Abstract: A videotape cassette includes a housing made of plastic, a pair of video tape-holding spools, and a dust cover rotatably attached to said housing at a front portion thereof, where the dust cover is rotatable into an open position when placed in a videotape cassette recorder. The cassette housing is durable and weighs approximately 3.5 ounces or less, and the resultant videotape cassette is compatible with industry standard videocassette recorders. A method of direct mailing a videotape cassette as described above includes the steps of loading on a spool of the videotape cassette a selected content of video, shrink-wrapping the videotape cassette, affixing a mailing label and postage to the shrink-wrapped videotape cassette, and placing the labeled, shrink-wrapped videocassette in the mail for shipment.