 The window display contest 15:06 The LaserDisc, a rich man's toy 16:22 Half the sales RCA wanted 17:24 The rental store that finished it 19:11 Why the owners loved it anyway 20:28 RCA was selling the VCRs too 21:15 The disc with the Band-Aid 22:57 April 4, 1984 24:32 150,000 unsold players 25:59 The $99 clearance 26:37 The last discs ever pressed 27:15 GE buys RCA 27:49 What really happened 29:31 One more play, at Thanksgiving Watch more: I Sold TVs for 40 Years. Here's What Really Happened to Zenith and RCA    • I Sold TVs for 40 Years. Here's What Reall...   I Sold Electronics for 40 Years. Crazy Eddie Was the Biggest Fraud I Ever Saw    • I Sold Electronics for 40 Years. Crazy Edd...   I Sold Electronics for 40 Years. Circuit City Made the Worst Mistake I Ever Saw    • I Sold Electronics for 40 Years. Circuit C...