Since Norman Scherer does business largely by phone and mail-he'll buy, sell, or trade a hard-to-find videotape whether you're calling from Brooklyn or Bhutan-it doesn't matter that his store, Video Oyster, is eccentric. Located in lower Manhattan, the place resembles a media-friendly M.C. Escher landscape: Byzantine passageways snake through towers of videotapes and pop- culture detritus. The walls are covered with New Orleans carnival masks, there's a Scrubbing Bubbles night-light in the bathroom, and rarities like Attack of the Crab Monsters sell for $500. A former staffer at Variety, the Manhattan native, 36, got into the rare- vid biz in 1989, when a store offered him $100 for a copy of Eraserhead. Realizing he could make money off video companies' failure to keep their back catalogs in stock, Scherer started buying up tapes from stores cleaning off their shelves. He now publishes three different collectors' newsletters-Pearls lists 7,000 rare tapes, Half Shell offers clearance bargains, and Raw Oysters compiles out-of-print adult videos. And despite his store's decidedly casual aura, business is great. He recently bought nine copies of 1972's Bluebeard- the one with a Joey Heatherton nude scene-for $100, and unloaded two for $75 each. He just sold a copy of the 1961 Nazi drama Operation Eichman to friends of star Werner Klemperer; it seems Colonel Klink's birthday is coming up. Fads come and go: Disney's recent remake of The Incredible Journey prompted a deluge of calls for the 1964 original. In fact, that company's fare is one of Scherer's staples. ''Disney fans want everything, even the garbage,'' he says. As Scherer speaks, the phone rings; it's answered by his girlfriend, Stella MacNicol, 36, a former pop star in South America. She listens, nods, and says to Scherer, ''I know we're out of Bambi, but what about The Little Mermaid?'' He pauses, then fires back, ''Little Mermaid, uh, $120.'' Ka-ching. Those seeking video arcana are advised to call first (Scherer's number is 212-480-2440) since his store is open to the public only on Wednesdays. That's when the nearby Wall Street businessmen come in and load up on porno. ''The rarest tapes in the country,'' he sighs, ''and they want T&A.''
